Mass film criticism and its digital afterlives

Abstract

This article looks at a unique kind of Chinese film culture known as the ‘mass film criticism’ (qunzhong yingping), namely, film discussion and criticism initiated by the non-professionals – workers, peasants, soldiers, students, etc. The practice of mass film criticism (MFC), led spontaneously by grassroot film enthusiasts and supported by state institutions, gained momentum in the 1980s: it is estimated that by 1988 there were more than 20,000 local groups of mass film criticism across the country, and the total number of amateur film critics reached ten million. The analogue history of MFC comprises a different genealogy for the emergence of amateur cinephiliac writing, which is almost exclusively associated with digital cinephiles in the west. This article examines the style and structural formation of MFC, as well as the role it played in fostering knowledge and appreciation of cinema for a large population with uneven film literacy. More importantly, often preforming a kind of sanctioned social criticism, MFC helped to carve out a public space for intense negotiations of what cinema and what China should become.