Framing Piracy: Globalization and Film Distribution in Greater China

(Paperback)

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Description

Framing Piracy examines film distribution - legal and illegal - in the largest, mostly untapped market in the world: Greater China. Tracing networks of optical disc (VCD, DVD) and online piracy, this book tackles issues of politics, globalization, and technology. It features a wealth of original research, new distribution data, and interviews with film distributors, government officials, and film pirates. With changes afoot in China upon its entering the World Trade Organization, this timely book shows that such transformations have far-reaching implications for policy, theory, and practice.

Reviews

A deliciously concrete yet profoundly general account of how the media in Greater China sort out their paradoxesas well as how they negotiate a globalizing and technological order that they had never known before. -- Chin-Chuan Lee, University of Minnesota
The information presented in this book is very informative, fresh, and comprehensive, and the analysis provided by the author is important and thoughtful. . . . A significant contribution. -- Junhao Hong
This book goes beyond being cutting edge; it begins to define an entire field of studymedia distributionthat until now has been relegated to the margins or seen only as an area of interest to students of marketing or management. . . . I plan to use the book in my international communication courses. -- Anandam Kavoori, University of Georgia
Wang provides a thorough, scholarly investigation of distribution and piracy in the (very) contemporary filmmaking industry. The author's approachinvolving in-depth interviews, field observations, and library and archival researchis exhaustive and precise. Recommended. * Choice Reviews *
Wang's book is divided into two parts, offering what she calls 'contexts' (historical theoretical, politico-economic-technological), followed by detailed case studies on mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The book focuses on both legal and illegal film distribution. . . . This approach enables Wang to demonstrate the crucial relationships between global, national, regional, and local forces. For those interested in the political economy of the film industry in Greater China, this is a valuable pioneering work, offering a wealth of rich detail largely unavailable elsewhere. * The China Journal *
Shujen Wang's extensive field research and thoughtful analysis unveils the mysteries of media piracy, showing how the fundamental logic of commercial film distribution is changing in our globalizing, hi-tech world. This fascinating study demonstrates why Greater China is at once the most promising and the most problematic market that Hollywood has ever confronted. -- Michael Curtin, Mellichamp Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara; author of Playing to the World's Biggest Audience
Shujen Wang provides a valuable range of contexts, both theoretical and practical....The great merit of this essay lies in its meticulous attention to detailing the link between global production and local distribution under globalism. -- 2008 * Journal Of International Communication *

Author Bio

Shujen Wang is associate professor of visual and media arts at Emerson College and a research associate in the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University.