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BEIJING: Disney’s remake of Mulan faces fresh boycott calls after it emerged that some of the blockbuster scenes were filmed in China’s Xinjiang, where widespread rights abuses against the region’s Muslim population have been widely documented .
The lavish $ 200 million movie about a legendary Chinese warrior was already embroiled in political controversy after star Liu Yifei voiced support for Hong Kong police as they cracked down on protests last year.
But the latest furor erupted as soon as the credits stopped rolling after the movie began showing on the Disney + channel last week.
Viewers saw that Disney included a “special thank you” to eight government entities in Xinjiang, including the public security bureau in Turpan, a city in eastern Xinjiang where multiple internment camps have been documented.
Another grateful entity was the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department in Xinjiang.
The revelation has sparked renewed anger at a time of heightened scrutiny over Hollywood’s willingness to bow to authoritarian China.
Human rights groups, academics, and journalists have denounced a harsh crackdown on Uyghur and Kazakh Muslims in Xinjiang, including mass internments, forced sterilizations, forced labor, as well as heavy religious and movement restrictions.
A billboard for Disney’s Mulan movie is seen outside a shopping mall in Bangkok. (Photo: AFP / Lillian Suwanrumpha)
Isaac Stone Fish, a fellow of the Asia Society, said the film was now “possibly Disney’s most troubled film” since Song Of The South, a 1946 glorification of prewar plantation life that the company has withdrawn. since then.
“It is surprising enough that it bears repeating,” he wrote in a Washington Post column.
“Disney has thanked four propaganda departments and a public security office in Xinjiang, a region in northwest China that is the site of one of the world’s worst human rights abuses today.”
Badiucao, a dissident Chinese artist living in Melbourne, said he was currently working on a new cartoon portraying Mulan as a guard in one of the internment camps in Xinjiang to satirize the new Disney movie.
“It is very troublesome and there is no excuse. I mean, it is clear, we have all the evidence that shows what is happening in Xinjiang,” he told AFP.
VICTIM OF CORONAVIRUS
Baduicao accused Disney of “double standards”, embracing Western social justice movements like MeToo and Black Lives Matter, while turning a blind eye to rights abuses in China.
The live-action remake of Disney’s 1998 animated classic Mulan has had a troubled release.
It was destined to hit world theaters in March, but became one of the first victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
Actress Yifei Liu, who plays Mulan in the film’s lead role, has been criticized for expressing her support for Hong Kong police in confronting protesters. (Photo: AFP / Frederic J Brown)
Instead, Disney shook up the industry, and its own cast, by announcing that the film would air in living rooms in many markets, including the United States, which began on Friday.
Hollywood has been increasingly accused of hypocrisy over its relationship with authoritarian China.
In August, the anti-censorship group Pen America released a report saying that screenwriters, producers and directors often change scripts, remove scenes and alter content to avoid offending Chinese censors.
The actions include everything from removing the Taiwanese flag from Tom Cruise’s bomber jacket in the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick, to removing China as the source of a zombie virus in World War Z 2013.
But it also means completely avoiding sensitive issues like Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong politics, Xinjiang and the portrayal of LGBTQ characters, according to the report.
AFP reached out to Disney for comment, but has yet to receive a response about the Labor Day holiday.
Xinjiang is a resource-rich region that is home to mostly Turkish-speaking Uighur Muslims and boasts spectacular desert and mountainous landscapes.
After sectarian unrest and attacks by Uighur militants, Beijing covered the region with a draconian security crackdown, building dozens of huge internment camps.
China initially denied the camps existed before describing them as voluntary re-education centers.
Even before the latest Xinjiang controversy, the #BoycottMulan hashtag has been trending in recent weeks in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Taiwan.
American actor Tzi Ma plays Mulan’s heroic father in the film. (Photo: AFP / Frederic J Brown)
Activists in all three locations have launched multiple online campaigns critical of China’s authoritarianism.
Nicknamed the Milk Tea Alliance, named after a shared love of the drink, they took advantage of comments on social media made last year by actress Liu who supported the Hong Kong police.
They have also noted the resemblance of actor Tzi Ma, who plays Mulan’s heroic father, to China’s leader Xi Jinping.
After her arrest last month under Beijing’s new security law, young Hong Kong dissident Agnes Chow was dubbed “the real Mulan” by her supporters.
