From the Golden Lion to the Golden Globe to the Academy Award nomination, Chinese director Zhao Ting and her film “Land of the Unwanted” have won many awards and had an encounter with the Chinese film censorship system.
What would Zhao Ting say on a gorgeous podium if she had the chance to win an Academy Award? Anti-Asian activists in the United States may be expecting her, the suffering Uighurs in Xinjiang may be expecting her, but it will be the Chinese propaganda machine and the patriotic pinkos who will be most eagerly awaiting her.
The film tells the story of the underclass people in the United States, who, after the economic crisis, have been displaced by the hardships of living, while holding on to their dignity and pursuing freedom. With the help of the magnificent scenery of the American West, Zhao Ting has produced a melodious and melodious troubadour poem. Its story and aesthetic interest are very American and have nothing to do with China, except for the identity of the director himself. But, in the eyes of the Chinese propaganda machine and pinkies, the Chinese identity is enough. Therefore, when the news of the award reached the country, the first question many people were concerned about was: Black China or Black America?
This question is not as ridiculous as it seems. Many Chinese award-winning films, such as “Red Sorghum,” which Zhang Yimou took Home the Golden Bear from Berlin in 1988, have made many Chinese proud and many resentful – those who believe it shows China’s poverty and backwardness and appeals to Westerners’ Orientalist aesthetic sensibilities. This is the post-colonial critical theory of cultural people. In the patriotic popular discourse, it “focuses on the dark side of society” and “publicizes the Family scandal”.
When it comes to criticizing Fang Fang’s Diary, it has evolved into “black China”, “passing knives”, and even International Students shouting foul language “NMSL” in the streets abroad. “.
Strictly speaking, “Land of the Unwanted” has neither blackened China nor the United States. However, in Chinese patriotic Education, this is something that cannot happen. An overseas Chinese who has achieved great success cannot be used as the “pride of China”, but is considered an “American story” that has nothing to do with China, which is itself a black China. How can we tolerate a Chinese director living a “nomadic Life” in the “Land of the Uninhabited” (the Chinese translation of the film), especially when Sino-American relations are becoming increasingly tense, diplomats are exchanging words in Alaska, and netizens are feverishly boycotting Western clothing brands that criticize forced labor in Xinjiang on the Internet within the walls? “Is that not a case of “Zhao’s daughter not knowing her country’s hatred, but still making literary films across the ocean”?
The motherland has a “little heart”
Zhao Ting is fast becoming a source of pride for the Chinese. The most typical Chinese praise came from her stepmother, Song Dandan, who is also a well-known Chinese actress. She praised Zhao Ting on social media, saying, “You are a legend in our family for achieving such recognition and setting such a record while competing on someone else’s home turf. I believe your story will inspire countless Chinese children as well”. As a result, American independent film director Zhao Ting has become a model for Chinese parenting success and has taken patriotic education to the next level: Chinese people can not only “tell the Chinese story,” but also tell the American story.
However, things didn’t go well. Whereas the old “Reference News” led propaganda focused on how overseas Chinese say good things about the motherland, now Pinky is concerned with who is saying bad things about the motherland – and once they are found, they will be punished from afar. A quote from Zhao Ting in a 2013 interview with Filmmaker magazine was sought out: “It starts when I was a kid in China, where there were lies all over the place.” Thus, the “Pride of China” became the “China-hater”. Soon, the internet was abuzz with rumors that “Land of the Unwanted” was pulled from mainland China. At the same Time, the Chinese poster of “Land of the Unwanted” was removed from Douban. If you post its poster and schedule on Weibo, the picture will be deleted.
The story doesn’t end there. Since about last week, “Land of the Unwanted” and Zhao Ting have quietly returned to the Chinese network. Propaganda and reviews of the film have resurfaced, and posts defending Zhao Ting and “clearing up misunderstandings” have begun to appear. People noticed that Hu Xijin, a famous official mouthpiece and editor-in-chief of “Around the Clock”, came out with a commentary, arguing that “sooner or later you have to pay back for what you have done, Zhao Ting said that, and now this is the storm and price she should bear”, while saying that “China remains open, which means it has to be able to accommodate some conflicts and inconsistencies”, and that Zhao Ting “has to be able to be a part of the world. On the other hand, she said that “China remains open, which means that it has to be able to accommodate some conflicts and inconsistencies” and that Zhao Ting “does not belong to the category of extremists who turn such values into political positions and highlight them abroad”.
The reason for this turn of events is not yet known. Some people say that the “Zhao content” of Zhao Ting’s status as a second-generation official and a second-generation rich person played a role. But I think Hollywood’s appeasement of Chinese film censorship and Chinese propaganda’s desire to not let the “cooked duck fly again” are two important factors. Had she won the award, her “lying” motherland would have absolved her of her sins if only Zhao Ting had said one word on the podium that could have been used by patriotic propaganda.
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