The Atlantic: Chloé Zhao, the director of Nomadland, is new Hollywood royalty. In April, she made history as the first woman of color to win Best Director at the Oscars. In November, her big-budget Marvel movie, Eternals, will arrive in theaters. She commands so much admiration from the industry right now that she gets away with showing up to the red carpet of a film premiere in jeans.
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China’s hold on entertainment is really interesting due to the American demographic that wants nothing to do with China or the CCP at all. Li explains how the film industry is deeply dependent on the Chinese market because it is one of the only constants within their consumer base, especially with COVID and the streaming wars in the US. Me and another DP were talking about art for the sake of art and why commercial theatre is bittersweet for us and I think that this is a great example of that. Often, art is made to combat censorship and uplift unheard voices. While this is the case, artists need to eat. When censorship becomes the norm in an industry, artists are forced to choose between being authentic and financial stability. This can create a bland, single narrative that every story must follow in order to be marketable, which is really sad. I don’t see this changing unless China sees a major political shift, but it makes me happy that I want to work in live theatre.
This was a much more nuanced look at the relationship between Hollywood and China than I've seen before. So often the Chinese film market is talked about as either a side note, which isn't accurate at this point, or as a guaranteed market, which, as the article discussed, isn't really true either. Articles like this do make you wonder how much longer this issue can really stay out of popular discourse. The approach for several years now from Hollywood has been to basically just ignore the politics and not talk about the issue, since publicity on the issue is a lose lose for producers. It's really interesting when you look at the difference between, say, Cold War era movies and how the USSR was portrayed, and movies now as China has supplanted Russia as the United States' most powerful and significant geopolitical adversary. There were hundreds and hundreds of movies with Soviet boogeymen, and, granted, the US and China aren't actively pointing nukes at each other, but relations aren't exactly smooth either. You wouldn't know it from watching movies though, the risk of angering Beijing is much too expensive.
Well, that certainly dredged up a memory. I remember the John Cena thing happening a while back. Thought it was funny. A little pissed that he would renege on calling Taiwan a country but found it understandable. Moved on. I've been plugged into a fair amount of East Asian entertainment all my life; I know how damn sensitive China can be. A couple years back, Tzuyu, a Taiwanese singer in the Kpop group Twice, got immense flack for having a Taiwanese flag on camera during some Chinese press event. She was accused of profiting off a Chinese audience while holding a pro-independence stance, was banned from Chinese television with company endorsements pulled, and was forced to apologize. She was sixteen at the time. China's hold on Hollywood is understandable, even if it feels pathetic for the States to pander so hard, but this whole thing just leaves a terrible, bitter taste in my mouth.
I think that in the next upcoming months and years, there might be a big change in non-Chinese films released in China. Recently, China has begun to crackdown on the amount of hours that children spend on video games, as well as discussing with large video game companies that they need to stop seeking profits as well as remove certain images of men in their games as well. There is also rumor that new games are not being greenlit. With that in mind, it is fair to make the assumption that China may move onto film next, and especially if their film market has started to kick off, then the need for western films may lessen or simply no longer be allowed in the country. We have already seen how films have to apologize for so-called actor indiscretions, but we could see a change in the future about whether they will be allowed at all, or even stricter regulations on the media that is shown.
(Sorry for the double post - my name got erased somehow...)
I think that in the next upcoming months and years, there might be a big change in non-Chinese films released in China. Recently, China has begun to crackdown on the amount of hours that children spend on video games, as well as discussing with large video game companies that they need to stop seeking profits as well as remove certain images of men in their games as well. There is also rumor that new games are not being greenlit. With that in mind, it is fair to make the assumption that China may move onto film next, and especially if their film market has started to kick off, then the need for western films may lessen or simply no longer be allowed in the country. We have already seen how films have to apologize for so-called actor indiscretions, but we could see a change in the future about whether they will be allowed at all, or even stricter regulations on the media that is shown.
It really threw me for a loop finding out that China has the largest box office market in the world. While it does make sense given their size and content bans that they would want their own large industry my America centered education failed to make me really think about the possibility of a film industry bigger than Hollywood. While its certainly disappointing to see the pandering to Chinese censorship that Hollywood continues to do it does make sense given the scale of potential profits there. The very low limit on foreign films in China did surprise me though. I was under the impression that the limitations were based more on content than simply quantity. Having only 34 a year feels like they are keeping it strictly to the best and least controversial of the year. Not to mention this limitation includes movies of all countries not just those released in Hollywood.
