Famed Chinese producer among participants at UCLA-USC media and culture conference

Chinese director-producer Zhang Jizhong

We’re all familiar with the cartoon mouse made famous by Walt Disney more than 80 years ago. With his prominent black ears, white gloves, big yellow shoes and red shorts, Mickey Mouse is a worldwide icon. Now, can the same mass market appeal surround Monkey, a legendary Chinese figure that has played a prominent role in Chinese literature and culture for more than 400 years?

Acclaimed Chinese film and television director and producer Zhang Jizhong, who is currently creating a theme park in China based on the Monkey King legend, thinks so. Zhang will be joining Hollywood entertainment heavyweights and academic experts at a joint UCLA–USC conference focusing on the globalization of the Chinese entertainment industry and the impact of film and television on public perception and culture in China. "Media and Culture in Contemporary China" will be held at UCLA on Oct. 21 and at USC on Oct. 22.

"Zhang Jizhong is virtually unknown in the West, but he is a household name in China due to the popularity of his TV serials based on the historical novels ’Romance of the Three Kingdoms,’ ’The Water Margin’ and now his remake of ’Journey to the West,’" said UCLA history professor Andrea Goldman, one of the conference’s lead organizers. "Purveyors of popular entertainment in film and TV, such as Zhang Jizhong, have a strong impact within China in terms of shaping Chinese audiences’ understanding of their own past and culture. Perhaps even more importantly, Zhang is representative of this new phenomenon of Chinese producer–directors eyeing a global market for their work."

The free two-day conference, sponsored by the UCLA–USC Joint East Asian Studies Center, a consortium that brings together the Asia Institute at UCLA and the East Asian Studies Center at USC, will feature sessions on the state of the film and television industry in contemporary China; recreating Chinese history and classic literature in film and television; and the globalization of theme parks. The event will also explore what kinds of U.S.–China entertainment collaborations have worked, what haven’t and why.

The conference kicks off Oct. 21 at UCLA’s James West Alumni Center with a panel session on the state of the film and television industry in contemporary China from an academic perspective. This will be followed by a panel session examining the state of China’s film and television industry from the perspective of the entertainment industry. Moderated by Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the latter panel will include Mike Medavoy, chairman and CEO of Phoenix Films and co-founder of Orion Pictures; William M. Mechanic, president and CEO of Pandemonium Films and former chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment; and Janet Yang, president of Manifest Films and former president of production of Oliver Stone’s Ixtlan Productions; among others.

The panel session will be followed by a discussion about the re-creation of Chinese history and classic literature in film and television and a keynote address by Zhang. The evening will also feature the American premiere of Zhang’s new television series, "Journey to the West," at the Fowler Museum’s Lenart Auditorium beginning at 7:30 p.m.

"Los Angeles is the perfect location to bridge dialogue between entertainment industry experts, including Hollywood producers and theme park creators, and scholars who study globalization, film and television, and Chinese popular culture," Goldman said. "Anyone who is interested in contemporary China or contemporary processes of globalization, or those who are in the entertainment industry and trying to get into the Chinese media market, should definitely be at this event."

The conference is organized by UCLA’s Asia Institute, with support from UCLA’s International Institute , Center for Chinese Studies , Confucius Institute , Department of History , Department of Asian Languages and Cultures , and Asian American Studies Center. USC sponsors include the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the USC U.S.–China Institute and the Norman Lear Center.