Film as Social Practice in Contemporary China.

I analyze contemporary Chinese film as "social practice" in two ways. First, by examining the interaction of the logics of the state and economy as played out in what I call the "film field," I attempt to avoid the pitfalls of the zero-sum view of the relationship between the state, the economy, and the social practice of film production and consumption. Secondly, I focus on the social "context" of film production and consumption in relation to film as "text." I begin with a close reading of the Chinese film Frozen (1995), and demonstrate the potential and limitation of textual, internal reading of film. Then, relying on Bourdieu's notion of the "field of cultural production," I map out the structure and change of the "film field," differentiated into four distinct subsectors of 1) political "main-melody" film, 2) domestic entertainment film, 3) global Chinese film, and 4) independent film. Then, I shift my analysis to consumption and detail the process through which the structure of production is modified through "appropriation" (Roger Chartier) by film consumers. I conclude by briefly recapitulating the empirical findings of the paper, and by arguing for a more sociological analysis of "film as social practice" in contemporary China. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]