A study of Chinese Grassroots Comedy Films: Recommendations for the Chinese Government Culture Policy

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Chinese grassroots comedy films are movies which invest little money and recount secular or ordinary peoples’ stories. They are always full of local flavors, and exhibit knowledge in everyday life. Moreover, they usually don’t have famous directors or actors in Chinese grassroots films. The most common characteristic of Chinese grassroots films is the use of black humor to reflect social life. The aim of this paper is to make recommendations for the Chinese government culture policy, to better support Chinese grassroots comedy films, and to determine whether the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) should give financial aid to grassroots comedy film producers and set screen quotas. The research methods in this paper are statistical analysis and questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was distributed to 200 Chinese people in different provinces of China. The results of this questionnaire show some limits because the number of survey objects and the area of the study have been limited; therefore, the results of this survey do not represent all Chinese people. This study uses a case study on Chinese grassroots comedy films to draw lessons that could be applied to promote the competitive capacity of Chinese films in the domestic film market. Developing Chinese film’s competitive capacity not only depends on a Chinese audience, but also depends on Chinese Government Cultural Policy.