In a new book, a Chinese film producer and filmmaker says the fourth industrial revolution has finally begun.
In the book, which will be published by the University of California Press on Thursday, Zhang Xuesong, an entrepreneur, producer and director, says the transition from manufacturing to services and the rise of virtual entertainment has given China a major opportunity to transform the way it makes movies and TV shows.
In a phone interview, Zhang said he believes the fourth industry will provide the economic impetus to create the next generation of global innovators and business leaders.
“If we succeed in the fourth Industrial Revolution, we will be able to create more jobs for all Chinese people,” Zhang told Newsweek.
“The people that are producing these movies, TV shows, games and digital services will be the ones that can be rewarded for their hard work.”
Zhang, 56, is one of China’s most successful film producers.
His first film, The Last Laugh, was released in 2014.
His next film, China’s Next Big Thing, is due for release in May.
In an interview, he described how he is constantly watching the success of the Chinese movie industry.
He believes that the next big thing will be created by a new generation of filmmakers, many of whom were never able to work in Hollywood.
“The Chinese are more talented and are now starting to understand the fourth-industrial-revolution,” Zhang said.
“I’m sure that it’s going to become even more important as the fourth era begins.”
Zhou Jianmin, a senior fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and a filmmaker himself, agreed.
“It’s a great opportunity to create a generation of innovators that will become world-class,” he said.
In China, the fourth wave of the industrial revolution took off in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The new generation started making films that were highly critical of the government and society.
The revolution changed the way China views itself and its citizens, and Zhang and other film producers saw themselves as part of this revolution.
The first film to be produced was in 1989 by the late Zhang Xiaogang, who made a documentary about the Chinese government’s crackdown on anti-government protests.
It was titled The Big Smoke.
Zhang was detained and tortured.
He later went on to produce another documentary, A Night at the Movies.
Zhang and Zhou also collaborated on another film, My Country, My Death, which showed the aftermath of the 1989 crackdown.
Zhou’s work, which is set in a post-apocalyptic China, was controversial and earned him a lot of criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
Zhang said that criticism did not deter him.
“We never stopped working,” Zhang Xiaobing said.