Contemporary Art Cinema Culture in China

Runner-up for the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) 2026 Award for Best First Monograph.

Contemporary Art Cinema Culture in China explores the dynamic networks of art cinema in China in the 21st century, highlighting the cultural practices of intermediaries such as independent programmers, internet critics, and fan translators.

Offering insights gleaned from original ethnographic research, Xiang Fan reveals how these intermediary practitioners think about cinema, negotiate judgement and appreciation, construct a discourse of value and taste, and most importantly, constitute a coordinated and interrelated network for the sharing of art cinema. Fan argues that although their motivation was derived from a cinephilia seeking to forge an alternative mode of distribution and reception, the 'new' cinema culture they have produced simultaneously negotiates a subtly complicit relationship with authoritative and market forces. In doing so, she offers an original interdisciplinary perspective on contemporary art cinema culture in Chinese society.