Zhao Ting, the first Asian female director to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Director in history, has been hailed by the mainland media and netizens as “the pride of China” and “the light of the Chinese”, but has been roundly criticized by some mainland netizens for two comments she made in a past interview.
As the first Asian female director to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Director in history, Zhao Ting was recently rounded up by mainland netizens for two comments she made during a past interview, and the award-winning film Nomadland, originally scheduled for release in China, was forced to cancel its schedule. When the film won the award, the mainland media praised Zhao Ting as “the pride of China” and “the light of the Chinese”, but because he had called himself “American” in an interview in the past, and also because he said that when he was young, China She was also accused of “insulting China” for saying that the China of her youth was “a place full of lies”.
Although the Internet is rapidly changing, the controversial topic of national identity should not spread now that the National People’s Congress is being held in Beijing, and officials may temporarily tighten censorship measures on the Internet in response, and will not make a formal statement until after the Congress.
Zhao Ting immigrated to the United States at a young age and is not well known on the mainland. Her father, Zhao Yuji, is the vice chairman and general manager of Beijing Iron and Steel Company, and her mother is a hospital employee. Zhao Ting’s Parents divorced when she was young and her father later married the divorced actress Song Dandan, a rebellious young woman who found it difficult to accept her stepmother, but Song took great pains to improve their relationship, and at the age of 15, Zhao Ting left for England to pursue her studies, struggling to make her way in a foreign country on her own. Because she is one of the very few Chinese-born female directors in the world to have made a name for herself, she is often compared to the famous Taiwanese director Ang Lee, and some media have even called her the “female Ang Lee”.
Zhao Ting (left) went abroad to study as a teenager and is not well known in China, while her stepmother, Song Dandan (right), is an extremely well-known actress on the mainland. (Photo: Weibo)
Zhao Ting was selected for the 68th Cannes Film Festival in 2014 for her first film, “The Song My Brother Taught Me to Sing,” and won the Cannes Film Festival Artistic Film Prize and several other awards in 2017 for her second directorial film, “Knight”. The third film is the award-winning Nomaland, which won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the 77th Venice Film Festival in 2020, making her the first Chinese woman to win a Golden Lion. This is the first Asian woman, the second Asian director (after Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain in 2006) and the second woman (after Barbara Streisand’s 1984 film) to win Best Director at the Golden Globes. Streisand’s “Yandere”).
Zhao Ting’s international artistic achievements drew global media coverage, with the mainland media quickly crowning her the “Pride of China” and the “Light of the Chinese”, and the Internet enthusiastically hailing her as “making Golden Globes history” and “inspiring”. The Internet also hailed her as “making Golden Globe history” and “inspiring”. As her stepmother, Song Dandan, is a well-known veteran actress, the mainland acting, a moment on the network buzzed, full of festive atmosphere.
Land of the Unsupported” (also translated as “Nomadic Life“) actress Frances McDormand (left) and director Zhao Ting (right). (Photo / Courtesy of outside the agency)
However, some netizens then dug up two quotes from her previous interviews, which quickly shifted the internet and media opinion in mainland China, and “Land of the Unwanted”, which was scheduled to be released in mainland China on April 23, was also withdrawn from the schedule, and some movies and theaters also pulled the preview of the award-winning movie from their websites. The earliest news broke in a NetEase article with the title “First Golden Globes Chinese Director Zhao Ting Suspected of Insulting China in Interview?” In a 2013 interview with Filmmaker magazine, Zhao Ting was quoted as describing mainland China as “a place full of lies” when she was young, and in another interview with an Australian media outlet in 2020, she described herself as an American, saying, “Now my country is America. Now my country is the United States”, although the Australian media published a correction notice, saying that the translation was wrong at that Time, but obviously did not play a role in clarification.
The Global Times, a strongly nationalist land-based media, published a March 1 article entitled “China’s Pride! Chinese netizens congratulate Zhao Ting on becoming the first Chinese director to win a Golden Globe”, and then the next day posted another article, “Chinese or Chinese American? Chinese netizens questioned the nationality of Golden Globes-winning director Zhao Ting,” and said that the widely circulated interview about Zhao Ting’s national identity had been removed from the Internet. Many online commentaries also noted that mainland officials have yet to comment on this issue, and online opinions are limited to netizens’ responses and discussions on the news, with some well-known micro-bloggers and important official media still observing official movements. While many netizens have threatened to boycott Zhao Ting’s film, the film’s distributor has not confirmed the film’s withdrawal, nor has it stated whether it will continue to be screened as scheduled.
Criticism on Sina Weibo has intensified, after all, in a climate of confrontation between the U.S. and China that has continued in recent years, with some demanding that Zhao Ting “give Chinese audiences an explanation” and even calling for a boycott of the award-winning film “Land of the Unwanted” scheduled for April and the new Marvel film “Eternals” for November. Eternals). But there are also many netizens who disagree with Zhao Ting’s practice of digging up old scores and rehashing black history, saying that “only when you can withstand criticism can you become a great nation”. The netizens said, “Are there any fewer Chinese people who have said what Zhao Ting said and who have thought the same thing in their minds? How about waving a knife and killing herself to show that it’s fair before calling for her to be sent to the gallows?”
Mainland netizens with strong nationalist sentiments continue to incite hatred, and for them “nationality” is very important: “If Zhao Ting is an American, why should China celebrate her success?” Some media outlets and official academic research units also entered the fray, asking “not to rush to hail Zhao Ting’s award” and “to see her true attitude toward China. After the incident expanded, the Internet censorship department finally took official action to block all searches and movie-related information related to the “Land of the Unwanted” movie, which seems to reveal the possible future movements of mainland officials. At least for the time being, Beijing is still holding the “two sessions” of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, during which no controversial topics can be allowed to spread, so as not to affect unity and stability.
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