Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas

Erich Schwartzel, "Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy" (Penguin, 2022)


Listen Later

From trade to technology to military might, competition between the United States and China dominates the foreign policy landscape. But this battle for global influence is also playing out in a strange and unexpected arena: the movies.

The film industry, Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel explains, is the latest battleground in the tense and complex rivalry between these two world powers. In recent decades, as China has grown into a giant of the international economy, it has become a crucial source of revenue for the American film industry. Hollywood studios are now bending over backward to make movies that will appeal to China’s citizens—and gain approval from severe Communist Party censors. At the same time, and with America’s unwitting help, China has built its own film industry into an essential arm of its plan to export its national agenda to the rest of the world. The competition between these two movie businesses is a Cold War for this century, a clash that determines whether democratic or authoritarian values will be broadcast most powerfully around the world.

Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy (Penguin, 2022) is packed with memorable characters who have—knowingly or otherwise—played key roles in this tangled industry web: not only A-list stars like Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and Richard Gere but also eccentric Chinese billionaires, zany expatriate filmmakers, and starlets who disappear from public life without explanation or trace. Schwartzel combines original reporting, political history, and show-biz intrigue in an exhilarating tour of global entertainment, from propaganda film sets in Beijing to the boardrooms of Hollywood studios to the living rooms in Kenya where families decide whether to watch an American or Chinese movie. Alarming, occasionally absurd, and wildly entertaining, Red Carpet will not only alter the way we watch movies but also offer essential new perspective on the power struggle of this century.

Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network’s Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/van-leer-institute

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Van Leer Institute Series on IdeasBy New Books Network

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

5 ratings


More shows like Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas

View all
Répliques by France Culture

Répliques

118 Listeners

On Being with Krista Tippett by On Being Studios

On Being with Krista Tippett

10,401 Listeners

The Promised Podcast by TLV1 Studios

The Promised Podcast

420 Listeners

Israel Story by Israel Story

Israel Story

1,223 Listeners

What Matters Now by The Times of Israel

What Matters Now

43 Listeners

Pod Save America by Crooked Media

Pod Save America

86,615 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,864 Listeners

Haaretz Podcast by Haaretz

Haaretz Podcast

285 Listeners

For Heaven's Sake by Shalom Hartman Institute

For Heaven's Sake

439 Listeners

Call Me Back - with Dan Senor by Ark Media

Call Me Back - with Dan Senor

3,138 Listeners

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing by The Times of Israel

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

1,062 Listeners

SAPIR Conversations by SAPIR: Ideas for a Thriving Jewish Future

SAPIR Conversations

66 Listeners

Israel Update by Tablet Studios

Israel Update

71 Listeners

Boundless Insights - with Aviva Klompas by Boundless Israel, Inc.

Boundless Insights - with Aviva Klompas

70 Listeners

Ask Haviv Anything by Haviv Rettig Gur

Ask Haviv Anything

639 Listeners