In China, most Chinese composers are simply paid a flat fee for the composition and receive little or no royalties. After he finished "Return of the Black Buddha," An was paid for the composition and he also received royalties. After paying taxes and agency fees on the royalties, he still received much more than his fee.

According to Wang, the film soundtrack industry in China today is similar to the situation in the United States a few decades ago. Most people don't pay much attention to the score and there are few elite composers.

"When John Williams started, you think about ?Star Wars.' All of a sudden it made music very prominent in the field of movies," Wang said. "Before, it was always there, you had wonderful composers like Alfred Newman and Alex North, but nobody really took notice of them until a John Williams came."

Immediately there was a big difference and people paid attention to the soundtracks. "You need a John Williams," says Wang.