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China’s past status as a semi-colony and historical fragmentation into three main territorial entities has meant that defining what constitutes Chinese cinema(s), or indeed cinematic Chineseness, has always been at the forefront of heated debates surrounding transborder practice, production and conceptualisation. Such deliberations have intensified recently due to intensified efforts to render Chineseness a cultural signifier increasingly implicated with transborder cinematic products designed to compete with Hollywood on the global stage. The introduction to this special issue, entitled ‘Situating “Huallywood:” Histories, Trajectories, and Positionings’ opens up these debates to the field of transnational Chinese cinemas, setting out a range of new questions and perspectives that problematize established understandings of Chinese-Western cinematic relations.