On this episode of China Uncensored,
I'll make a man out of you
Hello and welcome to China Uncensored,
I'm your host, Chris Chappell.
Earlier this month,
Disney announced a 2018 release date
for a live-action remake of their animated classic Mulan.
That’s, of course, based on the ancient legend
of an ordinary girl who disguises herself as a man
in order to take her father's place in the army,
with the help of a cricket,
a sarcastic horse,
and a pocket-sized Eddie Murphy.
Mulan is just one of the many new live action remakes
Disney is planning,
including Beauty and the Beast,
Aladdin,
the Lion King,
and even a live action Dumbo directed by Tim Burton.
Wow.
Who greenlit that idea?
What's next?
Quentin Tarantino's live-action Bambi remake?
Anyway,
the live-action Mulan got a little controversial this week,
when the blog Angry Asian Man published an open letter
from someone who had read the original spec script
that Disney bought,
called the Legend of Mulan.
The spec script centers around a 30-something European trader
who falls in love with Mulan.
In fact,
more than half of the script is about the European trader,
who ends up saving China.
So this caused a little bit of controversy
from people who expected the movie Mulan
to be actually about Mulan.
To be fair,
I hear they’re casting a white guy as the lead in Lion King.
It sounds a little unbelievable,
but Hollywood has gotten in trouble recently
for whitewashing characters in movies like Doctor Strange,
The Last Airbender,
Ghost in the Shell,
and I could go on,
but the rest of this episode would just be me listing movies.
But after that news broke,
sources close to the Disney movie confirmed
that the script was being rewritten,
and that the love interest was definitely Asian.
No word on whether Mushu will still be Eddie Murphy.
For more on this,
we go to China Uncensored's resident Chinese woman,
Shelley Zhang.
Shelley, what do you think of the Mulan controversy?
Well Chris,
it sounds like the original script wasn’t so much
the Legend of Mulan,
as it was the Legend of Greg,
the Selfish European Trader Who Falls in Love With Mulan
and Changes for the Better,
Thereby Saving China.
But I guess that wouldn't fit well on a movie poster.
Matt?
Where's Shelley?
I'm here, Chris.
Then why am I talking to Matt about this?
Well, according to viewer data,
more than half of China Uncensored's US audience
is white males, like me.
So we thought it would be more relatable
if Matt talked about this issue.
But we don't want to hear from Matt.
We want to hear from you.
Oh.
Well, that's all you had to say.
Thanks, Matt,
you're done here.
Awww, man.
So Shelley,
what do you think of the new Mulan script?
I prefer to think that maybe the screenwriters
got confused and thought that they were writing
the remake of Pocahontas.
Pocahontas?
Right, or Avatar.
Or The Last Samurai.
Or Dances with Wolves.
Or--
Ok, I take your point.
We've seen this story before.
What about the Great Wall?
I'm actually not really upset about the Great Wall,
since casting Matt Damon was more of a cynical move
by the Chinese studio to appeal to Western audiences.
Also, there are monsters attacking the Great Wall,
so I don't think they were going for historical accuracy.
And look,
I'm not saying that Disney's live action Mulan
has to be totally faithful to the original legend.
Stories change.
The original ballad of Mulan was written in the 6th century.
And it’s been adapted in various poems,
plays and novels for hundreds of years.
But this latest Legend of Mulan script
was something else.
It's even less faithful than the 1998 animated film
the Secret of Mulan,
in which Mulan is literally a caterpillar.
A caterpillar!
But guess what?
Caterpillar Mulan still gets to save the day.
So every time that people come out to say something
about whitewashing or diversity in the media,
there are people who say that this doesn't matter.
Are we making too big a deal out of this?
It matters, Chris.
Stories are important.
They influence how we see the world around us.
And you know who really understands this?
The Chinese Communist Party.
I did not see that coming.
The Chinese Communist Party is fantastic at using stories
to reshape how people think about their own culture.
Here's a recent example.
The Washington Post published this story
about an opera that is performed each night in the capital of Tibet.
It's a love story between Chinese Princess Wencheng
and Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo.
Princess Wencheng brings civilization to Tibet,
and the noble king,
who dreams of freeing the poor,
builds the Potala Palace as a tribute of his love to her.
That sounds so sweet.
Yeah, but there’s one problem:
It's not true.
Although historically there may have been
a real Princess Wencheng,
it's a little unclear.
But this version of her story was commissioned back in 1959
by Communist Party leader Zhou Enlai
to justify the Party's "liberation" of Tibet.
China, as the kind, older brother who teaches Tibet
how to be civilized.
Princess Wencheng is even credited
with bringing Buddhism to Tibet.
Which is not true?
So they created a legend to explain
why Tibetans should be grateful for the Communist Party.
Well not so much created as co-opted.
And it's not just about erasing Tibetan culture.
Thousands of Han Chinese tourists watch this opera every night,
and feel good about themselves for "saving" Tibet,
and don't understand why Tibetans don't like the benevolent rule
of the Chinese Communist Party.
Wow, that's pretty messed up.
That's only one example.
The Communist Party has done this with Chinese culture too.
One famous example is how they took the legend
of a white-haired goddess
and turned it into an opera about a girl whose hair turns white
after she's victimized by an evil landlord,
and—spoiler alert—
is saved by communism.
Oh, and there's a song called "Dear Chairman Mao."
There's also the movie Hero,
which basically shows that it's ok for the leader of China
to kill tons of people
as long as it's to keep China unified.
Yes.
That.
To be clear, I'm not saying that Disney is at all doing
what the Communist Party is doing.
But they need to be aware of what their stories are saying
about Chinese culture.
So what do you think they'll do about the live action Mulan?Well, I hope that they're
listening to what people are saying
about the kind of Mulan movie they want to see.
As a Chinese American,
I hope to see a story where we get to be our own heroes.
And I think Disney might just be able to do that.
Otherwise, dishonor on Disney.
And dishonor on their cow.
Thanks, Shelley.
What do you think about Disney’s changes to Mulan?
Is it a big deal over nothing?
Or would China Uncensored be better off hosted by…
Me!
Leave your comments below.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time!