This cool infographic comes courtesy of the Gravity Group and Shanghiist and shows some facts and figures on China’s 2011 box office statistics and industry trends:

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Amid the flurry of SARFT’s most recent wave of slashing and burning Chinese film and TV programming, foreign film studios co-opting the Chinese internet as a potential distribution platform, and the out-of-control proliferation of videos and internet memes informing Chinese media and popular attitudes, SARFT has decided to establish a formal platform for censoring internet videos.The information, which appeared on the Sina Tech blog, was summarized by C. Custer for the Penn Olson blog:

According to SARFT vice-chief Zhang Haitao, the administration will regulate IPTV streaming services, mobile video services, and traditional internet television services like Youku  and Tudou.

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"Karamay" (dir. Xu Xin)

An article entitled Reel China: Hard-pressed documentary makers keep rolling appeared recently in USA Today, spotlighting some of Chinese independent documentary’s heavy hitters and their struggle to keep shooting and telling stories. Calum MacLeod writes:

Their subjects include people living at the margins of society, fighting property demolition, tracing the death of relatives persecuted under Chairman Mao, and even a government official discussing the corruption and bullying rife in his City Hall.

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"Winter Vacation" (dir. Li Hongqi)

A recent profile of Chinese novelist Yan Geling, author of the novel “The Thirteen Women of Nanjing,” which inspired Zhang Yimou‘s 2011 war epic The Flowers of War, is shedding light on the increasingly significant role literary figures are playing in shaping the Chinese film industry.

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As long as there has been a Chinese film industry, a ratings system of any kind has eluded audience members whose competence to determining content suitability has been all but nullified of by SARFT’s careful restrictions. For the first time, however, there may be a hint of change–a nod towards ratings and audience empowerment– in the air. James Marsh, author of the article China Beat: A Flirtation With Classification for twitch.com, has the scoop.

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In a recent article for The Guardian, Nicola Davidson reports on a recent deal that will allow users of Chinese video browser youku to access over two-hundred 20th Century Fox titles. Use of user-driven sites like youku and tudou as streaming platforms has allowed American film giants an alternate distribution strategy in China and also granted Chinese netizens access to alternative or underground entertainment. Davidson reports:

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