Movies born online: The formalisation and industrialisation of Chinese internet movies

Abstract

In 2014, an iQiyi representative defined the term ‘big internet movies’ and formalised a burgeoning category of streaming content. This article examines the history of these movies, from their beginnings as micro-movies or cellflix to cinema comparable to its theatrical equivalent, through an overview of the form’s shifting commercial infrastructure and regulation. The career of Zhang Hao, a comedian from Northeastern China, serves as a throughline across three periods of development. As an actor, director, and sometimes screen-writer of over a dozen features, Zhang’s films can be read as meta-phorical commentary on the industry itself.