Jia figures under-fire showbiz industry will emerge stronger
BEIJING: Award-winning director Jia Zhangke reckons that the under-fire showbiz industry in China will emerge stronger after surviving a tax scandal.
In comments made during the Pingyao International Film Festival, Jia, who had founded the festival. admitted that the Chinese film industry is still developing and experiencing twists and turns.
But he confident that it shall emerge much stronger than before.
Jia also noted that over the past few years, many local governments in China had offered favourable policies and incentives to develop the film industry. He hopes that the government would continue to support filmmaking through various policies and that the society can acknowledge the efforts of the filmmakers.
As for the relationship between the film industry and the capital market, Jia pointed out that the film industry needs the participation of capital, but the driving force behind the industry are creators.
What has roiled the industry in recent weeks were revelations that star actress Fan Bingbing and companies under her control had evaded taxes to the tune of 248 million yuan (RM143 million).
Tax authorities had fined her US$129 million (RM542 million) after detaining her for weeks during a wide-ranging investigation.
Roderic Wye, an associate fellow at Chatham House and former first secretary in the British Embassy in Beijing, said that Fan is being made an example of, to prove that the state can come for anybody.
Beijing’s message is that “nobody is too high, nobody is above, nobody can escape government scrutiny,” Wye commented.
He said that Fan’s humbling is “partly a periodic (drive) to crack down on high-level earners, but more importantly it’s part and parcel of the (national campaign) for a new, modest patriot serving the national cause, instead of private gain.”
“That’s one of the messages put across by the (Communist Party) and it helps to have a high-profile example like Fan Bingbing, who people know,” he said.
Fan’s humbling is partly a periodic (drive) to crack down on high-level earners, but more importantly it’s part and parcel of the (national campaign) for a new, modest patriot serving the national cause, instead of private gain. Roderic Wye, an associate fellow at Chatham House