Hollywood and China and the 2020 remake film Mulan
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Source 1; Barnes, b., and Qin, A., 2020. Disney Wanted To Make A Splash In China With ‘Mulan.’ It Stumbled Instead. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/business/media/disney-mulan-china.html> [Accessed 29 November 2020].
The live-action Disney film Mulan was expected to do so well in china after the animated film. This expectation was crashed down as that was not the case due to scenes taken in Xinjiang which no one had warned them that it was a bad idea. The author suggests that China is the most important market for Hollywood. The article also brings to light how Disney is using millions of dollars into the money-losing Hong Kong Disneyland in the hopes of creating an attraction for families. Disney worked hard to ensure that Mulan would interest the Chinese audiences. They asked for advice from Chinese consultants and shared the script with Chinese officials to ensure that they did not disappoint their Chinese audiences. This film explains the dilemma that the Hollywood company faces when balancing their core principles with access to the Chinese market. Researchers say that by making Mulan with an all-Asian cast and a female director, Disney shows support for black lives matter and the #MeToo movement. The author points out that the local government was supportive and understanding with Disney filming in Xinjiang.
Source 2; Homewood, C., 2018. ‘Directed by Hollywood, edited by China’?: Chinese soft power, geo-imaginaries, and neo-Orientalism (s) in recent US blockbusters. In Popular Geopolitics (pp. 174-196). Routledge.
The strict regulations kept by the Chinese government of entertainment imports was opened in 2012 and gave other countries access to their film market. In this article, Homewood points out that this resulted in a deal with the United States, which involved importing 34 films each year in exchange for a temporary suspension of further U.S. Hollywood depends on China’s film market for revenue. Still, getting films into china is difficult because of the strict regulations of film imports set by the Chinese government. These regulations limit Hollywood filmmaking as they must remove scenes that may be considered an insult to the Chinese government. Hollywood faces enormous consequences when it fails to follow these regulations. The author suggests that Hollywood has started to censor itself by predicting what the Chinese regulators will object to and correcting them before completing production. This will reduce Chinese censors’ ability to apply China’s standards to American cinemas, and they will not be able to control the way American movies are written, shot, and marketed. The author suggests that Hollywood will target Chinese audiences as it becomes more dependent on revenue from the Chinese box office.
Source 3; Kokas, A., 2017. Hollywood made in China. Univ of California Press.
Kokas, in the article Hollywood made in china, explores the various issues that Hollywood studios face when making films in China. They are also coming up with large media ventures together. The author suggests that collaboration between Hollywood and China’s goal is to boost investment in the Chinese cultural industries to increase the PRC’s international influence. Kokas points out that by doing this, Hollywood branding effort is advanced, and also it enhances the expansion of china’s industrial. The main aim of Hollywood studios is to take advantage of the blooming china’s film market, which is estimated to overtake the United States. The Chinese government has kept regulations on importing films and investing in media for Hollywood to access the Chinese market. Also, Hollywood media has built brands in the PRC due to joint film production and infrastructure investment. The writer points out that Hollywood is building its products in China due to the brand-building investments shifting the balance of global media capital. The author suggests that china and Hollywood are working together to create global products guided by Chinese regulations.
Source 4; Kokas, A., 2019. Producing global China: The Great Wall and Hollywood’s cultivation of the PRC’s global vision. Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 13(3), pp.215-227.
The author explains how the Chinese market’s role has made it possible for Hollywood studios to do well in china’s films. The author suggests that Hollywood studios are trying hard to expand their market share in China through joint productions with Chinese media and investing in Chinese infrastructure. These ventures largely contribute to decreasing China’s cultural trade shortage and reduce the lack of influence on global commercial culture. The projects work as an effort to boost investment in China’s cultural industries and increase the cultural influence of the PRC. The author points out that Chinese companies are establishing American offices and investing in Hollywood projects. By doing this, the Chinese cinemas will be able to be recognized and gain influence even outside China; they will become visible to global audiences. The author argues that Chinese funding in Hollywood is making a large contribution to making the Chinese perspectives of Hollywood visible. China is playing a large role in retaining Hollywood’s position as the global commercial entertainment industry’s financial and creative center.
Source 5; Qin, A., 2020. Imagined as A Blockbuster in China, ‘Mulan’ Fizzles. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/world/asia/mulan-china-debut.html> [Accessed 29 November 2020].
The live-action Mulan Disney movie has been mocked as it is believed to be inaccurate and stereotyping. The author suggests that” Mulan’s filmmakers were trying so much to indulge china but did not try hard enough to show their historical facts rightly.” The famous Chinese actors were given English lines, which felt awkward in a Chinese setting. The author stresses out that the film directors misunderstood Mulan and made her a feminist and a hero in her character. This made the film not to do well compared to other films made in the same year as it made $23 in its opening. Mulan stresses out the challenges that Hollywood comes across when trying to make Chinese stories films. The article suggests that the movie is just a mixture of eastern elements and symbols in Westerners’ eyes.
A lot of perspectives were different than if it had been made from a normal Chinese perspective. The film portrays stereotypes as it portrays a heroine who battles dark-skinned villains who dress in black. Despite the film’s criticism, others believe that it holds strong feminist scenes and that the movie is meant to be a princess, comedy, and a little magical movie and not stereotypical.
Source 6; Song, X., 2018. Hollywood movies and China: Analysis of Hollywood globalization and relationship management in China’s cinema market. Global Media and China, 3(3), pp.177-194.
