red carpet: hollywood, china, and the global battle for cultural supremacy

 
　　從貿易、科技到軍事，中美之間的競爭，牽動世界局勢。華爾街日報記者埃里希．施瓦策爾在本書中，揭露這場全球影響力競賽的新戰場：影視產業。
 
　　近幾十年，中國在躍居經濟強權後，逐漸成為美國影視產業的重要市場。好萊塢開始竭盡所能，製作迎合中國觀眾口味、配合中國政府內容審查的作品。與此同時，中國也逐步打造了屬於自己的影視產業，做為該國輸出文化的重要支持。兩大強權在影視產業的競賽，正是這個時代的冷戰，雙方都試圖決定民主或極權價值將更大程度地影響全世界。
 
　　結合報導、政治史、演藝圈的陰謀詭計，施瓦策爾寫出這場刺激的全球娛樂產業之旅，帶讀著穿梭好萊塢影城、北京的政治宣傳電影片場，以及肯亞尋常家庭的客廳──全家人正討論著要看美國還是中國電影。令人警醒又娛樂性十足，本書不僅將翻轉我們看待電影的方式，更提供了對於本世紀中美之爭的重要新視角。(文/博客來編譯)

＂This is a fascinating book. It will educate you. Schwartzel has done some extraordinary reporting.＂ -- The New York Times Book Review

＂In this highly entertaining but deeply disturbing book, Erich Schwartzel demonstrates the extent of our cultural thrall to China. His depiction of the craven characters, American and Chinese, who have enabled this situation represents a significant feat of investigative journalism. His narrative is about not merely the movie business, but the new world order.＂ --Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon

An eye-opening and deeply reported narrative that details the surprising role of the movie business in the high-stakes contest between the U.S. and China

From trade to technology to military might, competition between the United States and China dominates the foreign policy landscape. But this battle for global influence is also playing out in a strange and unexpected arena: the movies.

The film industry, Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel explains, is the latest battleground in the tense and complex rivalry between these two world powers. In recent decades, as China has grown into a giant of the international economy, it has become a crucial source of revenue for the American film industry. Hollywood studios are now bending over backward to make movies that will appeal to China’s citizens--and gain approval from severe Communist Party censors. At the same time, and with America’s unwitting help, China has built its own film industry into an essential arm of its plan to export its national agenda to the rest of the world. The competition between these two movie businesses is a Cold War for this century, a clash that determines whether democratic or authoritarian values will be broadcast most powerfully around the world.

Red Carpet is packed with memorable characters who have--knowingly or otherwise--played key roles in this tangled industry web: not only A-list stars like Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and Richard Gere but also eccentric Chinese billionaires, zany expatriate filmmakers, and starlets who disappear from public life without explanation or trace. Schwartzel combines original reporting, political history, and show-biz intrigue in an exhilarating tour of global entertainment, from propaganda film sets in Beijing to the boardrooms of Hollywood studios to the living rooms in Kenya where families decide whether to watch an American or Chinese movie. Alarming, occasionally absurd, and wildly entertaining, Red Carpet will not only alter the way we watch movies but also offer essential new perspective on the power struggle of this century.

Erich Schwartzel has reported on the film industry for The Wall Street Journal since 2013. Previously, he covered energy and the environment for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where his work won a Gerald Loeb Award and the Scripps Howard Award for Environmental Reporting. He lives in Los Angeles.