Over in the West and across most of the world, Shang-Chi has been on a tear turning some healthy profits for Disney, and that’s without relying on a Chinese box office that now looks further away than ever as the country edges closer to a definitive ban on the Simi Liu movie.
With Marvel Studios growing success in the Chinese market, it was believed that because Shang-Chi is the first mainline Asian superhero his introduction would draw even more moviegoers than usual. However, navigating the waters of Chinese censorship is not easy, and the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China found enough issues with both Shang-Chi's content and its cast members for the country to not give the green light for a premiere.
Now, according to a recent report from Variety, Chinese authorities are getting ready to ax Shang-Chi for good due to comments made by the film’s star Liu, going back as far as 2017. The Canadian actor was born in China, where he lived until he was 5, but he has talked about the kind of stories his parents told him growing up about the great Chinese famine, for example. So naturally, the Communist Party is enraged that Liu recalls his family telling him “They lived in the third world. They thought of Canada as this pipe dream.”
This goes on top of concerns over Shang-Chi's controversial and offensive source material, although many Chinese viewers who have seen the movie have mostly failed to see how it disrespects Chinese culture. Instead, most are noticing the complete opposite because of how well it captures certain aspects of the culture. The controversy surrounding Liu has reached such a level in China that a recent video from GQ, where the actor describes his essential must-have items, drew tons of flak due to the his love for bubble tea made by Vitasoy, a Hong Kong company recently subject to Chinese boycotts.
The way Chinese censors and certain parts of China’s internet communities seem to be attacking Shang-Chi appears to be focusing on the actors themselves rather than the movie or its stereotypical origins. Even superstar Tony Leung somewhat falls into this due to his past support for Hong Kong protestors and the fact that the Mandarin, like most of Shang-Chi's cast, is not a native Mandarin speaker.
Only actor Meng'er Zhang, who plays Shang-Chi's sister Xu Xialing, is a native Mandarin speaker, and though some Chinese viewers have said the accents are noticeable, a lot of native speakers have also praised the quantity and quality of Mandarin dialogue in Shang-Chi. Considering Eternals is also likely to be banned in China due to harsh comments made by director Chloe Zhao on Chinese politics, despite his best efforts Kevin Feige might just have to take the loss on Shang-Chi, China, and the hundreds of millions that could have been.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now playing in U.S. theaters.
Source: Variety