A genealogy of film festivals in the People’s Republic of China: ‘film weeks’ during the ‘Seventeen Years’ (1949–1966)

Abstract

Exhibitions known as ‘Film Weeks’ (dianyingzhou) were systematically launched nationwide in the People’s Republic of China by the state to showcase imported films during the Seventeen Years (1949–1966), which was a crucial period for the establishment of the socialist regime. This study identifies film weeks as a specific type of film festival, situates their analysis within the sociopolitical context of the Seventeen Years, and explores them as a dynamic process in which actors such as the Chinese film industry, film professionals, and audiences negotiated with the authority of the party-state, and a centralized cultural system. Central to the Chinese state’s encompassing cultural exchange programs with nations both within and outside the socialist bloc, the practice of film weeks highlighted China’s changing stance in cold war power politics. Meanwhile, film weeks promoted the practices of socialist cinéphilia in engaging Chinese audiences with foreign film cultures. Using case studies of the Soviet Film Week in the 1950s and the 1957 Asian Film Week, this article historicizes film weeks’ connections with an increasingly globalizing film festival network while also examining how the vernacular practices of Chinese festivals can contribute to rethinking film festival studies’ Eurocentric discursive framework.