This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. When you watch a big budget film, you may not be thinking about how China

influenced the story, the characters, and the product placements, but after this interview,

you'll probably be on the lookout for those things. When China started allowing in American films,

opening up a huge market and big profits for Hollywood. In return,

Hollywood had to make sure the films that wanted shown in China wouldn't offend the Chinese government.

China exerted its power to reward and punish American studios, leading to Chinese censorship of American films and

American studios self-sensoring. How that's reshaped the American film industry and its big budget movies is the subject of the new book Red Carpet,

Hollywood, China, and the global battle for cultural supremacy. My guest is the author, Eric Schwarzel. He reports on the film industry for the Wall Street Journal.

Eric Schwarzel, welcome to Fresh Air. How did you start noticing the Chinese influence on American films when you started to be the Wall Street Journal's reporter on the Hollywood industry?

It started in small ways. I joined the journal in 2013 and I would have this morning routine of checking the trade publications.

And there would be these notices, you know, Chinese actress Fan Bing Bing cast in a new X-Men movie or this Chinese industrialist was financing a slate of films at Paramount.

And it was these dribs and drabs. And I think there was a sense throughout Hollywood that this was China's turn at what they call dumb money, which is the trend of either business people from certain countries or just wealthy individuals.

Coming to Hollywood with stars in their eyes and wanting to finance movie making. And at first it seemed like this might be China's turn to lose its shirt in Hollywood.

But then it became pretty clear that there was actually also a political motivation here. And that China's government had broader ambitions than just merely the financial.

And it seemed like there was a broader story to tell that it would explain why Chinese actresses were showing up in these Hollywood movies or why these scripts were being written for these unexpected detours to Shanghai.

So just give us a sense of what you think China's political motivation is.

I think since the start as China has broadened its ambitions on the world stage and trying to become a bigger and bigger player in global politics, it has seen how culture can play a huge role in helping that effort.

So I think China has seen how for the past 100 years Hollywood films helped sell America to the world. And it knows that if it wants to expand its reach, whether it's in parts of Asia or Africa or even within China, that culture, whether it's in the form of movies or TV shows or music, can be a compliment to that effort.

I think what they're looking to do now is something of a soft power sequel to what Hollywood did for America in the 20th century.

So Chinese influence is especially noticeable in action films, franchise films, blockbusters of all sorts. That's where the big money is.

I want you to give us a tour of a recent or fairly recent movie in which you see a lot of Chinese influence because I know you've been seeing a lot of movies looking for that influence.

That's right. I wear my X-ray goggles when I go to the movies now and I can see the Chinese cell phone, even if it's blurred in the frame.

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