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[Weekly Update] How Chinese manufacturing capability is affecting cinema
🕑 Added 2025-10-27 01:40:34 +0000 UTCWriting this update from Hangzhou, the software hub of China. Naturally, we are going to talk about Chinese hardware and software, and how it affects the motion picture industry.
But first, as always, some housekeeping
CHANNEL UPDATE
Kwaidan
Hope you enjoyed our last video on Kwaidan. Originally I wanted to focus on Hoichi the Earless instead of the Woman of the Snow, since the former is considered the best part of the film. After rewatching the film, however, I realized I have more to say about Woman of the Snow, since its use of color is the most flamboyant, but also easy to understand. Maybe one day I'll return to this film and talk about another part of the story. But for now, I'm proud of the video result.
One thing I want to point out is... the amount of people who read the sponsor segment is a little disconcerting.
Bonus Video
Our bonus video for October will be about Now You See Me. Not technically a horror movie, but somehow still feels Halloween appropriate. Since the new NYSM is coming out, and the Chinese audience love that movie, I figure I should offer my thoughts on the first film. Unfortunately, my impression of it is kinda meh.
November Video
Next up on the docket is The Legend (2022), a bad movie that's somewhat funny, but ruined by endless amount of the protagonist lecturing people. If you want some good laughs, this movie has plenty to offer. But be prepared to sit through a lot of "blah-blah-blah". I recommend it only if you have a chatty friend to sit through it with you.
MEDIA TALK
Walking through China, and you'll quickly notice how many LED screens there are. Skyscrapers are essentially screens themselves. Museums offer AR glasses that shows additional information when you face an artifact. Exhibits in VR for a full Tang dynasty experience. Screens of all sort are so common in China, and it's all because China has the manufacturing capacity.
Indeed, with Shenzhen being a hardware hub and Hangzhou being a software hub, China is a major tech player today. But tech worker salaries aren't as high as the developed world, tech gadgets are still very affordable in China. This lets institutions and businesses experiment with minimal investment risk, the result is movies shown in VR, on billboards, and even on phones. And by phones, I mean that "Road to Empress" video game.
At the risk of sounding like a simp for China, I honestly love this. The market place of ideas is fiercely competitive, with no clear winner in sight. New technologies are produced in scale, accessible to everyone. People are constantly finding new ways to entertain themselves, because there is always a new hardware and software combination being develop. And if vertical movies doesn't work (it didn't), then the next thing to try is interactive movie (which worked).
The only question I have is how long can this last. As a country develops, they generally shifts from manufacturing to service industries, outsourcing manufacturing to other countries with cheaper labors. China, however, is trying hard to fight against this trend. With domestic need for manufacturing decreases, Chinese companies begin selling this capability to other nations, mainly underdeveloped countries.
It seems China understands the advantage of being a factory nation. While a company in the US has to design a VR headset prototype, send the specs to India and wait for it to be produced and mail back, a Chinese company can simply take a 6 hour train ride from Shenzhen to Hangzhou and hand that prototype in person.
It's not quite vertical integration, but it sure is close. This is why China can create so many new experimental products, and why exhibits can create bespoke VR headsets that are intended for only one movie. Artists and manufacturers work next to each other, allowing tech and art to co-evolve.
The one last bit of problem is the price. The one headset per movie is viable today, because factory workers don't get pay much, so headsets are cheap. Eventually, however, this cheap labor advantage will disappear. In an idea world, these workers will be replaced by automated machines, and (importantly) the money made by hiring less human goes back to the workers who would have otherwise be working. In reality, however, the money always go to the wealthy. Will the Chinese government dictate how the money flow? I suppose that's a problem 20 years in the future. In other words, Chinese officials are likely already talking about it right now.
Anyway, that's the update for today! Not the most art related topic, but it's something worth considering. Visiting China every year and seeing how much things change year after year is a trip, and it keeps me forward thinking. I hope this little insight is interesting to you as well.
I'll talk to you next week, when I'm in Guangzhou proper.
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Comments
Tim Hammack
Regarding China factory situation, I wonder how its factories will withstand future economics (example: how the US "optimized itself to death" (partly, perhaps, to destroy our unions) by practically moving all of our manufacturing overseas from the 1980s to the present. Does factory work in China make for "better than average" jobs in China? (Granted, it was American unionization that made American factory work "good" though early Ford Plants, before unionization, were said to have paid higher than industry average in order to have better pick of workers).
Tim Hammack
Would you tell us the temperature in Guangzhou? (OK, OK, I'll check weather channel). In ancient times (2010), I went to Guangzhou on a business trip to visit the universities AND IT WAS 40 C IN OCTOBER (plus employer insisted on suits and ties... meanwhile, a tall, crazy skinny British man strode past me from the hotel lobby in a 3-piece suit (with vest) while I was already starting to sweat within the A/C lobby.........................
