Like in the past several years, imported blockbusters, or called "dapian" in Chinese, are destined to dominate China's cinemas this year, again.

　　The past Spring Festival season saw the success of the first blockbuster in 2002, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which drove millions of audiences crazy in China as it had done in other regions.

　　In the first week after its China premier in late January, the Warner Brothers production had earned about 18 million yuan (US.2 million) out of Chinese audiences"wallets. So far, the film has reaped a national ticket-office receipt of about 56.8 million yuan (US.6 million), according to Zhou Tiedong, the manager of import department of China FilmsgroupsCorporation.

　　Following the footsteps of Harry Porter is the Lord of the Rings, which will be shown nationwide soon. There are signs that the film will also stage a perfect performance.

　　Although it is only April, it is definitely sure that imported blockbusters will play the leading role on Chinese markets this year.

　　Hollywood's influence is seemingly remarkable, and omnipresent.

　　"I love watching Hollywood blockbusters. They gave me audio and visual enjoyment which domestic films can not provide,"said 26-year-old Chen Qiang who work at a Beijing-based joint venture.

　　The devoted Hollywood fan had watched "Harry Porter and the Sorcerer's Stone" for twice. In 1995, he watched Titanic for three times. And now he is waiting eagerly for the screening of "The Lord of Rings"

　　Besides going to cinemas, Chen also buy film magazines regularly every month. His favorite magazine is "Movie View Biweekly" which is published in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. The magazine, which introduce the latest Hollywood films and stars, boasts itself as "the mouthpiece of China's Hollywood fans"

　　There are many other film publications with a similar market orientation on newsstands now, most of which are selling well.

　　Each issue of these magazines comes with a full color poster of a recent American film or star. Chen put up such posters on the wall of his bedroom.

　　History of blockbusters

　　China began to import blockbusters in 1994. In principle, the word blockbuster does not indicate producing area itself. However, since most blockbusters shown in China are imported from the United States, blockbuster is the synonym to "Hollywood movie"in China.

　　Since 1994, there were 10 blockbusters introduced to China each year, most of which had a handsome market performance.

　　That was the beginning of Hollywood's domination of China.

　　Before then, there were also foreign movies shown at cinemas. But most of them were low cost productions of low quality, which had been shown 10 years earlier in other countries.

　　In 1994, partly because of the drastic slump in cinema revenues, Chinese film authority finally began its market-oriented reform discreetly, with the introduction of revenue-sharing films.

　　In November that year, the first imported revenue-sharing film "The Fugitive" was shown in six major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou.

　　Among the first batch of imported revenue-sharing movies, there were three Jackie Chan works and seven others from Hollywood, including "The Fugitive","The Lion King","Speed","Forrest Gump"and "True Lies"These were real blockbusters "Oscar winners and best-sellers in the United States, thus they attracted a great deal of movie fans.

　　Combined together, the ten films occupied 70 per cent of the market that year, leaving the remaining 30 per cent for the 100 or so domestic movies.

　　During the following years, though there were ups and downs for Hollywood movies in Chinese market, they had absolute advantages over domestic movies.

　　In terms of box-office, Hollywood's most greatest success in China was Titanic, which garnered 370 million yuan (US million) in 1998, or one fourth of the country's total box-office revenue that year.

　　Hollywood's success has been reflected by surveys on audience preferences. In a survey held in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou by a consulting company, as much as 35 per cent of the 1,500 18-year-old interviewees said their favorite film was Titanic.

　　The popularity of Hollywood blockbusters has brought an upgrade of cinemas. Since most Hollywood films require top grade audio and visual facilities, big cinemas have been generous in upgrading themselves while vying for expanding their market share. Smaller cinemas which failed to do so, however, were ruled out of the market.

　　In the early 1990s, there were about 15,000 cinemas in China. In 2000, only less than 4,000 of them were still running business.

　　While Hollywood is getting increasingly popular and influential in China, critics and industry insiders are falling apart in their attitudes towards Hollywood blockbusters.

　　Confrontation of thoughts has begun, though not directly currently, and such debates will provide food for thought and have influence on the future development of Chinese film industry for sure.

　　Impact on Chinese film industry

　　Parallel to the success of Hollywood films was the failure of Made-in-China. For many years, local film industry of China has been struggling on the verge of life and death.

