The Long Road to Global Hollywood: Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest, and Dalian Wanda

Abstract

This chapter explores the routes Chinese-language film studios in Hong Kong and Mainland China have variously taken on the long road to global Hollywood, from the postwar years to the present-day. It primarily and correspondingly focuses on the “go global” strategies Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest and China’s Dalian Wanda have adopted in order to touch base with the world’s largest and most profitable film market long dominated by global Hollywood and hence to secure a fair share of this market. If the two Hong Kong studios had to contend with the constraints of glass ceilings upon arriving at Hollywood during the second half of the 20th century, could the new kid on the 21st century block, the more economically powerful and more resource-rich Dalian Wanda, break down those ceilings in ways its predecessors could only wish for? In particular, could it go beyond past Hong Kong filmmakers to achieve global success for Chinese-language cinema characterized by sustained visibility that matches global Hollywood in terms of market size, reach and prestige? Does it have other glass ceilings to contend with? My historical account attempts to answer these questions.