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China's Movie Industry's Situation is Encouraging, Challenging: CPPCC Members
The situation in China's movie industry is encouraging and "challenging" as well, according to some members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top advisory body.
Li Qiankuan said that the "encouraging situation" finds expression in the fact that China produces some 100 movies a year, some of them rated as good. Moreover, it has a contingent loving the moving undertaking.
The "challenging Situation" finds expression in the fact that the movie industry cannot meet viewers' needs in terms of number and quality.
In the 1980s of the 20th century, Chinese cinemas had a total annual revenue of two billion yuan and were visited by at least 10 billion viewers a year. But today they have a total annual income of less than one billion yuan and are visited by several hundred million viewers a year.
Some CPPCC National Committee members attributed China's sluggish movie market to a variety of reasons, including the rise of diverse recreational forms, excessively high-ticket prices, a low movie production capacity and the lack of effective legal means to protect movie copyrights.
In particular, pirated VCD's have had a devastating effect on the movie industry. For example, pirated VCD's are already available on the streets before a movie is shown.
How to attract cinema-goers back to cinemas? Wang Xingdong aired the view: "A cultural challenge can be accepted only with culture. Cultural competition can be won only with a better culture."
He noted that it is wrong to neglect the law governing the artistic development and the law governing market development, or to let bad products run rampant.
China's forthcoming entry into the WTO means that 20 US blockbusters will break into the Chinese market each year, with the number expected to increase annually.
"Can we contend with foreign warships with boats?" Li Qiankuan asked.
"I think movies'unique artistic charm cannot be replaced by any other form of art although movies are now challenged by TV, VCD's and Internet," he said.
He asked the government to intensify efforts to support and protect the movie industry, and quicken the pace of legislation on the movie industry.
CPPCC National Committee members shared the view that China's movie industry can become prosperous again only by carrying out all-round reforms, creating a favorable competitive environment for the movie market, and providing high-quality movies and services for viewers.
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