US lawmakers quiz Disney CEO over Xinjiang connection to 'Mulan' Disney's $200 million live-action remake has run into controversy for being partly filmed in the Xinjiang region In the credits, the company acknowledged several Chinese government bodies. As the Biden administration ramps up, sign up for our essential weekly policy newsletter, The international controversy over Disney’s Mulan, explained, 7 winners and 4 losers from the deeply eccentric 2021 Oscars. "But that's generated a lot of issues for us.". The villain in the new Disney film leads a group of assassins clearly coded as Muslims, said Darren Byler, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies the Chinese government’s oppression of Uighurs. Uniqlo’s site at the time also boasted its clothes were “Made from Xinjiang Cotton, famous for its superb quality.”, Activists publicly shamed both companies. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices Copyright S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates. Harold Li, a 29-year-old software engineer in Shanghai, said he watched the film on Friday and came away feeling disappointed. There’s been a lot of controversy over Disney’s new film, Mulan – a live-action remake of its 1998 cartoon which was based on Chinese folklore. guest host, Katy Perry consoles 'Idol' contestant after he flubs lyric, Aaron Rodgers' Green Bay Packers question stumps 'Jeopardy!' Movies, should be more than money.”. Thrift shopping is popular online, but some are worried about the effects of overconsumption. "Tenet," a Hollywood spy thriller, raked in about 51.4 million yuan ($7.5 million) on its. They add to the Chinese government’s other abuses, such as banning expressions of Islamic faith. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/business/media/disney-mulan-china.html "It's adopting a mythology near and dear to China, and then taking an iconic American company like Disney to try and Hollywood-ize it," he said. All rights reserved. That bureau is tasked with running some of the internment camps, experts say, and was blacklisted last year along with other Chinese law enforcement agencies by the US Commerce Department, prohibiting US companies from selling or supplying products to them. The film “traffics in Islamophobia,” Byler argues, and presents Mulan, the protagonist, as “a defender of the Chinese colonization of northwest China.” He added: “It was as if Xinjiang was simply a blank canvas, a land without an indigenous history.”. ", "So in our credits, that was recognized, both China as well as locations in New Zealand. The movie was mired in controversy even before its release. As Vox’s Terry Nguyen reported, “In March, the nonpartisan think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute published a report detailing how 82 foreign and Chinese companies have direct or indirect ties to the Xinjiang region and beyond based on their supply chain.” Among those companies: Amazon, Apple, Dell, Nike, Nintendo, Uniqlo, Victoria’s Secret, and Zara. Millions turn to Vox to understand what’s happening in the news. People walk past a poster for "Mulan" outside a cinema in Beijing on Thursday. “There is no so-called reeducation camp in Xinjiang,” foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said when asked about the Mulan controversy on Tuesday. Still, #BoycottMulan has shown that the Chinese government’s human rights violations will no longer be ignored — and even companies as powerful as Disney may need to change how they engage with China going forward. The remarks — given by Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy at a Bank of America conference on Thursday — come after days of online criticism directed toward. Some viewers who paid to stream the movie on Disney+ last weekend found something troubling in the credits: Disney thanked eight government bodies in Xinjiang, a western province in China where around 2 million Uighur Muslims have been forced into concentration camps by the Chinese government. The quiet drama makes a lot of sense for this strange Oscars year. ", The debate isn't deterring some people from checking out the movie. The Supreme Court will hear a major Second Amendment case that could gut US gun laws. On Douban, China's most popular film rating website, "Mulan" is only rated 4.7 out of 10 — lower than other Disney live-action titles such as "Cinderella" and "Maleficent.". Mulan specifically thank the publicity department of CPC Xinjiang uyghur autonomous region committee in the credits. Critics demanded that Disney clarify its dealings with authorities in Xinjiang, while some social media users called for people to boycott the movie. Many leaders in the ruling Communist Party, like President Xi Jinping, are Han. All rights reserved. But any one of those options, from the smallest to the nuclear one, are hard for any corporation to take, mainly because China is such a large and lucrative market. Hong Kong (CNN Business)A top Disney executive has acknowledged that the uproar over its movie "Mulan" has caused "issues" for the company. A few in particular raised red flags: The Xinjiang government's publicity department and the Public Security and Tourism bureaus for Turpan, a city of about 633,400 people just outside Xinjiang's capital Urumqi. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. For several years now, China has been systematically repressing its Uighur Muslim minority in that region — subjecting men, women, and children to torture, sexual abuse, forced sterilization, family separation, and brainwashing, among other horrors. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. The Mulan Controversy, Explained. Disney criticized for filming ‘Mulan’ in China’s Xinjiang. The international controversy over Disney’s Mulan ... - Vox Some major companies now find themselves enveloped in a firestorm, Millward said, whenever it becomes clear that they haven’t pushed back on Beijing for its mistreatment of the Uighurs. That kind of event provides a big boost to a nation’s image — just like the 2008 games in China’s capital did. "Mulan was primarily shot in, almost the entirety, in New Zealand. It’s reeled in upward of $6 million so far and will likely make much more when it premieres in China on Friday. Last year, the Japanese clothing companies Muji and Uniqlo promoted their use of Xinjiang cotton. Plus, the film had courted controversy for some time, as its lead actress last year supported Hong Kong’s law enforcement over pro-democracy protesters, which led to the #BoycottMulan social media movement. A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry this week insisted the camps are simply “vocational skills education and training centers,” even though ample evidence suggests that isn’t true. It embodies it. It’s unclear if Disney and Turpan’s police bureau or other similar agencies interacted much or at all during filming, but it’s still not a good look. 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