Moguls of the Chinese Cinema: The Story of the Shaw Brothers in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore, 1924–2002

Abstract

The history of the Shaw enterprise in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore, is a history of Chinese cinema in a century of business evolution. The Shaw industrial model of “vertical integration”, which combines production, distribution with exhibition, keeps pace with the technological developments and manages to expand its retail outlets from the stage to cinema, television, DVD and the Internet. Although the Shaw organization embraces a western industrial model to expand its business, it retains the very nature of a traditional Chinese family business. The issues surrounding the cultural and institutional evolution of the Shaw enterprise over the past 80 years are profound indications of its time.