China edges further into Hollywood

• Source: Global Times
• [23:34 November 23 2009]
• Comments

A scene from 2012. Photo: IC

Analysts have announced that China, with its soaring economy and rapid social growth, has become more acceptable for American society, which is being reflected by more Chinese elements included in Hollywood productions.

US President Barack Obama was in China last week, during which Obama and his Chinese counterpart President Hu Jintao agreed to jointly promote Sino-US relations.

Hollywood, the center of entertainment for US society has reacted to a growing China in its recent productions. Two days before Obama's arrival in China, Hollywood's latest blockbuster 2012 debuted on screens across the country with China and the US portrayed as crucial partners that jointly deal with a common challenge, a world-ending catastrophe. In the film China is the last place of salvation for human beings for the first time in a Hollywood disaster movie.

Chinese analysts said that the changing image of China in Hollywood movies could reveal that the country, with a rising international status, has become more acceptable for mainstream Western society.

Zhang Yiwu, a scholar at Peking University, said that from Kung Fu Panda to 2012, the Chinese image has never been so popular and it could reflect that people in the US are, to some degree, accepting China's status in the world.

2012's scenes containing pro-China messages, such as a US military officer saying that only the Chinese could build an ark of such a scale on time, have been welcomed by some Chinese moviegoers.

"I feel very proud to hear such surprising lines in a Hollywood movie," a person with an Internet name of yexinlianyi posted on douban.com.