China Pt - 1: Why did John Cena apologize to China?
Taking a look at the long running romance between Hollywood and China
For people of my generation John Cena was a childhood sensation. I remember my friends trying to imitate his T-shirt opening trick. His catchphrase ”You can’t see me” is a part of popular culture even today. Yet recently, everybody had to see the hollywood sensation grovel for forgiveness. If you are not aware of what I am referring to, here’s a recent video published by John Cena himself apologising to China and the Chinese people for making a mistake. And that too in flawless Mandarin.
But why does this actor/cage-fighter, as popular and invincible as Cena, would need to go such lengths for a foreign country, and that too China? To understand his plight, we might have to take a closer look at what’s happening in China, the Land of Dragons.
China’s economic reforms over the past few decades have shifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. These people have now been added to the country's middle class, whose population had reached around 700 million back in 2018, and still keeps growing. That is almost 50% the entire population of China, and more than the total population of the US. The middle class is the primary spending force of any country. They have hopes and dreams of acquiring more than they already have, and, more importantly, has the purchasing power to do so. That makes China(also other countries like India) the next logical avenue for growth of large and small businesses across the world. Most big companies of the developed nations have attained immense success, but have now saturated in their respective geographies. They now want a piece of the growing pie in developing nations. We(developing nations) provide a brimming market of mid income individuals who want to spend money on novelty items, ranging from movies, to gadgets, to merchandise and apparel. China being at the top with the highest population and better literacy rate. Hollywood too has long before set their business trajectory in these directions.
In the 2014 movie, Transformers: Age of Extinction, a random guy helps Stanley Tucci beat the bad guys up in an elevator scene. This random guy happens to be a Chinese boxing champion- Zou Shimming. The film is also laden with excessive product placements specifically aimed at the Chinese audience, ranging from protein powders to jewellery brands to ATM machine companies. And even though the movie made very little sense according to most critics, it amassed around $500 million in foreign box office out of which $300 million was the revenue from China alone. This is just one such example that shows the amount of incentives involved in the Asian market. Thus it is obvious that production houses, and the movie industry as a whole would somewhat have special considerations for the country. But does it stop there?
Trying to appeal to the Chinese market to reap its benefits seems completely okay if we are just talking about a free market, and fair practices. But that is not the entire picture here. You see, China is not like any other happy-go-lucky developing nation. It has a dark past, and an even more sinister present. One has to realise that everything in the country is very tightly regulated. The country has opened up free trade to the world in the 90s, but the ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party, or the CCP, still rules the nation with an iron fist. Ever since the country has opened up to movies from the West, it has maintained a quota system in which only a fixed number of movies are selected for release in China. Currently the number has reached 34. The movies that do make it to the Chinese screens are approved by a CCP censorship board. I am sure you can guess what kind of movies are approved by the board.
The CCP has high approval for movies showing the Chinese in good, positive roles, where they are the good guys, and save the day. The Chinese cannot be portrayed as villains. Any content questioning, or diverging from the CCP lines of thought are not approved. Chinese controversies are taboo topics and may lead to outright rejection. Movie producers are powerless here, and they have to just knuckle under, if they want to reach the market.
This creates a crooked power dynamic, and Western movie industry is practically being bullied without China even having to shoot a bullet.
Therefore, when John Cena recently mentioned Taiwan as one of the first countries where Fast and Furious 9 (The Fast Saga), his latest movie, would be released, he had no other option but to do immediate damage control to avoid backlash from China. This is because the sovereignty status of Taiwan remains controversial, as China regards it a part of the mainland territory, while the island itself considers itself an independent country. Once you realise that F8’s (The Fate of the Furious, 2017) revenue from China was $392 million (home earnings in the US earning was $226 million), the entire video controversy starts to make total sense. After China, the next highest international collection was from Brazil which was $41.8 million. This doesn’t even come close to the red nation’s number.
A lot of other movies have also been part of this act. They either end up correcting themselves after facing the backlash from Chinese media, or instead preemptively self-censor so that they make it through the screening process. The Top Gun:Maverick sequel which is set to premiere this year, had released the trailer back in 2019. Fans were quick to notice that the jacket worn by Maverick(Tom Cruise) was not the same as it was in its 1989 precursor. The jacket in the original movie had patches displaying Japanese and Taiwanese flags. The sequel has it replaced with some other design to dodge any unwanted attention.
Another huge franchise that has been readily kowtowing to the communist party is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Captain America in the movie Captain America: Civil War, instead of an iPhone, uses a Vivo smartphone. In a different version of Iron Man 3, with a few extra scenes screened only in the People's Republic, Chinese surgeons save Tony Stark's life. Benedict Cumberbatch’s 2016 movie Dr. Strange had cast his mentor, the Ancient One, as a Celtic female. In the original 60’s comic the Ancient One is portrayed as a Tibetan monk. The movie producers stated that it was an effort to stop perpetuating Asian stereotypes. But it was very apparent that it was an attempt to prevent any national backlash, because Tibet finds itself in a similar controversy like Taiwan.