In the article above, Song talks about how Hollywood is taking the opportunity that the china market is developing through exporting market shared movies to china to earn extra revenue. In recent years, Hollywood movies have been seen to do well in the Chinese cinema market. Despite their great success that Hollywood movies have had in China’s cinema market, they also come across huge pressure. China has imposed restrictions such as short-time promotion notice, import quotas, and content censorship, which has limited the expansion of Hollywood in the growing market. In 2015 and 2016, the Hollywood movies market shares went down compared to 2014. The author suggests that Hollywood films have been seen as examples of globalization. The author stresses that Hollywood studios have had a favorable economic environment to market their movies on a wide-range scale due to globalization. It allows Hollywood to establish a highly systematic procedure for movie production, distribution, and exhibition in domestic and global markets. Relationship management has become the Hollywood studio’s first concern in China concerning globalization. Hollywood studios develop transnational films to be able to participate in wide-ranges cultural markets by reducing cultural complexity. The author suggests that for Hollywood movies to have a profitable market share in China, they should ensure they have maintained a good relationship with China media.
Source 7; Su, W., 2010. To Be or Not To Be?—China’s Cultural Policy and Counterhegemony Strategy Toward Global Hollywood from 1994 to 2000. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 3(1), pp.38-58.
The article above reviews china’s cultural policy and the strategies taken to stop global Hollywood. Hollywood films help capture a global audience and help form a dominant culture. The author suggests that this has threatened other cultures’ existence and the creation of other ways of life. The author points out that although Hollywood movies have been desiring China’s huge market, China itself opened doors for them. The Chinese government can keep Hollywood’s imports under control and minimize the Hollywood influence due to its huge administrative power and strict censorship. The Chinese government limits Hollywood’s hopes for making a fortune in China. Su stresses out that the Chinese government stance and policy determine the fate of Hollywood movies in China. The Hollywood movies cultural and ideological implications were underplayed by the state also the decision to import Hollywood movies was made largely out of economic considerations.
Source 8; Su, W., 2011. Resisting cultural imperialism, or welcoming cultural globalization? China’s extensive debate on Hollywood cinema from 1994 to 2007. Asian Journal of Communication, 21(2), pp.186-201.
Su explores the social processes that create a culture and how communication occurs has been changed due to globalization. The dominion of the American culture is due to wide-range capitalism and cultural products like Hollywood films, which has helped capture a wide range of audiences and form a dominant culture. During the early period, Hollywood was used to representing the advanced cultural direction and symbolized modernity. Su brings to light that Hollywood movies were used by china’s filmmakers as a school where they were first trained, which also contributed to china’s urban life. The article explains that Hollywood contributed to deconstructing and reconstructing traditional Chinese culture. The author stresses out that different china communities interpret Hollywood films as a disruption of the Chinese culture. The author points out that open-minded people believe in a Hollywood culture that promotes the national culture and national cinema. In the article, Su suggests that the successful spread of Hollywood culture worldwide lies in the common ground that this culture shares with other nations. The author also said that culture could transform and exchange only through its argument.
Source 9; Ye, T., 2003. Hollywood and the Chinese other. CINEACTION-TORONTO-, pp.10-20.
The author talks of how Hollywood films have been treated as a form of cultural invention in the post-colonial error. The author stresses that the presence of many opinions about Hollywood films is evidence of contemporary Chinese’s clashing attitudes towards the culture of the Americans. Ye suggests that Hollywood treated china as a way to attract its domestic audiences rather than treating them as a competition to the potential market. He says that the Chinese filmmakers had little training where they observed Hollywood products and learned a lot from the Americans. The Chinese filmmakers borrowed practical skills from Hollywood, such as analytical editing and black-lighting. The author gives various reasons given by Chinese officials that cause the discrimination of Hollywood films in China in the last century. Hollywood films are believed to hinder Chinese film development, promoting the concept of western culture, and it is money-oriented. The author argues that Hollywood films enable the Chinese people to learn about western civilization and its unique aspects and the art and technique used by Hollywood films to set examples for Chinese filmmakers. The author concludes that Chinese films will do well even if American films are imported into the country.
Source 10; Yi, D., 2020. Why Chinese Viewers Hate Disney’S ‘Mulan’ – Supchina. [online] SupChina. Available at: <https://supchina.com/2020/09/11/why-chinese-viewers-hate-disneys-mulan/> [Accessed 29 November 2020].
In this article, Yi gives reasons why most Chinese viewers hated the Disney film Mulan. The film is criticized for shooting most of the scenes in Xinjiang. The author suggests that the various scenes were taken in China, such as the royal background set, do not give the Chinese audience a home feeling. The Chinese culture is not well represented in that the film sets out the American value that one can overcome anything in the world all by oneself without needing any help from others. The article argues that the film uses the Chinese culture as a medium to channel American values. The author suggests that the film presents a modern understanding of the Chinese culture without considering that the Chinese people had abandoned these values. The film looks Chinese enough to fool the western audience. The deception of the Chinese cultural authenticity made it difficult for the Chinese audience to relate to. The author says that a YouTuber suggested that Mulan’s opening scene with the two rabbits is an iconic and powerful line of the poem Ballad of Mulan, which was turned into something cheap and commercial. The author points out that Hollywood prepared an all-star Asian cast, which was not the first time.