Raymond Zhou is a Beijing-based bilingual writer. He is known mostly as a film, theater, and cultural critic. On top of being the author of nineteen books, he also makes hundreds of media and other public appearances every year, such as serving as a juror for festivals and awards.
Zhou’s stature as a film critic and film industry expert is acknowledged by regulators, academia, grassroots and the mainstream press in China. His Chinese-language book Hollywood Revealed is the first study in China of the mechanisms of America’s movie industry that influenced both industry insiders and the general reading public. His three-volume film guide covers 5,500 movies from all over the world, cementing his reputation among China’s cinephiles.
Some of his English-language writing is collected in X-Ray: Examining the China Enigma, a collection of his best op-ed columns from 2005 to 2008; and China the Beautiful, a collection of his investigative reports, profiles, and travelogues. In 2013, he came out with A Practical Guide to Chinese Cinema 2002-2012, the first English-language book on China’s film industry of the new century.
Zhou’s column for “Movie View,” the country’s highest circulated film magazine, is the longest-running film column in the whole country and has gathered a large following. The Los Angeles Times calls him “China’s most famous film critic” and “Beijing’s answer to Roger Ebert.”
In 1998, he produced and directed the Broadway musical The Sound of Music in Beijing. He still dabbles in theatrical art, but consults mostly for film organizations.
In his capacity as a senior writer for China Daily, Zhou is mainly positioned as a specialist of cross-cultural interpretations. He writes the X-Ray column for China Daily. Zhou is a graduate from the MBA program of the University of California at Berkeley.
