The Beijing-born female director Zhao Ting rewrote Oscar history, she directed the ‘Land of the Unwanted’ won the Oscar for best film, best director and best actress, but the French newspaper Le Monde commented that the award ceremony also made a point of saying in Chinese what her father taught her: “The beginning of man, the beginning of goodness”. The six words “nature is good” have a great impact on her life, as a subtle and distant tribute to the traditional culture of her homeland, there is no echo of silence.
When she won the Golden Globe, approaching the Oscar moment, the Chinese media celebrated with great fanfare, the official media had described her as “the pride of the Chinese”, good, this sentence is 100% right. As her fame grew, some netizens dug up a quote she made in a 2013 interview with Western media about her artistic experience: “I grew up in China, a country full of lies. I was given information as a child that I later found out was false and made me rebellious.” The glass heart was instantly shattered. Yesterday was hailed as “the light of China”, the official media hate to erase the name.
The French newspaper Le Figaro wrote that Zhao Ting’s brilliant triumph was in fact a tribute to the universality of ancient Chinese culture. The communist regime under Xi Jinping has spared no effort to promote Chinese civilization and advocate the revival of the Chinese nation, and Zhao Ting’s glorious achievements are so feared by the official media that even social networks block all related comments. While Xinhua News Agency, China’s CCTV, and all the official media intentionally ignore it like a gamble, the world’s media are reporting Zhao Ting’s historic victory.
The news of Zhao Ting’s award finally leaked out on Weibo, but soon the hashtag “Zhao Ting wins Oscar for Best Director” was blocked again, and the video of Zhao Ting’s speech at the award ceremony could not be broadcast. Of course, there is another reason why the official media and Weibo are so heavily guarded: a documentary on Hong Kong’s anti-China campaign, ‘No Cut’, was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Film. For the first time in fifty-two years, Hong Kong has dropped live coverage of the Oscars for commercial reasons.
Most residents of the world’s most populous country therefore don’t know who Zhao Ting is, but it’s impossible to block all netizens, and one netizen left a message on Weibo: “Blocking Zhao Ting won’t hurt her in the slightest, the blockers insult themselves”. Some other netizens think this is too lacking in self-confidence and appear to be inferior. Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the official media ‘Global Times’, who is known to often lead the rhythm, sent a rare blog post congratulating Zhao Ting, saying that “criticizing Zhao Ting’s inappropriate comments and congratulating her on the award are not contradictory”, but it was also deleted by Weibo.
Hu Xijin’s commentary in March this year was ranked by Baidu, China’s largest search engine, in which he said: “Sooner or later, you have to pay back for what you’ve done, Zhao Ting said that, and now these are the storms and costs she should bear. The U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong first issued a “congratulations” on its official microblog and sent out a link to the news, and netizens sent out a lot of comments below, with some saying, “China has proven with practical actions that what Zhao Ting said is true.”
French newspaper Le Monde commented that “Zhao Ting’s 2021 Oscar success has embarrassed China.” The article says it is paradoxical that the Western media are one after another congratulating the Chinese filmmaker on her huge success, while the Chinese official media are deliberately ignoring it and social media seem to be trying to downplay it. The newspaper’s analysis of why Zhao Ting went from a huge hit to a sudden snub was based on the same statement that was made a few years ago that lies are everywhere in China. A planned theatrical screening in China at the end of April was also cancelled. One netizen aggressively demanded that Zhao Ting apologize for what she had said, “or don’t expect your movie to be shown.
But it was a different story in the circle of friends, with one saying, “A Chinese-born director was banned from her home country for saying something ‘insulting’ in an interview, demanding an apology; and she made a film in the U.S. that reflected the dark side of American ‘ insulting’ handing knives movie in the US and won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Picture”. Someone else commented: “A Chinese person directed an insulting film, won an Oscar in the U.S., and was banned by China! Help me up, I’m a little dizzy!”
‘Land of the Unwanted’ is a story depicting a middle-aged American woman who loses everything and drives around after suffering the subprime mortgage crisis. Zhao Ting empathized with the film’s protagonist’s encounter. When she received the award, she quoted the “Three Character Classic” she read with her father when she was young, which begins with the phrase “At the beginning of man, nature is good. She always keeps faith in the goodness of people.
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