China Gives a Thumbs Down to Shang-Chi
As I predicted, they hate it on general principle.
For those not in the know, The Global Times (.cn) is China’s international online daily tabloid. It is published under the auspices of the People’s Daily which is, shall we say, sensitive to the desires of the Communist Party.
This is not to say that it doesn’t have a certain degree of journalistic freedom, (at this point arguably a lot more than is in the US media). At least you know the monster you are dealing with in the Social Credit system. No American has any idea who the SJW hive-mind will choose to devour from one minute to the next.
Regardless, when it comes to popculture, The Global Times has a reasonably free hand to report the opinions of the average Han in the streets.
Here was the GT’s reaction to the Shang Chi trailer.
“On China’s popular video platform Bilibili, typical comments included “As I said when Marvel announced the casting — who they pick already said: Hollywood will never change its stereotype of Asians, slanted eyes.”
‘After seeing a hodgepodge of Japanese ninja, US skyscrapers, gangs and Chinese ancient swordsmen, my brain turned to mush,’ a net user said jokingly.
Shi Wenxue, a Beijing-based film critic, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the movie could be sold to some for its “oriental elements” and the presence of Tony Leung, who plays the role of Shang-Chi’s father, but whether it can be a success depends on the story itself and how it is told.
Some Chinese netizens compared Shang-Chi to Mulan, another Disney movie that had ambitions to conquer the Chinese market but eventually failed in both box office and reputation.
Disney messed up the well-known Chinese story in live-action film Mulan, while its poor artistic level and misrepresentation of Chinese culture led to its failure. Shi believed if the Shang-Chi movie could tell a good superhero story, it could still succeed among certain groups of moviegoers.”
Translation, yeah, it’s gonna suck.
Disney, being overrun by virtue-signaling Baizou, cannot understand the fact that the Chinese don’t want to see American versions of Chinese movies. They’ve got plenty of their own and Americans never get it right. For them, it’s like watching Turkish Star Trek.
Even with the best will in the world, Americans are going to do it wrong. And trust me on this point, Disney does not have the best will in the world.
The problem Marvel has is that with the success of Guardians of the Galaxy (which in truth was about as well-known when it launched as Shang-Chi is now), they think they can sell anything to anybody. Except there is no Chris Pratt in Shang-Chi and James Gunn is off doing other things (which I would rather not think about).
I am certain that the virture signalers that run Disney will be totally shocked that they couldn’t sell their Bruce Lee meets Fu Manchu movie in China.
Okay, I’m done here.
