Why are people boycotting Disney’s Mulan?
Culture
Image Source: Courtesy of Disney
Disney’s new live action film, Mulan released on Disney+ in March 2020.
Why is it becoming famous for the wrong reasons?
TL;DR:
It is accused of shooting in, and being supportive of, Xinjiang, a Chinese province that is orchestrating concentration camps for 50% of its population since the 1950s.
The lead actress was quoted as favoring anti-democracy law enforcement agencies.
Hints of Han Supremacy in the movie.
What is happening in Xinjiang?
The Chinese province of Xinjiang is 1.5 times the size of Pakistan. The Muslims here are called Uyghur (or Uighur) Muslims, and they comprise 50% of the population.
It is believed that 1 million* Uyghur Muslims have been forcibly detained in high-security prison camps in recent years. Initially, China denied the existence of such camps, but have now, under human rights activists’ pressure, termed them as “vocational education centres”.
*These numbers range from 1 to 3 million in different sources
The Muslims are not allowed to practice their religion (visit mosques, grow beards, fast in the month of Ramadan), are subjected to sexual abuse, brainwashing and forced sterilisation for the women.
Most of the Muslim communities (who waged a death sentence on Rushdie for satirising Islam’s foundation myths in his book) and Western nations have remained quiet over this issue due to largely political reasons.
The Lead Actress
In 2019, the lead actress, Liu Yifei commented the following: “I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now. What a shame for Hong Kong,” showing her support for Hong Kong’s law enforcement agencies, which were aggressively working against the pro-democracy protests. This led to the rise of #BoycottMulan even before the movie was released.
Han Supremacism
Han supremacism is the idea that all citizens of China should be governed by the ethnic Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China. In 2017, President Xi Jinping (who is Han) issued a directive that "religions in China must be Chinese in orientation" and "adapt themselves to socialist society".
Large firms like The Walt Disney Company have the power to bring attention to unfair practices and human rights violations. They can choose to use their resources to fight for these repressed communities.
Due to the strong political backing of China, film studios restrict themselves from portraying it in a bad light. If the governments, the press and the film industry are all repressed, who will raise these issues? Given the current situation perpetuated by the coronavirus, will this censorship ease?