Tang Nasi will move into a new apartment soon. She has moved six times in the 22 years since she arrived in Beijing for postgraduate study from Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province. Each time, she took all her copies of Popular Movie, a monthly magazine, with her. Although some editions were lost, she had saved most copies, and with them her memories and dreams of the movies of her youth.

This time, though, she put off some issues published in recent years, saying, “These days, movie magazines are becoming better and more diversified, and Popular Movie seemed to be getting outdated.” But “fortunately,” Tang added, “The magazine is still changing.”

As Tang’s decision indicates, film periodicals face a variety of challenges today as they seek to reclaim their glorious days and build new audiences, who have an array of entertainment options available to them.

The cover of Popular Movie notes that “this magazine started publication in 1950,” reminding readers of its historical status. It emerged not long after the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949, and to some extent, the ups and downs of Chinese politics and the movie industry deeply influenced its content and layout.

“Viewed today, Popular Movie is just an average entertainment magazine. But in the old days, there were few magazines of this type,” recalled Tang. Born when the magazine was 10 years old, Tang grew up reading the publication. “It was my favorite because the large number of pictures made it colorful and it was delightful to read,” she said.

The beautiful stills in the magazine attracted her to the cinema. “For many Chinese at that time, the best entertainment was watching movies, and the best-selling magazine was Popular Movie. When people could only wear a few colors like blue, gray and green, the movie screen was always colorful,” said Tang.

However, when she was six years old, the devastating Cultural Revolution (1966-76) began and all entertainment periodicals were shut down. The magazine resumed publication in January 1979.

The 1980s marked another “golden time” for Chinese cinema, when every edition of Popular Movie had millions of readers, with the highest monthly total reaching 8.79 million in 1982. That far exceeds the readership of periodicals today.

Creating controversy

The magazine also on occasion sparked heated debates.

Remarking on a still showing Cinderella and her prince kissing, one reader said, “I am very angry after seeing the still on the back cover of the fifth issue in 1979! You guys have degenerated to a degree where there is no difference from the bourgeoisies in the West! I cannot help asking, do you know what you are doing?”

This letter was written by an official in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the early 1980s, the initial period after China adopted its reform and opening-up policy, and it was published in full in the magazine. In less than two months, the editorial office received thousands of letters from all over the country, and covered the discussion in four consecutive editions.

“Two foreigners kissing is the most normal thing in the world,” commented Tang. “Judged from the present view, that kiss was still very conservative: The neatly dressed and serious-looking prince and Cinderella kissed in a splendid building, nothing more. Furthermore, the background is bright. If the two people were not kissing, the feeling of romance would be totally lost.”

The debate had a significant influence on the movie industry and in fact the entire country. Romance on Lushan Mountain, shot shortly after the discussion, took a small step forward, focusing on a man kissing a woman on the cheek. In China, kissing was common in movies in the 1930s and 1940s, but nearly disappeared from the screen after the founding of the PRC. Commentators said the single kiss in Romance on Lushan Mountain was actually a big step forward for the whole movie industry in China. From then on, a forbidden zone was gradually opened and people accepted the idea of kissing.

Industry observers contend that throughout Chinese cinematic history, film periodicals have had a substantial impact, as well as being influenced by the industry in turn. “This year marks the 100th anniversary of Chinese movies. During its century-long development, the function and influence of movie periodicals cannot be ignored,” Xie Qizhang, a collector of periodicals, pointed out.

“It is hard to estimate the exact contribution of movie periodicals to the Chinese movie industry, but one thing is for sure—the latter needs the former’s push and promotion,” noted Lu Wenyu, Editor in Chief of the Movie Show, a counterpart of Popular Movie. He said movie magazines once had an enormous influence on movie creation and helped boost the box office. Movie periodicals have influenced changes in the theme, content and style of Chinese movies and stimulated movie technology transformation and innovation, he added.

In 1905, China produced its first movie; 15 years later, the first Chinese film magazine appeared. After that, movie periodicals sprouted up with the development of the industry, and entered their first prosperous period in the 1930s, with nearly 100 periodicals available. Until 1949, about 300 movie magazines had successively appeared on the Chinese mainland. In the 1950s and 1960s, many institutions, including state-owned film studios, created movie magazines, which witnessed and promoted the development of the Chinese movie industry.

