I think Hollywood censoring itself for China is horrifying
I saw an article yesterday, which unfortunately was kinda dead by the time I showed up to the thread. Basically, it was how Hollywood was running out of movie bad guys, since it's censoring itself for the Chinese government and the money it has. A lot of the comments were along the likes of
"So? Hollywood has been America's puppet. Now we don't like it when they're China's puppet?"
Here's the thing. Hollywood making Rah Rah Pro-Military movies is bad. You couldn't pay me to watch a Transformers movie or a latter-day Mark Wahlberg movie.
But you know what else is bad? Not putting black actors on movie posters, erasing gay characters, and erasing the very existence of entire countries. Some might dare say that's worse.
The thing with American movies and TV is that there's plenty of entertainment either made here, or notable here, that humanizes the enemy. That showcases the US as deeply flawed.
Lost- a heroic character was an Iraqi soldier who tortured people. It's been a minute since I've seen that, but Sayid was one of the good guys. And Lost came out pretty much during the Iraq War II.
Black Panther- an entire big budget blockbuster with a cast that's essentially all minorities except for one of the villains, and the Hobbit.
Brokeback Mountain- an Oscar-nominated well-known film revolving around a gay love affair.
Star Trek- during both the Cold War and the Civil Rights struggle, two prominent crew members were a Russian man and a black woman. Again, this was in the freaking 60s.
I mean, China is more homogenous than the US, but I'd still be curious that in the increasingly global and international 21st century, how many minorities have good roles in their productions. Is there some action series with a heroic Uyghur Muslim? A major romantic drama about a love affair between two women? A TV show that acknowledges Taiwan even exists?
Now let me reiterate... I'm not some "Murrica Number One!" guy. If I could move somewhere else and just never set foot in the US, I would in a heartbeat. And I also know that the Chinese government is separate from the Chinese people, just as I'm separate from the US government.
But it just seems to be a little too glib to be like "turnabouts fair play!" when there's an entire group of people getting sterilized and "reeducated" while Hong Kong, Taiwan, and many other Asian countries have sweat on their brow and a bugout bag in their closet.
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