The (Un)Making of ‘Mulan’
The TLDR: The $200 million live action reboot has run into a series of controversies—all of which relate to serious human rights issues. They raise big questions about Disney’s eagerness to appease the Chinese government—and point to Hollywood’s shameful history of kowtowing to Beijing’s line.
Remind me about ‘Mulan’...
- This is a live action remake of the beloved 1998 animated film—which was a big box office hit and was nominated for an Oscar.
- It is the first Disney movie with an all-Asian cast and the first to be rated PG-13 (for battle scenes)—and the most expensive of Disney’s live action remakes.
- The cast includes some of the most popular Chinese stars including Liu Yifei (as Mulan) and Gong Li.
- And it is directed by a woman—Kiwi director Niki Caro, who is best known for ‘Whale Rider’.
- The movie was released on September 4—available online on Disney+ for the hefty price of $30 for US audiences, and soon to hit theatres in China.
So the stakes are high for Disney.
What’s the controversy?
There are three serious problems with ‘Mulan’:
The movie’s big star: Back in 2019—at the height of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong—Liu Yifei shared a post on Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter) which read: "I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now. What a shame for Hong Kong.”
The problem: At the time, the Hong Kong police was caught using excessive force to crack down on the protests. That post has now resurfaced, and activists across Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan are organizing a boycott of the movie. Pressed on this issue earlier this year, Liu just repeated the one rehearsed line: “I think it's just a very sensitive situation."
The movie’s script: was written under the close supervision of the Chinese government—which explains the many changes from the original:
- In this version, Mulan joins the imperial army to defend a region referred to as “Northwest China” from Rouran invaders—nomads that came from what is now Mongolia.
- This is especially ironic since in the original legend, Mulan was a member of the proto-Mongolic Xianbei people.
- Point to note: Residents of Inner Mongolia are currently protesting a cultural clamp down aimed at making them more “Chinese.”
- The director took out a kissing scene because the “China office” said: “No, you can't, that doesn't feel right to the Chinese people.”
- Also deleted: dragon guide Mushu from the original 1998 film. The reason: "Mushu was very popular in the U.S., but the Chinese hated it… This kind of miniature dragon trivialized their culture."
- Last but not least, the script introduces a new villain named Bori Khan, a nomadic leader—for no reason whatsoever.
As one critic sums it up: “[T]his film frames those people who are currently having their culture being destroyed as the bad guys whilst lionising Han dominance and Chinese nationalism.”
But the movie’s most serious problem is its location.
What about its location?
Parts of the movie were shot in Turpan in the Xinjiang province—where one million ethnic Chinese (mostly Muslim Uighurs) have been detained in detention camps. The Guardian describes this as “the largest mass incarceration of an ethnic-religious minority since second world war”—i.e. the Holocaust. These camps are run like prisons, and there are multiple first-person accounts of torture, rape and abuse.
Now, Mulan’s end credits thank a number of government agencies—including the public security bureau in the city of Turpan and the “publicity department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomy Region Committee.” Here’s what these agencies do:
“The public security bureau in Turpan is tasked with running China's ‘re-education’ camps where Uighurs are held in detention… The ‘publicity department’ named by Disney is responsible for producing state propaganda in the region… The public security bureau is also responsible for managing construction of the camps and hiring police to staff them.”
Also this: In 2018, China rolled out a “strike hard” campaign ramping up the construction of the camps—the same time when the movie was being shot in the province. Here’s the production designer talking up his fab work in Architectural Digest:
"The Imperial City, with its lily-pad-dotted gardens and golden-roofed temples, appears equally idyllic. ‘Again, it’s supposed to look romantic and ageless,’ he says. Filmed on the lot at Xiangyang Tangcheng Film and Television Base (a popular tourist destination and outdoor location for many Tang dynasty–era sets), the outdoor scenes were transformed for the movie. ‘We took what was there and augmented things quite majorly to turn it into a location,’ he says."
Why did Disney do this?
A number of reasons—some of which aren’t specific to Disney, but Hollywood in general.
One: When the 1998 ‘Mulan’ hit theatres worldwide, the Chinese government delayed its release in China. The reason: It was angry about its 1997 flick ‘Kundun’—director Martin Scorcese’s tribute to the Dalai Lama. Beijing blocked Disney’s efforts to enter the Chinese market for years.
Then-CEO Michael Eisner told Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji in 1998: “We made a stupid mistake in releasing ‘Kundun’... Here I want to apologize, and in the future we should prevent this sort of thing, which insults our friends, from happening.” Version 2.0 reflects that ‘revised’ thinking.
Two: Analysts expect the movie to make $1 billion in box office sales. A great part of that is expected to come from China—which is poised to edge out the US as the biggest film market in the world. As one industry expert notes, “Access to that market can make or break the success of a major Hollywood film." Or as Disney Chairman Alan Horn admits: “[I]f Mulan doesn’t work in China, we have a problem.”
Three: Cooperating with Beijing has been immensely profitable for Disney. Apart from an enormous movie market, there’s the $5.5 billion Shanghai Disneyland. At its opening in 2016, then chairman Bob Iger called it the “greatest opportunity the company has had since Walt Disney himself bought land in Central Florida” in the 1960s. Point to note:
“The park had 11.8 million guests in 2018, with 50% visiting from outside the region… [and] contributes $1 billion in revenue and about $50 million in operating profit annually to Disney.”
Not just Disney: A damning report by PEN America documents a growing trend of Hollywood self-censorship aimed at pleasing Beijing:
“Hollywood decision-makers and other filmmaking professionals are increasingly making decisions about their films—the content, casting, plot, dialogue, and settings—based on an effort to avoid antagonizing Chinese officials... These concessions to the power of the Chinese market have happened mostly quietly, with little attention and, often, little debate. Steadily, a new set of mores has taken hold in Hollywood, one in which appeasing Chinese government investors and gatekeepers has simply become a way of doing business.”
The bottomline: Whither goes China, our government soon follows. Expect India to ratchet up the pressure on both Hollywood and streaming platforms to respect its “sensitivities” in the future.
Reading list
- BBC News offers a good overview of the Xinjiang angle. A must read: The Guardian investigation into the detention centres.
- The Verge has more on the boycott, and plenty of links to related coverage.
- Hollywood Reporter did an excellent cover story on the making of Mulan. You can also check out Architectural Digest’s spread.
- This Guardian column documents the many ways the script has been altered.
- Axios offers a concise overview on increasing self-censorship in Hollywood. The PEN America report documents it at length.
- This 2016 New York Times piece details how Disney won the keys to the Chinese Magic Kingdom. Also in NYT: The ‘real Mulan’, Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow.
- One last ironic note: South China Morning Post explains why ‘Mulan’ may be destined to flop in China despite Disney’s best efforts.