Captain America, Capitalization, China
I first heard Captain America when I was still in middle school. Through my uncle’s iPad, I saw this figure: a brave captain fighting the secret army of Nazis and sacrificing himself to save humanity. The power and will of captain America greatly inspired my childhood. Many kids around me were also deeply influenced. I can still recall many of my friends having costumes like Captain America and watching the comics about Captain America in a foreign language called English. My fondness for Captain America persisted until the end of my high school. Many things happened at that time. China had a trade war with America. As my study in the cold war progressed, the United States as the savior of the world gradually faded into my mind. I watched an old movie in China during that time. It was about the story that happened to a company in the Sino-Vietnamese War. The collective spirit at that time inspired me: why films like that are no longer popular among filmmakers and audiences? Some would say that this is because the times are changing, and those old themes are out of date. New heroes that represent globalization, like Captain America, should be the icon. I argue that figures like captain America are so popular in China due to China’s reintegration into the world market.
Readers might argue that China’s entrance into the world market is a vague term. In this passage, I will define China’s reintegration into the world market as a period from the 1980s till now when the old Chinese planned economy transferred into a government-controlled market economy with a great percentage of the world economy. During this period, many cultural norms and living standards have changed, forcing the retirement of “old heroes.” People might be confused in what the old heroes in China look like. The old heroes of China is usually common people that took part in the war or construction of the country, expressing concern for their class or communities, and use cooperation as the main tool in solving the problem. Since the old heroes are from the communist era of China, they would often express the superiority of socialist ideals, calling for others to join them. These figures resemble the film figures in the era of the early Soviet Union. What interests me is the antagonists in the story. The antagonists are figures that stop the goal of the main character in the story. In Captain America, they are the evil transformed super mutant Nazi officer and the evil technology of the Soviet Union. In the old Chinese films, they were usually the bourgeois. The bourgeois in the old Chinese films also has an iconic form: landlords.
So how could China’s entrance into the world market cause such a drastic change? We can investigate this from the cultural values in the movies. In the old Chinese movie, the value is more of a collectivist value. I would give further examples for this from the movie I mentioned about the Sino-Vietnamese War — Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain. This movie was a “classic one” my grandparents often talk about. In this movie, you can’t really tell who the protagonist is until near the end. The first figure people often thought of as the protagonist died to protect his comrade. People may ask, how could the protagonist prove the value of this movie? It is this overall depiction of the comrade relationship that vague the boundaries between the main character and its sidekicks. The movie mostly focuses on the brave spirit of the company, giving the audience the feeling that cooperation makes us strong. However, in the Captain America, the protagonist is clear. Instead of using the common people, captain America is a gene-modified warrior. A more individualistic value of one against the world was expressed in the movie. I would further explain this using an example from the first Captain America movie. In the final part, the evil Nazi plane is going to destroy humanity. In the old Chinese movie, you would expect a battalion of normal soldiers going into the plane, using cooperation to solve the problem. This kind of“cooperation” does not exist in Captain America. What happens in the movie is: the captain America takes care of the villain all by himself and sacrifices himself to destroy the plane. The market transformation was a huge thing in China at the time. Before that, people work in state-owned companies and do not need to worry about switching jobs. Since the jobs don’t change very often, people would be working with a relatively stable staff, creating a collective environment. However, as the market transformation began, lots of state-owned properties were being privatized. More fluidity was introduced into the job market as many new firms began to emerge and old corporations became bankrupt. China’s entrance into WTO in 2001 added further acceleration in this process. In this new environment, workers become more fluid and individualized. What’s important is that the workers were also the consumers. To cope with such a culture, movies and figures like captain America became more popular.
People also may ask: why the figure has to be superheroes like captain America that possessed a heavy influence from the United States? It is obvious that the figure captain America is deeply related to the culture and strength of the United States. The background of captain America, the villains that have relations with Nazi Germany and the USSR, all proves this connection. The popularity of Captain America is indeed related to China’s entrance into the world market. The popularity expressed the Chinese people’s will at that time to incorporate the global market order made by the United States and the culture and military might of the United States. After the marketization in China, the advanced technology and commodities caused great amount of Chinese people to admire the strength of America. In the 90s, people are proud of wearing Nike shoes and having a Western lifestyle. This kind of spirit continued, creating a great audience base for captain America.
