As of 20:38 on Saturday, China’s total box office revenue for the ongoing Qingming Festival holiday had surpassed 300 million yuan (about 41.28 million U.S. dollars), according to data from online platforms.
The three-day Qingming Festival, which started on Friday this year, is a traditional Chinese holiday that falls on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox. While it is a time to enjoy the greenery of springtime and to visit the graves of ancestors, the holiday has also become a busy period for cultural and tourism activities in China, including visits to the cinema.
The U.S. produced film “A Minecraft Movie”, Chinese animated blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” and crime thriller “We Girls” are currently ranked as the top three. Data showed that “A Minecraft Movie”, adapted from the beloved sandbox game, has currently topped the chart and been a hit with family audiences. Notably, over 15 percent of its viewers have attended screenings in groups. Meanwhile, “We Girls”, a drama centering on marginalized communities has made a significant impact since its premiere on Friday, breaking the single-day box office record for its genre during the Qingming Festival period over the past five years. Despite the wave of new releases, “Ne Zha 2”, a holdover, has once again witnessed a surge in viewership and secure the third spot in the rankings during the Qingming Festival holiday box-office period, buoyed by enduring fan loyalty.
China’s box office hits 300 million yuan during Qingming holiday
A scholar of global trade has warned that sweeping U.S. tariffs on imports could be counterproductive, given the downturn in domestic manufacturing and the world’s declining reliance on the U.S. market.
Amid widespread opposition, the Trump administration announced a new set of levies on Wednesday, imposing a 10 percent baseline tariff on imports from all trading partners, with higher rates targeting certain nations. These “reciprocal tariffs” are set to take effect on April 5 and April 9, respectively.
Speaking to China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Beijing, Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, said the U.S. manufacturing industry does not have the capacity to fill the void created by the tariffs.
“The most important thing to understand with these tariffs is that they’re not really going to work. Tariffs are useful as a tool sometimes because they raise the cost of importing goods, and therefore give an advantage to domestic manufacturers, who can take advantage of the gap between the cost of a good and the tariff, and flood the market with their goods. The problem is, you can do tariffs — that’s fine. But who is going to invest in the United States to build the things that now have a tariff wall around them? There simply isn’t the kind of public or government investment available for that. And billionaires haven’t shown the appetite to tie their money up in manufacturing inside the United States. So, tariffs sound great in the abstract — absent the availability of investment to rebuild manufacturing, it’s a ‘good luck’ scenario,” he said.
The scholar argued that amid shifting global trade dynamics, the United States risks isolating itself, while countries in the Global South will increasingly need to strengthen trade among themselves.
“I think Mr. Trump is living in a world where everybody is exporting goods into the United States. It’s not true. Most Chinese goods are not going to the U.S. The loser in this is going to be the United States. There are 7 billion people in the world; there are only 300 million in the U.S. There are consumers all over the world. Reliance on the United States at this point — not a good thing for countries in the Global South. They’re going to have to trade more with each other. That’s what they’re going to have to do,” said Prashad.
US tariffs could backfire amid domestic manufacturing slump, declining global reliance on its market: scholar
