After Chloe Zhao became the first Asian woman to win the Golden Globe for best director, Chinese social media was excited about everything related to Zhao – except the film itself.
Although most Chinese viewers have not yet seen the film, many applauded the Golden Globes victory. Dozens of posts praised Zhao’s sincere acceptance speech on compassion and described it as an inspiration for women in the arts. The hashtag “Chloe Zhao wins the Golden Globe for Best Director” was seen more than 280 million times on Weibo on Tuesday morning, local time.
Many regretted that Zhao would probably never make such a powerful film about China, given the current censorship environment on the continent. “You don’t think that realistic stories about China could be censored, do you?” one commentator scolded the other. Another exulted: “So it seems that Chinese directors are outside the control of [the top censorship body] are still very good! “
After his victory, Zhao recorded a video message in Chinese for viewers to promote the film’s release on April 23 in mainland China. “This film was made possible by the passion, hard work and even life stories of many people,” she said. “I hope that, through their stories, you look for a life that is yours and become the writer of the story of your own life.”
For years, Zhao was best known in China as the stepdaughter of Song Dandan, a veteran actor loved for his comedy roles and TV appearances. Zhao’s film, “The Rider”, had a unique screening at the Pingyao International Film Festival 2017, but otherwise it was never released in China.
Song’s congratulatory message to his stepdaughter was also a topic of widespread discussion on Monday. “Today, at someone else’s house [the U.S.’s] At home and competing against your fort, you were able to receive that kind of recognition … You are the legend of our family, and I believe your story will inspire countless Chinese children, ”Song wrote, praising her for choosing a path who “never felt they had good prospects, but came to respect it. “
Official state media reports also sought to claim Zhao’s glory for China. State broadcaster CCTV and People’s Daily, spokesman for the ruling Communist Party, celebrated Zhao as a “Chinese director”, while the state tabloid The Global Times echoed Internet users’ happiness by calling her “the pride of China” .
Chinese social media users have created a parody poster mocking the marketing tactic of extolling Zhao’s Chinese roots, which replaces the four-character title “Nomadland” with the four characters of “Chinese Director”.
Weibo
But things got complicated after social media users revealed two previous interviews given by Zhao to foreign news outlets, both of which now appear to have sections excluded.
In the first, Zhao told the Australian entertainment website news.com.au that “the US is now my country” – an indication, many netizens assumed, that she no longer has a Chinese passport. The comments appeared in the original report published on December 25, but were removed on February 16, according to archived versions of the site. The output did not respond to Varietyrequest for comment by the date of publication.
The second interview appeared in New York’s Filmmaker Magazine in 2013. Explaining why she chose to make a film about a Native American teenager on a North Dakota reservation, Zhao said: “This goes back to when I was a teenager in China, being in a place where lies are everywhere.
“You felt that you would never be able to leave. A lot of the information I received when I was younger was not true, and I became very rebellious about my family and my past ”.
The comments were removed on February 15, the files show, although they are still referenced by at least one other means of communication elsewhere online. Filmmaker Magazine has not yet responded to Varietyrequest for comment from.
Screenshots of these two interviews were translated and widely publicized on the Chinese web, causing controversy among nationalists. Questions about Zhao’s citizenship have also sparked debate over whether it is appropriate to claim Zhao’s victory as being from China – a common movement by state-supported media to promote nationalism.
“Congratulate her on the award, but don’t promote her in China by pasting the ‘Chinese’ label on her – it’s disgusting,” exclaimed a Weibo poster.
On the other hand, those especially taken by official rhetoric about the importance of ethnicity and nationality also felt betrayed. For them, the historical significance of having an Asian winning the prize meant little if it was not specifically attributed to China.
“The media should report carefully whether she is a Chinese or a foreign director,” warned one of them, so that people could find out how proud they should feel.
“The Chinese public today is becoming more and more favorable to Chinese films. People have different attitudes towards films directed by Chinese directors compared to films directed by foreign directors – therefore, you should avoid promoting things in the wrong way, ”said the poster.
Although artists, films and companies have been banned from China’s huge market due to previous comments considered slanderous by the country, many online commentators were still “speechless” by the scale of the nationalist reaction. “I thought Chloe Zhao would be praised as an exceptional female artist, but, unexpectedly, there are so many people clinging to the issue of nationality,” wrote a poster. “How does nationality have anything to do with whether someone has made contributions to your field or not?”
The heated debates over the need to support Zhao reveal the country’s deep cultural anxieties at a time when its officials have touted the need for “cultural self-confidence”. It also highlights the very different ways in which China and the United States consider issues of privilege, race, and the role that artists must play in society.
Online critics have pointed out his privilege of having a movie star stepmother and a father who headed a number of major Chinese state-owned companies. One of his companies “laid off workers en masse”, but “the boss’s daughter gets her gold abroad, eating only God knows whose money she got from sweat and tears, then turns around and says there are ‘lies everywhere ‘”Wrote one of them.
Despite the controversy circulating online, “Nomadland” faces an uphill battle to attract viewers in China. Film critic Xiao Fuqiu told the Global Times that he “was not very optimistic” about the box office potential, as it “goes against the taste of the mainstream audience” due to its slower pace, lack of exposure and subtle emotional timbre. So far, only 1,000 viewers have clicked on the “I want to watch” notification on the Maoyan data tracking app – a key index used by cinemas to gauge interest in a title, with clicks of more than 100,000 that indicate strong commercial potential.
A widely published comment from Douban gave the film’s marketing team some advice, referring to the Communist Party’s propaganda terms and quoting Qing dynasty thinker Wei Yuan, who grappled with questions of how China should deal with threat posed by Western powers.
“All the distributor in China needs to do is position the film as an attempt by a girl born and raised in Beijing to ‘learn from foreigners in order to gain command of them’ and, without ever forgetting [the CCP’s] original aspirations, to make a film that deliberately exposes the problems of the lower classes in America ”, he joked. “As soon as government agencies across the country hear this way, they will send all of their work units to theaters en masse.”