“The Hundred Flowers Award, created by Popular Movie, is a good example of how influential movie magazines were at that time,” Lu added. The Hundred Flowers Award is the first and largest of national movie awards in China, having been proposed by then Premier Zhou Enlai. The inaugural award was announced in 1962, and since then it has been granted annually by Popular Movie. Every year, Chinese movie fans vote for their favorite Chinese films, and the magazine publishes results of the ballot. Over 120,000 readers participated in the first year. Because of budget constraints, award-winning film studios only received a paper certificate, while individuals received a medal or inscription written by a renowned calligrapher.

Nevertheless, many award winners felt it was the supreme honor, especially when they saw excited audiences. The winners would visit factories, villages, military installations and schools to meet with local people, and in this way they were able to hear grassroots suggestions.

In the early 1980s, Popular Movie’s monthly circulation reached a record 9.6 million copies, with a reported 2 million ballots cast each year by readers across the country. Nowadays, audiences can vote online or by mobile phone. While the award has lost much of its magic for audiences, many industry insiders still consider it an important parameter for attracting audiences and evaluating the market.

A new environment

In the 1990s, Chinese movie magazines gradually began to lose their influence and went through a difficult period. Currently, only about 20 film publications can be found on newsstands.

Liu Siqi, Editor in Chief of DVD Movie Review, said, “Today, the entertainment mode is getting more diversified and people are even reluctant to go to the cinema. Who will care to read movie magazines?”

Wen Jinliang, Editor in Chief of The DVD Screen, echoed Liu’s view. “A special environment creates a special situation: The only way people could get comprehensive movie reviews and the industry outlook in the past was by reading movie magazines. However, with the rapid development of the Internet, TV and newspapers, audiences can get more entertainment information very fast. Movie magazines are no longer the only choice.”

Some time-honored magazines are beginning to devise new strategies. On October 20, 2004, Shanghai Oriental TV broadcast a black and white advertisement for Movie Story, a film magazine that began publication in 1952. This was the first time that a Chinese movie magazine promoted itself on TV, and it saw a 16,000-copy increase in sales of the first issue after the ad ran.

While older magazines are busy changing their style and content, some new ones are catching up with them and have seized more than half of the market. Watch Movies, which started publication in 1996, learned from the content and editing experiences of popular foreign movie magazines and has totally changed the old-fashioned Chinese movie magazine look. New magazines, including Watch Movies, have attracted more readers through their colorful pictures and rich and diversified content. Some are even trying to link up with fashion magazines.

Some editors do not take an optimistic view. “Copyright cooperation cannot guarantee exclusive content,” said Liu of DVD Movie Review. “Currently, no magazine can have a really exclusive movie review. The only ‘exclusive’ lies in topic selection and planning or reports on domestically produced movies.”

Film magazines also face financial difficulties. For example, the revenue of the best-selling Watch Movies comes from magazine sales, not advertising, a common problem faced by Chinese film periodicals. “Readers of movie magazines are not considered to have substantial purchasing power since most are university or high school students. They are not a potential target for advertisers,” Liu said. “Furthermore, the unpromising box-office appeal of locally made movies is another factor influencing sales of movie magazines—many of the movies suffer a box-office loss and advertisers see no business opportunity from advertising in movie magazines,” said Liu.

“It is hard to make a living only through sales,” agreed He Han, Associate Publisher of New Cinema magazine. “We are learning from the successful experience of foreign movie magazines. Apart from New Cinema, we are creating other magazines to form a brand. Meanwhile, we are developing relevant products like our website and short message service to attract more readers.”

Despite the difficulties film periodicals face, the outlook is not necessarily dim.

Most recently, external capital has been pouring into film magazines, bringing new management and profit models to the industry. Some enterprises have an eye on the potential for DVD magazines, which they believe will reach a vast audience with relatively large spending power.

Many editors point out that the improvement of films and the movie market, especially the revival of locally made movies, will provide new opportunities for movie magazines, saying they must grasp that chance.