Introduction: Games, Gaming, and Interactive Aesthetics in Contemporary Chinese and Sinophone Cinema

Abstract Relatively few scholarly works or research publications in English have taken up the question of the relationship between Chinese cinema and Chinese games, a topic that is ripe for exploration and the focus of this special issue. There are key related works that focus on transmedia storytelling and the cross-media development of Chinese intellectual properties (IPs), as well as rich literature on literature-to-film and literature-to-game adaptations. In this introduction, we’ll first review the extant literature on games, films, and interactivity in Chinese cinema and then provide a historical overview of the development of English-language scholarship on games and film interconnections. The introduction finishes with an overview of the works in this special issue and their contributions to this area of research.