WP3 RD

In 2016, the concept “Confidence in Culture” was officially announced as an important government principle. In 2019, this concept was further emphasized and refined. Under these relevant policies, Chinese people became very sensitive about their cultural identities. The voice is raised to object serotypes and biases receives more attention than ever. As an American movie based on Chinese culture, Shang Chi And The Legend Of The 10 Rings was highly anticipated. However, after the movie became available, it’s received a lot of negative feedback from Chinese perspective. In respond to that, some media claimed that the rejection of this movie shows a hostile attitude (from Chinese government/citizens) towards a narration regarding their culture from another perspective. However, I believe that Shang Chi did not succeed in China because the characters in figures presented were not recognized as a precise depiction of Chinese figure, but more like stereotypes.

(Context and thesis in my country)

With current Internet technology, globalization has occurred not only economically but also culturally. Following the trend of globalization, American film industries are attempting to become more inclusive by including characters from other ethnic groups or making a movie based on another culture group. In 2018 Hollywood made the film Black Panther to incorporate black culture in the Avengers universe. This movie was a great hit all over the world which grossed over $1.3 billion. No targeting at the Chinese market, Marvel producers wanted to replicate the success of black panther by Making a film about Asian(Chinese) character also from the marvel comics.

(Context: social background when the film was made, esp. why marvel chose to make this film)

Shang-Chi Achieves their goal in United States. Just like all the other movies in the marvel cosmetic universe, The fighting scenes were well-made and fits the plot. The fighting scene on the bus Reveals the fact that this valet driver is actually a trained assassin from China. According to Jame Luxford, “ Director Destin Daniel Cretton has put together an adventure that balances fun with world building. a spectacular bus fight grabs you early on, with Liu leaping from slacker to superhero effortlessly” The scene shocked his best friend Katy in the movie, as well as the audience at the cinema. In order to explain this twist in the plot the producer used flashbacks to explain the underlying story. As a result of these coherent depiction, this figures became vivid and the plot became reasonable.

(why successful in US; might be better to change this to a more cultural perspective? about heroism and cultural stereotypes [E.g. western obsession in magic, kongfu, and chi])

Even though the story was successful in making a coherent plot, it was still unwelcome in China even if marvel gave the official Mandarin version.The most problematic scene within the whole movie was within the first two minutes where the narrator explains the background story of WENWU. The movie started off with the flag of the 10 rings, then it shifts to the army beneath the flag and finally our main antagonist WENWU. To show his power, the war scene afterwards shows that he himself with the Power of the rain he is able to a bunch of people that where is the traditional clothes of Arabians whose ethnicity is white. Then the story moves to describe the establishment of the 10 rings gang. “Over the centuries, they spread into every corner of the world. They moved in the shadows, toppled government, and change the course of history” this is the sentence that offended almost every Chinese person that watch this movie. Some may say that as an antagonist, it is normal for him to be doing evil things all over the world. However according to Yunting, we would not be offended if you depict a Chinese figure who is cruel and merciless like murders. But you could never describe a Chinese organization is trying to “topple governments”. Before the current Chinese government was established, China was called allies and manipulated in World War II by The eight nation alliance. China was forced to pay money for their casualties while we were the ones who were invaded and harmed. The land at the northeast of China was taken away. That was the most shameful history that every Chinese citizen remembers. Saying that Chinese would topple governments Is as ridiculous as saying that Jews would invent biochemical weapons and plot a Holocaust against other ethnic groups for over 1000 years and were still not satisfied with their results.

(Will cut down a few unnecessary details, theme about this focused on the phrased “toppled government”)

Some people may say that Marvel has done a lot to remove these biases. The scene where Mandarin (WENWU in the movie) tortures his son SHANGCHI and SHANGCHI found another father in the US was deleted. The hostility between SHANGCHI and his father was weakened. The figure of WENWU is also altered, his’s motive to release the monster was not to rule over the world but to save his wife. However, even if we take the case as the best scenario where producers do not intend to present a biased figure, this movie could not represent Chinese culture. It failed to represent Chinese culture in multiple details.

(Concession, a lot of plot was changed to make the story less biased)

It is very important for people to remember their past and always have family in mind. In the scene of the final war against the monster, WENWU was killed to protect SHANGCHI, there was a scene were SHANGCHI and XIALING was looking at his body before they start the final attack. And that was the last time we see his body. In China, it is very important to give the goners a proper burial. That means they were remembered, and they will be better off in their afterlife. The scene in the movie where people put lanterns in the river is not the proper ritual. Simply putting lamps were the ritual for a certain day called “中元节” which the day the gone souls come back . Even if the producers intended to not follow the common burial but go for water burial. There should be scenes that described the soldiers’ bodies were cleaned and was put into the rivers.

(Expand on this, theme: this film Loaded with shallow Chinese (and other Asian cultures), put elements of ninja etc. Question: how to connect different detail points? Mixed elements from other cultures without explaining, missing traditions etc.)

To conclude, the movie Shang-chi was not widely accepted by China because it offended Chinese people by using negatively stereotypical figures but also missed out some extremely important rituals.

(Conclude: shallow cultural elements)