Has Shanghai Lost Its Artsy Edge?1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe problems began earlier this year when the Canadian curator, Rebecca Catching, put together a show that took a critical look at the city’s makeover for the World Expo.
In the run-up to Expo, the city government didn’t take kindly to any criticism of the event – however playful.
Shanghai’s film industry, the most vibrant in China in the early 1900s, has suffered an even worse fate. In 2001, the government formed a new media conglomerate called the Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group to oversee the TV and film industries and make them more competitive.
Instead, says filmmaker Peng Xiaolian, the opposite happened: Shanghai Film Studios largely stopped making its own films, funding dried up for independent filmmakers like herself, and Beijing became the new center of Chinese cinema.
