Experts

Aynne Kokas

Fast Facts

  • Director, UVA East Asia Center
  • Non-resident scholar, Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy
  • Member, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Fellow in the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program
  • Expertise on U.S.-China relations, cybersecurity, media industry

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • Asia
  • Domestic Affairs
  • Media and the Press
  • Science and Technology

Aynne Kokas is the C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center, director of UVA's East Asia Center, and a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. Kokas’ research examines Sino-U.S. media and technology relations. Her award-winning book Trafficking Data: How China Is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty (Oxford University Press, October 2022) argues that exploitative Silicon Valley data governance practices help China build infrastructures for global control. Her award-winning first book Hollywood Made in China (University of California Press, 2017) argues that Chinese investment and regulations have transformed the U.S. commercial media industry, most prominently in the case of media conglomerates’ leverage of global commercial brands. 

Kokas is a non-resident scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow in the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program.

She was a Fulbright Scholar at East China Normal University and has received fellowships from the Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Japan’s Abe Fellowship, and other international organizations. Her writing and commentary have appeared globally in more than 50 countries and 15 languages. In the United States, her research and writing appear regularly in media outlets including CNBC, NPR’s MarketplaceThe Washington Post, and Wired. She has testified before the Senate Finance Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Aynne Kokas News Feed

But Netflix and iQiyi may influence one another. Aynne Kokas, professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, argues that iQiyi may indirectly influence Netflix through their content-sharing relationship. Because of the content-sharing deal, Netflix produces content that meets standards set by Chinese regulators.
Aynne Kokas InvestorPlace
“The studios are very aware of what the red lines are and what the points of potential contention are,” says Aynne Kokas, author of “Hollywood Made in China.” “For people who have been paying attention, this is not something that happened suddenly. It’s the next step in a long, iterative process.”
Aynne Kokas Variety
China’s decision to hand control of the film industry over to its Central Publicity Department in 2018 seemed to confirm that President Xi Jinping is deeply invested in controlling the narrative of his country’s films. Aynne Kokas, the author of “Hollywood: Made in China” and a senior faculty fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Affairs, said placing the film industry under the supervision of what is essentially a propaganda department is a means of maximizing “the number of ways that the Chinese government can share their narrative both domestically and internationally.”
Aynne Kokas PBS NewsHour
“I think the key point to take away is when Hollywood studios try to create for the Chinese market, they tend to be unsuccessful,” said Aynne Kokas, author of “Hollywood Made in China.” ″They thought ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ would do well in the Chinese market and it didn’t. Some of it is because of a lack of nuance in a lot of the fare.”
Aynne Kokas Associated Press
According to Aynne Kokas, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, who has studied the Chinese media market extensively and published a book, Hollywood Made in China, about the subject, Bohemian Rhapsody “was censored under the guise of [upholding] general social norms,” though she also notes that nearly all sexual content is eliminated from films screened in China. The censorship of Bohemian Rhapsody caused what Kokas described as a “huge uproar” in China, angering some moviegoers.
Aynne Kokas Vice
The risk of a backlash also has implications for Hollywood, a partner for China’s booming film industry, according to Aynne Kokas, a professor at the University of Virginia who has written extensively on the China-Hollywood relationship. “Hollywood studios, long seeking to court Chinese audiences, now encounter a landscape in which the stars they have recruited to entice viewers also bring Chinese political conflicts to the fore,” Kokas said.
Aynne Kokas South China Morning Post