经济学人:中国电影产业 迷失于中国式好莱坞(上)

 　　Business: China's film industry Lost in Shangywood 商业：中国电影产业，迷失于中国式好莱坞

　　China's booming film market is tantalising but hard to crack. 中国蓬勃的电影市场充满诱惑但难以进入。

　　"My name is The Future." So declares a heroic Chinese astronaut in Mandarin¹ after saving the life of Stephen Colbert, an American comedian², during a recent episode of the "Late Show". 在最近一集美国深夜秀中，当一个讲着普通话的太空英雄拯救了美国著名喜剧演员Stephen Colbert 后，他说：我的名字叫未来。

　　Dubbed³ the Pander⁴ Express, the sketch⁵ mocked how far Hollywood studios are willing to go in modifying their movies to pander to national pride and curry⁶ favour with Chinese officials. 在刚刚配音好的《熊猫大侠》中，故事也暗讽着好莱坞制作公司愿意修改电影内容想要迎合民族自豪感及讨好中国官员的急切感。

　　American film studios are desperate to win approval for releases in China because its film market is rocketing. 美国的电影制作公司急切渴望获得中国的审批发布，因为这里的电影市场正在急速上升。

　　From 2003 to 2010 box-office receipts on the mainland grew by an annual rate of more than 40% on average. 从2003年到2010年，内地票房收入以年均逾40%的速度增长。

　　In 2012 Chinese film revenues passed those of Japan, then the second-biggest market. 在2012年，中国的电影收入超过当时第二大市场的日本。

　　Chinese box-office receipts are forecast to top $10 billion a year by 2017, when China will be closing in on America as the world's biggest market. 预计到2017年，中国的年均票房收入预测将超过100亿美元，届时中国将接近世界最大市场美国的票房。

　　No wonder, then, that Western entertainment firms have been ploughing money into China. 所以西方娱乐公司投入大规模资金进入中国也就不足为奇了。

　　IMAX, which specialises in large-screen theatres, floated shares in its China division earlier this month to finance a big expansion there. 专营大幕影院的IMAX在本月早些时候增资募股，为其子公司在中国市场的大扩张筹集资金。

　　In September Warner Brothers announced a joint⁷ venture with China Media Capital, a local investment firm, to produce movies palatable⁸ to China tastes. 9月份，华纳兄弟影片公司宣布与中国本土华人文化产业投资基金合资制作符合中国口味的电影。

　　CMC is also an investor⁹ in Oriental DreamWorks, a local entity¹⁰ collaborating¹¹ with DreamWorks, an American studio, to make the next in the “Kung Fu Panda” series. 华人文化产业投资基金还是东方梦工厂的投资人，东方梦工厂是一家中国本土载体，正与美国梦工厂电影公司合作制作《功夫熊猫》系列的下一部作品。

　　Hollywood should beware the siren song. 好莱坞应当警惕美妙的海妖歌声。

　　“The aggregate¹² growth in numbers suggests the streets are paved with gold, but it's not that easy,” warns Peter Shiao of Orb¹³ Media, an independent production and finance company. 独立制作与金融公司Orb传媒集团的Peter Shiao警告说，从数字的总增长上看仿佛前面的路都是金子铺成的，但是事情并不是那么容易。

　　There are only two ways for films made abroad to enter the Chinese market: 34 big foreign productions a year are let in via a quota¹⁴ system;  电影要进入中国市场只有两条路可走：每年只有34部外国大型影片通过配额制度进入中国市场；

　　Chinese firms are also allowed to acquire the rights to 30 to 40 smaller foreign films a year for a fixed¹⁵ fee. 中国公司以固定价格每年买断30到40部小型外国影片的放映权。

　　Because distribution of foreign films is controlled by politicised state-owned entities¹⁶, even an easing of these quotas—as is now rumoured—will not help much. 由于外国影片的发行由政治化的国有实体控制，因此即便放松配额——像现在谣传的那样——也没有多大作用。

　　Liu Cuiping of EntGroup, a research firm, points out that the film-opening schedule is an important protectionist tool. 研究公司艺恩咨询的刘翠萍强调，电影放映安排是一个重要的保护主义工具。

　　This July, typically a big month for movies, for example, no new Hollywood blockbusters were permitted on Chinese screens. 例如，今年在一般属于电影热门档期的7月份，没有一部好莱坞大片获准在中国影院上映。

　　She adds that subsidies¹⁷ and preferential taxation¹⁸ also favour local firms. 她还说，补贴与税收优惠也对中国本土电影有利。

1 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

2 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

3 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 pander   

v.迎合；n.拉皮条者，勾引者；帮人做坏事的人

参考例句：

• Don't pander to such people. 要迎合这样的人。
• Those novels pander to people's liking for stories about crime.那些小说迎合读者对犯罪故事的爱好。

5 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

6 curry   

n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革

参考例句：

• Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish.有咖喱的菜配米饭最棒。
• Add a teaspoonful of curry powder.加一茶匙咖喱粉。

7 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

8 palatable   

adj.可口的，美味的；惬意的

参考例句：

• The truth is not always very palatable.事实真相并非尽如人意。
• This wine is palatable and not very expensive.这种酒味道不错，价钱也不算贵。

9 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

10 entity   

n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物

参考例句：

• The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
• As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体，公司必须纳税。

11 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

12 aggregate   

adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合

参考例句：

• The football team had a low goal aggregate last season.这支足球队上个赛季的进球总数很少。
• The money collected will aggregate a thousand dollars.进帐总额将达一千美元。

13 orb   

n.太阳；星球；v.弄圆；成球形

参考例句：

• The blue heaven,holding its one golden orb,poured down a crystal wash of warm light.蓝蓝的天空托着金色的太阳，洒下一片水晶般明亮温暖的光辉。
• It is an emanation from the distant orb of immortal light.它是从远处那个发出不灭之光的天体上放射出来的。

14 quota   

n.（生产、进出口等的）配额，（移民的）限额

参考例句：

• A restricted import quota was set for meat products.肉类产品设定了进口配额。
• He overfulfilled his production quota for two months running.他一连两个月超额完成生产指标。

15 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

16 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

17 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 taxation   

n.征税，税收，税金

参考例句：

• He made a number of simplifications in the taxation system.他在税制上作了一些简化。
• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。