Mulan Credits May Spell Trouble For Disney
Last weekend saw a whole lot of good news coming out of Burbank. Now, The Walt Disney Company is hearing something else.
This time the news is coming out of Xinjiang, China.
Upsetting News About Mulan Out Of China
CNBC’s Sarah Whitten explained:
The film had already generated controversy after its lead actress, Liu Yifei, recently expressed support for police crackdowns in Hong Kong, spurring talks of boycotts on social media.
That sentiment only increased after it came to light that Disney filmed scenes for the “Mulan” movie in China’s Xinjiang province, where Beijing is accused of detaining more than 1 million Uighur Muslims.
After releasing “Mulan” on Disney+, eagle-eyed viewers noticed a “special thanks” in the film’s end credits that named eight government entities in Xinjiang, including the public security bureau in the city of Turpan, where the country is allegedly operating more than a dozen re-education camps.
Whitten cited the following tweet:
Mulan specifically thank the publicity department of CPC Xinjiang uyghur autonomous region committee in the credits.
You know, the place where the cultural genocide is happening.
They filmed extensively in Xinjiang, which the subtitles call “Northwest China”#BoycottMulan pic.twitter.com/mba3oMYDvV
— Jeannette Ng 吳志麗 (@jeannette_ng) September 7, 2020
GUT. PUNCH.
Whitten then added:
China has been under scrutiny for its treatment of Muslim minorities for years. It has been reported that Uighur Muslims have been detained in camps, subjected to political indoctrination and forced labor.
Then, I went to The Washington Post to get some more background.
China was the world’s No. 2 movie market last year, behind North America, and could take the top spot this year, depending on the speed of its economic recovery amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The political backlash over “Mulan” reflects a shift in the landscape for multinationals operating in China. Western consumers used to be indifferent enough to Chinese politics that Western executives did not have to factor it into their business plans — especially for something as seemingly anodyne as a children’s film reboot.
The trade war with the United States has contributed to this shift, as have China’s heavy-handed crackdowns in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, which have struck a nerve with Western consumers. In Xinjiang, a Chinese anti-extremism campaign over the past three years has swept an estimated 1 million Uighurs and other minorities into high-security detention compounds. Former detainees have alleged they were subject to torture.
Mulan: This Story Isn’t Over
That’s right, The Washington Post used the word “torture.”
Last week, speaking to John Boyega’s time on Star Wars, I wrote: “Nothing is sacrosanct.”
This won’t be the end of this one. Just look at after-hours trading for DIS:
Nope, it’s a story that should be on the mind of many a Disney fan. And it should be upsetting