　　In 2001, the total national ticket office was 800 million yuan (US million), 20 per cent less than that in 2000.

　　Only 10 per cent of the about 100 domestic films had profit, another 10 per cent bearly kept balance, while the remaining 80 per cent were losing money.

　　Examples of domestic films"handsome performance in market are rare, with the exception of "The Painted Woman","In the Heat of the Sun","The Red Cherry","Shanghai Triad" in 1995, and renowned director Feng Xiaogang's happy-new-year comic series.

　　This year, Feng's "Big Shot's Funeral" made a great hit again, with a ticket-office receipt of 25 million yuan (US million).

　　But ironically, "Big Shot"is invested by Columbia Pictures.

　　"The reality is that the domestic film industry is shrinkingsintosnon-existence,"said Dai Jinhua, professor of Chinese Literature and Culture at Beijing University.

　　Dai attributed this to the "invasion"of Hollywood blockbusters.

　　While Warner Brothers, Touch Stone and other Hollywood entertainment giants are far from being satisfied with their limited access to Chinese market, Dai argued that the door of Chinese market had opened too wide.

　　According to Dai, in 1995, insgroupsto give way to Hollywood movies, more than 70 domestic Chinese films were shelved, without a chance to be exhibited in theaters.

　　Hollywood movies have given Chinese film industry a destructive blow,"Dai said anxiously.

　　Dai's view sounds going to extremes, and is not shared by many people.

　　In many countriesswheresHollywood dominate the screens, the local productions have almost ceased to exist. That is one of the reasons that in these countries, such as Korea and France, Hollywood movies run across severe reject from industry insiders.

　　But in the China, experts, critics and other insiders are much more positive and optimistic.

　　Du Qingchun, a teacher from the Beijing Film Academy, while admitting that some protection measures were necessary, said it was unnecessary to make fuss about Hollywood.

　　"Competition is a good thing, it is for the benefit for local film industry in the long run,"said Du, Chinese film industry has never been beat down by Hollywood. The 1930s, when Hollywood movies flooded China, was also the golden period of Chinese film industry"

　　"Anyway, moviegoers did not blindly follow blockbusters. Wheather to watch Hollywood or not was based on their voluntary choice,"said Du.

　　"Even if we have not imported any blockbusters, it is highly possible that the local industry will not get any better now,"Said Du, arguing that the real obstacles did not come from competition.

　　What Du and many other insiders believe to be the real hurdles for Chinese films, lie in the highly planned industry itself.

　　"Strictly speaking, there is no film business currently in China,"Said Li Xiaofeng, a film free-lancer who is currently studying films in Belgium.

　　In Li's view, there remains a great deal of things to learn for China's "film industry"to become "real business"from distribution to advertising and cinema administration.

　　To take distribution for example. For years, the China Filmsgroups(CFG) had a monopoly in film distribution.

　　The good news is that Chinese film authorities are setting out to establish a new company to distribute foreign films. However, CFG will remain its monopoly on importing films.

　　People also call film authorities for taking a more flexible standards while handing out financial support.

　　According to Du Qingchun, each year the central government allocates about 100 million yuan to aid film production. The absolute majority of the money are used to shoot "main melody"movies, while the works of talented directors which might as not politically important, are neglected.

　　Another reason that Dai Jinhua opposes Hollywood blockbusters was based on cultural observation.

　　"Films are not only industrial products and goods, they are also cultural products,"Said Dai, "Only when being diversified can a culture demonstrate its glamour and bear significance."Dai Jinhua is worried that Hollywood films, which are considered as mere commodities in stead of artworks, might kill people's imagination.

　　"We should be more aware of Hollywood's "Cultural invasion"Zhu Jingjiang, a director at China Central Television's movie channel, put it in a more ardent way.

　　Zhu compared Hollywood megaproductions with fast food, "Which has no nutrition at all"

　　More people, who do not have a liking for Hollywood movies either, scoffed off such an attitude.

　　"Chinese people do not have a tradition of entertaining themselves. They always act too seriously,"said Li Xun, a fellow researcher at the Beijing-based China film study centre, "Although Hollywood films are inferior to European productions in terms of art, we can not rob film-goers of the right of entertaining themselves."Li Xun's view was shared by Li Xiaofeng.

　　"Audiences are the source of box-office, and the market is the result of audiences"choice,"said Li Xiaofeng.