How 'Mulan' Affects Chinese Human Rights
I’d be at least a little surprised if you said that you hadn’t heard of this year’s ‘Mulan’ remake. Disney’s focus of the last few years on remaking some of their animated classics has been the topic of much conversation, especially after their…less than successful attempt at a live-action version of ‘The Lion King’. People had concerns that ‘Mulan’, for many a childhood favorite, might suffer the same fate. Instead, it suffered one worse - indefinite delays from being featured in cinemas due to COVID-19, leading to its eventual digital release through Disney’s very own streaming platform.
If, somehow, you’re not familiar with The Ballad of Mulan, it’s the story of a woman who offends tradition and risks death to stand up against those who threaten her homeland, taking up arms in defense of her family and her people from invaders.
But we’re not here to talk about China in the 6th Century. We’re here to talk about China today.
Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in June 2019. Photo courtesy Studio Incendo.
Since March 2019, citizens of Hong Kong have protested the introduction of the controversial Fugitive Offenders amendment bill, and what they perceive as threats to Hong Kong’s privacy and autonomy by mainland Chinese government. Since the protests began, over nine thousand protesters have been beaten and arrested as they continue to call, to this very day, for investigations into police brutality and corruption, releases of those arrested for practicing their right to protest, and the resignation of the current Hong Kong Chief Executive, Carrie Lam.
In 2019, Liu Yifei, the actress who plays Mulan in the recently released remake, make a social media statement standing with Hong Kong police. The same police who are brutalizing and rounding up protesters outside of protocol, and who have received numerous complaints about arresting citizens without warrants or providing identification, and unnecessarily harming and endangering civilian lives.
In all fairness, someone playing a folk hero who literally risks shame and death to protect the Chinese Imperial Palace couldn’t reasonably be expected to say something other than this, no matter how dangerous it is to say. But, to put it another way, someone portraying a Chinese folk hero who directly represents the virtues of risking one’s life to protect their family and community from invasion and brutality told a bunch of her fellow citizens that they were wrong to do the same, and that the mainland government should continue brutalizing them for it.
As a result, many in Hong Kong (as well as Taiwan and Thailand) have called for a boycott of the film, which has been gaining traction long before there was even a firm idea of when or how the movie would be released. When asked to respond to the controversy, Liu Yifei said “I think it’s just a very sensitive situation.”
Yeah, no shit.
Hong Kong Police warn protesters of risk of force. Photo courtesy Studio Incendo.
There’s always more in the mortar than the pestle when it comes to Chinese politics. A lot of celebrities and international markets got wrapped up in the complicated politics of the Hong Kong Protests, from basketball heads to US video game developers. And, very often, the buck stops (literally) with companies trying to curry favor with the huge Chinese market. In the case of the Blitzchung controversy and Blizzard Entertainment, they were more willing to drop the ban hammer on everyone who was even present to witness a Chinese e-sports playing voice a pro-democracy perspective than lose Chinese investment. With the NBA, a tweet from Houston Rockets’ General Manger could’ve cost the league billions, prompting even the often socially-conscious Lebron James to condemn the statement. For context, here’s the statement;
Yep. That’s the tweet.
Depending on your perspective around boycotting as a political strategy, the call to boycott Mulan is something of a pivotal moment in how we view China’s international political influence. The fact that this call to boycott comes itself from China could mean a lot about whether companies like Disney take the risk of making their politics known. As the world grows more politically conscious, more and more people are making socially-conscious purchasing decisions. Huge companies seem to have tried their best to avoid making those decisions where China is concerned. but if they have the faith that people in China would support them in spite, or even because, of their positions on these issues, China’s ability to censor corporations all over the world is diminished.
Which brings us to the potential for this boycott to actually affect Disney’s and Mulan’s bottom line. It’s true that it’ll be difficult to measure how much of their earnings is affected by a boycott and not just by the global coronavirus pandemic. However, there’s still a chance that the Chinese government realizes the power of the activists in their country, and that international corporations come closer to discovering their position in responding to issues like these in the markets they operate within.
But it means something for us, those who are so distant from what happens in Hong Kong or anywhere other than our own countries that watching a movie couldn’t reasonably seem political at all. Those of us who think it’s just a movie, and that the Chinese government has little to do with us watching a remake of a movie we enjoyed when we were younger. Companies like Disney and countries like China are banking on those outside its borders feeling as though they don’t know enough or can do enough to hold them accountable in whatever ways we can. They trust that, because of the size and strength of their market, that corporations will bend to their will, and we’ll follow suit by consuming without criticism.
We can look to all of this and behave the way that these huge companies and human-rights-abusing countries desire us to. Or, we can be…a lot like Mulan, I guess - willing to leave our homes, accept the discomfort of stepping into the shoes of someone unlike ourselves to fight for justice and protect those who suffer.
Just…not like the Mulan of the remake. Maybe more like the woman that many are calling the ‘real Mulan’, Agnes Chow, pictured below.
