Red Carpet—Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy, Erich Schwartzel, Book Review.
Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy, Erich Schwartzel. 2022
If Siskel and Ebert were reading this book, I think they’d give it one and half thumbs up. Parts of it are simply superb, most of it is very good, but the finale is already dated. It appears that most of the research was completed before 2021, and the subsequent turn in world events and China’s global status visa vis Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have muted much of the talk of the effectiveness of Chinese soft power and influence. Even the threats of market exclusion were no longer enough to keep Taiwan flag patches off Tom Cruise’s jacket in the 2022 Memorial Day release of Top Gun: Maverick.
That being said, the history and strategy lessons taught are fantastic and certainly not dated. The greatest strength of the book is the author’s ability to weave together China’s multi-decade whole-economy approach to dominating an industry deemed to be strategically important—from domestic censorship, to financing studios, to owning theaters, to associating tangential business and investments with movie content, to limiting and coopting individuals for national needs, to “borrowing” and learning tech/skills/processes from the US, all while giving up very little—a decade of box office returns (at lower rates than other international markets, no less!).
This is a cautionary tale that everyone working with China needs to understand—no matter how small you are, you operate in China at the will of, and likely for the agenda of the CCP. Having your own agenda or being ignorant of China’s global political ambitions are no longer sufficient cover for the reality of what participating in China’s economy ultimately means. Xinjiang cotton is the best new example of this need for political awareness.
The micro stories of Hollywood’s sell-out to China is no less fascinating than the macro issues either. The book shares tales from almost every major studio. Here is an incomplete list of famous movies that had their content affect by China GLOBALLY, not just in their own domestic market: Red Dawn, MI3, World War Z, Looper, MiB3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Skyfall, Cloud Atlas, Passengers, Django Unchained, anything from Disney or its associated studies, the Ghostbusters reboot, Logan, It, Pixels, Batman, anything from Sony, Harry Potter series, Brokeback Mountain, Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, High School Musical, Transformers, Kong: Skull Island, and more!
And, in addition to the unsurprising themes that are routinely censored, including drug use, naked bodies, violence, and homosexuality, there are also stranger themes routinely limited, such as spirituality (it goes without saying that Tibet can’t exist) including ghosts (what if the dead disagree with current CCP ideology), and and time travel that alters history or displays any future other than a glorious CCP paradise. And, as any sinophile will tell you, there hasn’t been a Chinese movie villain for the last 30 years!
The book is more than 300 pages, but it’s never slow and filled with so many recognizable names (Pitt, Tarantino, Roberts, Geer, Iger, Spielberg) and cinematic events that it’s like an extended trailer, leaving the reader wondering what could possible happen next!
Chapters 6 (Censorship) and 11 (Hollywood’s Translators) were my favorites, providing details into both the process of controlling content as well as incorporating individuals into China’s national ambitions.
Take aways include insights into manufactured Chinese nationalism and the extent to which everything is (re)purposed for the state; Kissinger’s ego and the sinofication of “friends of China;” the recreation of history (a la Oliver Stone) and the effectiveness of self-censorship; rules are for the politically unconnected and China is quickly learning soft-power tactics especially in other developing countries.
Particularly interesting were the justification from the studios for their kowtowing to Chinese requirements—“we edit content for every market,” and “we have a fiduciary responsibility to our stakeholders”—the same sentiments that I hear from large businesses and investors when the ethics of their China-investments are questioned. China has learned the lessons of capitalism, namely money talks louder than ethics, and is playing the game better than the Western capitalist pigs!
Another insight which I’m seeing in my own consulting business across industries in China is the reality of a uniquely mature Chinese market. China is no longer the place for simply a good product, today even the best products must be accompanied by a sold business and localized marketing plan. The Chinese want quality and authenticity, just like all other developed markets.
The datedness of the book is more a testament to how quickly China changes than to any fault of the author. For example, in 2021 the “Chinese Lord of the Rings,” Fengshen, which was supposed to be China’s global influencer and the introduction of Chinese heroes to the world, is now (2022) over budget, behind schedule, and permanently on hold.
And there are a few other minor issues I have with the author. The problems with Mulan and the Hong Kong protests are never mentioned. China’s use of vaccine and other medical products as “ransom” for good global PR is also absent.
My biggest complaint is that the narrative that China is simply doing what has been done by other countries leaves out both historical context and China’s claim to be better than the capitalists and imperialists that have come before. Colonialism is obviously bad, ditto environmental destruction (coal power plants), and of course human rights abuses. China shouldn’t be allowed to say that because of global sins in the 1900s they can still today repeat prior heinous actions in the 2020s, because, “Hey now it’s our turn!” What if someone said this about slavery—“We were too poor in the 1800s to have slaves so we should get our turn now.” Too many times the author and so many others (not in this book) justify working in/with China with this illogical excuse, “well, the (insert western country here) used to do it to, so we can’t say anything now when China does it.” Bullshit.
This mental gymnastics is encapsulated in Apple’s admission, “The two thing we will never do are hard-core nudity and China…” Not human rights violations, not authoritarianism, not discrimination, not abuse. Nope. Not offending China and porn are Apple’s bottom line. How disgusting is that?! And that’s the lesson of Red Carpet—capitalism is about the bottom line and nothing else. And the communists are better at capitalism than we are.
