SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between film translation and nation building duringthe period 1949 to 1965 in China. After the People’s Republic of China (PRC) wasfounded in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as the new ruling party, wasfaced with the pressing task of rebuilding a country that had been devastated bydecades of war and a nation that had been rent by political disunity. Thus, building a“new revolutionary culture” that would reflect, and ultimately legitimise the change,was high on the political agenda. Imported films were part and parcel of such a drive.Two issues are to be addressed in this article: firstly, it discusses how the newgovernment, as a "patron", controls the selection of films to be translated for thepurpose of building a new ideology and "revolutionary culture" that would strengthenthe status of the CCP as a legitimate ruling party; secondly, it explores how theselected Soviet films were introduced and promoted to be part of the political drive.These films interacted with other forms of expression and contributed to thetransformation of Chinese society.