The newest addition in the franchise is a Chinese Marvel superhero Shang Chi, played by Chinese actor Simu Liu. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the first marvel movie with an Asian lead, and is expected to receive massive enthusiasm from the Chinese audience. Marvel is a part of Disney who is investing billions of dollars in China, trying to tap into their market. Apart from Disneyland Hong Kong, it jointly owns and runs the bigger Shanghai Disney Resort, a one of a kind Disney themed park and resort. It is in their best interests to play by the rules of the field.
Other examples include movies like 2012, where Oliver Platt praises China for building the arks that save humanity at last. In World War Z, the book, the zombie virus that infects the world originates in China. That was not the case in the movie version. Red Dawn spent almost one million US dollars on post processing to digitally alter any frame to remove any indication that showed the villains were Chinese. Even after going to such extents, most of films don’t even make it to the Chinese screens.
And we are ready to give the benefit of doubt to these production houses and investment companies. These are publicly traded companies, and it is their duty towards the shareholders, to keep generating profits, and driving the value of the shares in the share markets. Most investments come directly, or indirectly from the common citizens in the form of retirement savings, or asset investments. And so we understand why there is need to keep growing and generating profits, even at the face of such unfair bullying by a foreign government. But the question remains stark in the face of our societies: At what costs? Where do we draw the line between profits and ethics?
China is a notorious state. Notorious doesn’t even begin to describe the heniousness of their activities. Their policies is the 21st century embodiment of government oppression on its own people. Internet is heavily regulated, there is no freedom of speech, journalists, and human rights activists are imprisoned in the name of security, and all government institutions are today just mouth pieces of the CCP, spreading it’s core values of authority and propaganda. It is an literal dictatorship. And that’s not all. The CCP have been carrying out systemic discrimination, and targeted genocide of the Uyghur muslims of the country. The Uyghurs are subjected to public surveillance, they have been put into concentration camps where they live as prisoners, and work as forced cheap labour for its industries, their indegenous culture has been completely destroyed. Thousands of children have been separated from their families, mass indoctrination, sterilisation, and every form of human right violation takes place in these camps. This is just pure evil on the face of earth, existing right at this moment, today, in the 21st century of human civilisation. It is a shame on all of our existence that something like this is happenning. The Hollywood has been famous( or infamous) for its woke virtue signalling on all or most social issues, but has very conspicuously turned a blind eye to this side of their industry. Where countries need to be stepping up, and actively and heavily sanctioning the Chinese, the US movie industry is up for auditions to impress the communist party. Disney, in the credits of the movie Mulan, gives credit to some security agencies for assisting them to shoot in the areas in and around the Xinjiang district. These are the same security agencies that are carrying out genocidal camps in the Xinjiang district. Have we totally managed to kill our conscience in the race for profits? Hopefully not completely.
The world has been witnessing this charade for a long time, and now the general population is aware and concerned about these issues. There have been an active pushback, and calling out of such cowardly moves across all industries. Mulan had gained some online pushback due to the security agency debacle. Then the lead actress said that she supported Chinese police brutality over the HongKong protestors. This is when the controversy just snowballed to such an extent that Chinese media had to completely suppress any promotion of the movie Mulan in China. This long standing romance between Hollywood and China seems to be at test now. Chloe Zhao, has been nominated to Oscars for her movie Nomadland and stands as a strong contender in the Best Movie category. This is inspite the fact that Chinese media has expressed disapproval towards the director because of some old interview where she is borderline critical of the CCP regime in China. One of the documentaries, Do Not Split, nominated this year at for the Oscars is about the Hong Kong protests of 2019-20. As a result, China has called for boycott or downplay of Academy Awards ceremony. It is becoming increasingly difficult for movies and industries to support China without receiving unwanted negative attention. People are becoming more and more aware of the Chinese farce, and have strong emotions regarding the country. The Covid-19 pandemic and related controversies also add to this new wave of awareness.
I have been reading about China recently. It is really disturbing and horrifying to see what they are up to, and the kind of superpower it has emerged to be. I am adding my 2 cents with this post to make people aware of these discussions that do not take place in the mainstream. Blind hatred for a country is toxic jingoism. Instead what we can strive for, is to identify what constitutes evil governance. So that we are able stand up for freedom and democratic values in the face of any unjust climate. I strongly oppose all forms of authoritative regimes.
As a personal initiative I am trying to make a series of such posts of China. This is the least(and most) I can do to generate awareness about aspects of the country which affects us directly or indirectly.
Disclaimer: The article paints China in a bad light, but doesn’t intend to aim it at the Chinese people. The citizens are the same as any other country of world, trying to live their lives by honest and peaceful means. All of my criticism is directed at the ruling party who makes all the decisions for the citizens of the country. The CCP is an evil body of authoritative ideology and runs the country with a consortium of government agencies, media enterprises, and tech companies.
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In the credit pic you gave above, which ones are the security agencies involved in running concentration camps?