The sociality of cultural industries

Abstract

In this article, I explore the sociality of cultural industries by analyzing the film industry in Hong Kong. In particular, the social networks and relationships at multiple scales – across national boundaries, within local settings and on production sets – are examined, revealing their critical role in contributing to the health of the film industry. The risks faced at various steps of the production, marketing and distribution process are ameliorated by trust relations, built up through time between social actors in spontaneous ways. While Hong Kong cultural policy in part seeks to create the social and spatial contexts within which social networks may develop, most cultural workers are doubtful about the efficacy of policy in influencing often intangible, inchoate relationships.

Keywords:

• film industry
• risk
• trust
• social networks
• cultural policy
• Hong Kong

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the National University of Singapore for funding this project (R109‐000‐052‐112). I would also like to thank Lim Kean Fan for assistance with the interviews.

Notes

Pseudonyms are used throughout this article.

The Film Guarantee Fund assists local film production companies to obtain loans from local participating lending institutions (e.g., banks and financial institutions) for producing films. Productions must meet certain eligibility requirements and conditions (see www.fso‐tela.gov.hk).

Note Coe's (2000) conceptualization of the scales in terms of the international, national and local.

This stands for Closer Economic Partnership Agreement. With this agreement, movies produced by Hong Kong film companies will no longer be subject to a quota system in China. The previous requirement of equal share of film workers in co‐production has also been reduced to one‐third.