A venture capitalist\'s film dream

For Xiong Xiaoge, senior vice president of IDG, the most enjoyable thing he did in 1999 is making investment in "Examination 1977," a feature film about how China resume university entrance examination in 1977 after the Cultural Revolution.
 

The film is not only a box-office success, which brought Xiong financial rewards. More importantly, the film means a dream-come-true for Xiong.

 

Xiong is a loyal fan of the Shanghai International Festival for the past 16 years. He said he had come to Shanghai every year for the film festival. Making an investment in China\'s film industry was his long-time dream.

In 2008\'s film festival, he met Ren Zhonglun, Director of Shanghai Film Group. They found themselves with common interests in many things. And they shared the same experience in seeking higher education in China’s tumultuous years.

Talking about the Shanghai film festival, Xiong was full of reminiscence. 13 years ago, he came to the festival for the first time to discuss with many professional persons about the domestic film industry, from where he made many friends." My main purpose to attend the festival now is to promote the collaboration between China and Hollywood," he said.

In recent years, China\'s film industry grows at break-necking speed in terms of the number of films screened and the box-office income. However, there are also many problems. Xiong pointed out that the most serious problem for China\'s film industry is lacking good directors and playwrights, instead of good stories.

Many films with a China theme were produced by overseas companies because their director now how to tell the story. Examples include Mulan and Kung Fu Panda.

Another big problem is the insufficient supply of cinemas, screens and theater seats.

"According to statistics, China now has 5,000 screens with the increase of 1.7 per day while the U.S. has 40,000, several times of American population. This means China probably needs 48 to catch up，" he said, "I think watching movies is the same as shopping. The more choice we have, the more we will participate."

IDG\'s recent investments in film industry include "Snow Flower and Secret Fan" and "Hawthorn Tree Forever," which is directed by Zhang Yimou, China\'s most commercially successful director.

During the interview, Xiong said Ann Lee is good at telling stories and Zhang\'s films were popular oversea, such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," so did Chen Kaige\'s "Farewell, My Concubine."

"I look forward to watching \'Tangshan Earthquake,\' which may not have a very good score aboard but can arouse resonance of global audience," Xiong said.