中国政府对电影明星片酬设限

HONG KONG — Movie stars in China can make as much as or more than their Hollywood counterparts. The Chinese government is not happy about that.

香港——中国的电影明星们赚的钱不逊于他们的好莱坞同行，甚至更多。中国政府对此可不怎么高兴。

So officials moved this week to cap how much A-listers can make, citing potential damage to a fast-growing movie industry.

于是，官员们本周采取行动，以可能伤害快速增长的电影行业为由，对一线明星的酬劳设限。

Movie star pay may seem like an issue for producers and trade magazines rather than for the Chinese Communist Party. But the government hopes to nurture the industry into an economic and cultural force to rival the soft power that Hollywood has long enjoyed around the world. Extravagant paychecks and waste could hinder that effort.

看上去，电影明星的片酬本应该是制片人和行业杂志关注的问题，而非中国共产党会在乎的问题。但政府希望能将这个行业培养为一股经济、文化力量，与好莱坞在世界各地一直以来拥有的软实力相抗衡。过高的片酬和浪费可能会阻碍这一努力。

China’s movie industry has blossomed in recent years, as economic growth and a rising middle class have put more people in theater seats. Ticket sales in China totaled about $8 billion last year, Chinese media reported, compared with $11 billion for the North American market. The Chinese box office even exceeded North America’s in the first few months of this year, according to one report.

随着经济增长、中产阶级壮大、越来越多的人进入电影院，中国的电影产业近年来发展迅速。据中国媒体报道，中国去年的票房达到了约80亿美元，而北美市场的票房则是110亿美元。据一份报告显示，今年头几个月，中国的票房甚至超过了北美。

With those numbers have come some Hollywood-style paychecks — many of them going to actors who are not well known outside China. The Chinese actress Fan Binbing, for example, earned $17 million in 2016, according to a Forbes magazine ranking of the world’s best-paid actresses — more than familiar Hollywood faces like Charlize Theron and Julia Roberts. (She did not appear on the 2017 list.)

伴随着这一成绩的，是一些好莱坞式的片酬——其中许多都给了名气并未走出中国的演员。例如，根据《福布斯》(Forbes)杂志一项对全球片酬最高女演员的排名，中国演员范冰冰2016年挣得1700万美元——比查理兹·塞隆(Charlize Theron)和茱莉亚·罗伯茨(Julia Roberts)这样的好莱坞熟面孔的片酬还高(她没有出现在2017年的排名中)。

Ms. Fan, 36, has had largely superfluous parts in “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and a version of “Iron Man 3” meant for audiences outside the United States, as Hollywood finds supporting roles for Chinese actors in hopes of selling more tickets in a hot new market. She is set to appear in the all-female espionage thriller “355,” which also stars Jessica Chastain and Lupita Nyong’o.

好莱坞为了在热门新市场里取得好的票房，会为中国演员安排配角，现年36岁的范冰冰曾在《X战警：逆转未来》(X-Men: Days of Future Past)和海外特供版的《钢铁侠3》(Iron Man 3)中扮演过基本上是花瓶的角色。她还将出现在全为女性主角的间谍惊悚片《355》中，出演该片还有杰西卡·查斯坦(Jessica Chastain)和露皮塔·尼永奥(Lupita Nyong’o)。

In China, however, Ms. Fan is one of the country’s most familiar faces. She shot to fame after appearing in the popular imperial palace drama “My Fair Princess” in the late 1990s. She has appeared in numerous films, such as “Chongqing Blues,” which competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010. One woman has even had plastic surgery to look like Ms. Fan, according to local news outlets.

然而，范冰冰在中国是知名度最高的明星之一。上世纪90年代末，她在参演广受欢迎的宫廷戏《还珠格格》而一举成名。她还出现在多部电影中，例如2010年的戛纳电影节参赛片《日照重庆》。据地方新闻媒体报道，一名女子甚至以范冰冰为模版做了整容手术。

Ms. Fan drew less welcome headlines in May, when a popular television presenter accused her of trying to dodge taxes. As evidence, the presenter, Cui Yongyuan, posted on social media what he said were two versions of a contract for the same film. According to one, she was paid about $1.6 million for four days’ work; in the other, she was paid an extra $7.8 million.

五月，范冰冰因为负面新闻登上头条，当时一位著名主持人崔永元指控她试图逃税。作为证据，崔永元在社交媒体上贴出了他所说的同一部电影的两个合约版本。据其中一份合同显示，她工作四天就获得了约160万美元的报酬;在另一份合同中，她又获得了780万美元的额外报酬。

It is not clear whether the contracts are real, and Ms. Fan accused Mr. Cui of slandering her. But soon after Mr. Cui made his accusations, the Chinese tax authorities began investigating whether the movie industry was giving big-time actors two contracts, a public one to be reported to the tax authorities and a covert one promising a large bonus. In China, the practice has come to be known as “yin and yang contracts.”

尚不清楚这些合同的真实性，范冰冰则指控崔永元诽谤。但就在崔永元作出指控不久后，中国的税务部门开始调查电影行业是否跟大牌演员签两份合同，公开的一份上报给税务局，秘密的一份则许以巨额奖金。在中国，这种做法被称为“阴阳合同”。

In an announcement on Wednesday, the Chinese tax authorities said such practices made China’s film industry too focused on money. It said that leading actors would not be permitted to earn more than 70 percent of the full cast, or to be paid more than 40 percent of production costs. Ms. Fan was not mentioned.

周三，在一则声明中，中国税务部门表示，此类行为导致电影行业过于着重金钱。当局表示，主要演员的片酬不能超过总片酬的70%，或者超过制作总成本的40%。声明中没有提及范冰冰。

The announcement also criticized the film industry as “distorting social values” and “fostering money worship tendencies” among young people who are “blindly chasing celebrities.”

这则声明还批评电影行业误导青少年“盲目追星”，“扭曲社会价值观念”以及“滋长拜金主义倾向”。

The Chinese government has long been both cheerleader and disciplinarian when it comes to the movie business. It restricts how many foreign-made movies can be shown in China, in part to leave room for domestic productions. But it also limits the kinds of stories that directors, writers and actors can tell — for example, forbidding themes like spirituality, or showing crime in anything other than a negative light. Increasingly, Hollywood filmmakers have bowed to Chinese box-office pressures and removed material that could offend officials.

中国政府长期以来都是电影行业的啦啦队长和纪律执行者。它对在中国上映的外国电影数量严加限制，部分是为了给国产片留有空间。但政府也对导演、编剧和演员们能讲述的故事设限——例如，禁止灵性信仰类，或以负面角度之外的方式呈现犯罪。好莱坞的电影制作人越来越多地屈服于中国票房的压力，删除可能冒犯官员的内容。

While the Chinese market has grown, Chinese movies still trail far behind Hollywood in terms of global viewership. “Wolf Warrior 2,” a Rambo-style film about Chinese action heroes, was one of the biggest movies in the world last year, according to Box Office Mojo, which tracks ticket sales. But it still trailed American blockbusters like “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and the latest installments of “The Fast and the Furious” and the “Spider-Man” franchises, among others.

在中国电影市场增长的同时，但中国电影的全球观众人数远远落后于好莱坞。据追踪票房的Box Office Mojo的数据，兰博风格的动作英雄片《战狼2》是去年全球最成功的作品之一。但它仍落后于一众好莱坞影片，包括《星球大战：最后的绝地武士》(Star Wars: The Last Jedi)、《速度与激情》(The Fast and the Furious)最新的一部以及《蜘蛛侠》(Spider-Man)系列。