Look, for a lot of industries, I understand that China's market is lucrative. I just don't get excusing that kind of nationalist behavior, especially from a country that has dominated and colonized countless other countries. By all means, make money, but morally speaking, is it the right thing to do? To uphold this idea of Chinese nationalism and then not at all realize the repercussions you're imposing on people who have had to deal with that kind of imposition of their communism is harmful. To gatekeep what can or cannot be said about your country or how John Cena had to apologize for even saying Taiwan was a country in it of itself is damaging to multiple other Asian countries, kind of creates an us versus them dynamic and we're just supposed to sit back and take it? So movie makers can make money and they don't even have to think about the message that it sends? It's understandable, but not excusable, if that makes any sense.
I had known a little about the situation with Hollywood and the Chinese market in the past, but this article was really eye-opening. The fact that there are only so many spots for American films to make it in the country, causing Hollywood not just to self-censor but to compete to be the most appealing to Chinese censors, makes moviemaking an arms race to meet China's expectations as much as possible. The best example of this I can think of is Disney's LGBTQ representation. It seems like they're constantly having "their first open gay character" in a Pixar movie or live action remake, and then after watching the movie it turns out their queerness was remarked upon in a single throwaway line that could easily be translated differently or edited out. This self-censorship has a very real impact on the representation we see on screen in big budget movies, and it's a shame that Hollywood is chasing profits in a foreign country rather than making movies that represent the diversity of its home country.
I had known a little about the situation with Hollywood and the Chinese market in the past, but this article was really eye-opening. The fact that there are only so many spots for American films to make it in the country, causing Hollywood not just to self-censor but to compete to be the most appealing to Chinese censors, makes moviemaking an arms race to meet China's expectations as much as possible. The best example of this I can think of is Disney's LGBTQ representation. It seems like they're constantly having "their first open gay character" in a Pixar movie or live action remake, and then after watching the movie it turns out their queerness was remarked upon in a single throwaway line that could easily be translated differently or edited out. This self-censorship has a very real impact on the representation we see on screen in big budget movies, and it's a shame that Hollywood is chasing profits in a foreign country rather than making movies that represent the diversity of its home country.
(Sorry, still having some technical difficulties with Blogger, working it out)
I found it interesting that they said China’s box office can be the difference between success and failure for a studio. That out of all the other countries, including our own, Hollywood relies so much on profit from that country. I guess I never really knew how much of an impact China’s economy had on film. I’m wondering though, considering all of the recent bans and crackdowns happening in China, is trying to appeal to their standards really that sustainable? Especially since they’ve been banning pretty arbitrary things such as ‘effeminate men’ or ‘Animal Crossing’ or late night gaming. Adhering to Beijing also likely means that there are deeper issues and representation that we won’t get to see onscreen because it’ll upset them. It seems like most studios don’t think the risk is worth the loss of profits.
I did however appreciate that this article wasn’t blatantly sinophobic because it seems like most articles nowadays that cover topics regarding China devolve into pretty shallow racism.
I find it pretty interesting how Hollywood studious are bending to meet the censorship policies of China. However, especially with Marvel movies, this Chinese boogeyman is often presented as a scapegoat for why movies aren’t as inclusive or progressive when they could be. When Wandavision started streaming, a lot of people on the internet thought a devil character would show up, and when he didn’t those people blamed Chinese censorship for messing with the story. I think this is a harmless example of letting China take the fall for an edit. It’s probably not true. People just got very excited about speculations over the show. A less harmless example would be the representation of LGBT characters in Disney movies throughout their franchises. They are often limited in scope and easy to edit out if a market didn’t want a LGBT character in their version of the movie. Whether Disney is doing this because of China or because they did think that’s all gay people deserve, at the end of the day blaming China is just letting Hollywood get away with their actions.
I’m not at all surprised by the article to learn about China’s censorship. Ever since I remember, I’ve always noticed that you will never find a non-Chinese movie in the cinema during big Chinese holidays (especially Chinese New Year and Chinese National Day), or any other days with significant political meaning to China. But it has gotten a lot more serious in the past 2-3 years. After the movie Wolf Warrior II came out in 2017 and became a huge hit in China, a lot of people began to pay attention to Chinese produced films. From my memory, it was almost twisted - people didn’t just like the movie; they were practically praising and worshipping it. It was to the point where if you criticize the movie (especially its plot) on social media, then people will attack with comments. And in the past 2-3 months of my comment, the Chinese government has begun to interfere with celebrities and the whole entertainment industry. They are strongly enforcing the rules of how people appear on the screen: no tattoos are allowed to be shown, no extreme hair colours, and males should not look too girly (though there’s no strict guideline for this, celebrities are now very careful with wearing makeup/accessories). What the Chinese are calling this phase is “the washing of the entertainment industry”. I can only imagine there will be more regulations and rules than ever before. I wonder if we'll ever have foreign actors/celebrities coming for press tours again.
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