Over the past decade, Chinese films have met with great acclaim at the international film festivals, finding an audience in commercial cinemas as well as art houses around the world. Until now there has been a want of authoritative reference works in the English language to which scholars could turn for support in their research or film buffs could turn to check their facts. In one alphabetically organized volume the Encyclopedia of Chinese Film provides entries on directors, genres, themes, and actors and actresses from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as 300 film synopses. The entries are heavily cross-referenced and followed, where possible, with annotated suggestions for further reading. Great care has been taken to provide solid cultural and historical context to the facts. The alphabetical entries are preceded by a substantial historical section, incorporating material on the the main studios and analysing the impact of Chinese film abroad as well as at home in recent years. This Encyclopedia should meet the needs, equally, of the curious viewer wanting to know more about a popular actor or director, the film studies scholar preparing a comparative paper, the student of Chinese culture exploring a new medium, and the specialist in Chinese film requiring the verification of a fact or needing to gain a broader knowledge of their field. Additional features include a list of relevant websites, a chronology of films, classified contents list, three indexes (one of film and tv titles with directors names and year of release, one of names including actors, writers, directors and producers and one of studios, all with pinyin romanizations), and a glossary of pinyin romanizations, Chinese characters and English equivalents to aid the specialist in moving between Chinese titles and English translations. Ru-shou Robert Chen, Fu Jen Catholic University, Shuqin Cui, Southern Methodist University, Paul Fonoroff, Ken Hall, Julian Stringer, Indiana University, Paola Voci,
