Douban has wiped the 2021 Oscars from its website altogether. This confirms that this year’s Oscars have become a politically sensitive issue in the world’s largest film market.
Douban is an influential social networking platform for the current Yuxiang. In addition to providing a vibrant community, users can tag and review books, music and movies on the platform.
There was very detailed information about the Oscars, including a list of winners and nominees from the first Academy Awards in 1929 to the present.
In April, however, Douban removed the page about the 93rd Academy Awards.
Each film on Douban had a separate home page, and the home page contained details about the film’s nominations and awards. But none of the films nominated for an Oscar this year had information about their Oscar nominations on their homepage.
For example, the home page of new Chinese-American director Ting Chiu’s “Land of the Unwanted” lists all the awards and nominations she has received this year, from the Internet Critics Association Awards to the latest Golden Globes, except for the deletion of all information about the four Oscar nominations.
However, not all information about this year’s Oscars has been removed. Oscar-related discussion groups and forum posts are still in place, and so far none of them have faced mass deletion.
“Why did all of this year’s Oscar nominees disappear from Douban? ? ?” one user queried on the message board in confusion.
Another user replied frankly below, “Because a short documentary about Hong Kong was nominated.”
After the Chinese government last month ordered the media not to broadcast live coverage of the Oscars and downplayed the awards ceremony, Douban then wiped out content about the 2021 Academy Awards.
Soon after, Hong Kong’s largest television network, TVB, also said it would also drop coverage of the 2021 Academy Awards, even though it has televised the awards every year since 1969.
Beijing has long valued the Academy Awards, having previously touted the Chinese-born director’s win as a victory on a national level.
This year could actually be another turning point for Chinese cinema.
Cover of the film “Fly Me to the Moon
Chinese born director Zhao Ting will be a favorite at this year’s Oscars, along with two other Chinese co-productions – the animated film “Fly Me to the Moon” and the drama “The Young Ones” – which will compete for Best Animated Feature Film and Best International Feature Film, respectively.
The cover of the film “The Boy’s You
But since the nominees were announced, internal Chinese state political issues have plagued the celebration of these nominations.
First, Chinese netizens have accused Zhao Ting of making vilifying remarks about China to a U.S. magazine nearly a decade ago (the remarks have since been removed), which could prevent “Land of the Uninhabited” from a successful release in China in late April.
Chinese netizens also accused “Teenage You” director Zeng Guoqiang of a now-deleted photo from years ago. The photo depicted his support for the 2014 political campaign, which angered Beijing.
The cover of the short film “Do NotSplit
Most offensive to the Chinese public, however, is the Oscar nomination of Norwegian director Anders Hammer’s 35-minute film “Do Not Split” for this year’s Best Documentary Short. The Chinese government would never allow such a film to be shown or discussed in the country.
So far, there is no indication that all other Chinese media sites and platforms will follow Douban’s lead and remove all information about the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021.
The Cat’s Eye movie ticketing platform, for example, still has information about the April 25 Oscars, except for the omission of the entry for Hammer’s short film from the list of nominees.
Hammer (the director of “No Cut”) told variety that the more Chinese media rush to remove coverage related to his short film, the more it proves for him the significance of his film.
Recent Comments