Film News

Why People Are Criticizing Disney's "Mulan"

People are taking issues with "Mulan" stars' political beliefs (or lack thereof) and the movie's apparent support of Uighur "re-education" camps.

Yifei Liu as Mulan 'Mulan' Film - 2020A young Chinese maiden disguises herself as a male warrior in order to save her father.

Photo by Walt Disney Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

Mulan is a beloved animated Disney film, but its live-action adaptation has run into some real-world problems.

The 1998 animated Disney film, based on a Chinese folklore tale "The Ballad of Mulan," received the classic 2020 live-action remake treatment this year. But its rollout was plagued by problems from the start.

Originally meant to debut on March 27, 2020, the film's release was delayed three times due to COVID-19. Finally, the studio decided to roll out the film on September 8, 2020, bypassing movie theaters entirely in the US. Instead, it exclusively dropped on Disney+ in the US for a tall fee of $30. The film will become available to all Disney+ subscribers on December 4th. The film is also being released in some recently reopened theatres in Asia, and it's expected to bring in millions of dollars in China when it debuts this Friday.

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Culture Feature

Can Trump Really Ban TikTok from the US?  Should He?

How founded are the concerns about the app's security?

President-Elect Donald Trump makes a proud gesture during his speech at a "Thank You" Tour rally held at the Giant Center.

Shutterstock

Say what you want about TikTok, but there's no question that the app is a massive success.

TikTok has surpassed 2 billion downloads and set a record for app installs in a single quarter, making it one of the most popular apps of all time. But as concerns about the security of the Chinese owned social media network mount, TikTok's future in the United States is looking more and more uncertain.

On Friday, President Trump told reporters that he would ban TikTok from operating in the United States through emergency economic powers or an executive order. This comes after concerns about the apps use of data, particularly the concern that the Chinese government has access to the data the app gathers from American users.

TikTok fans immediately expressed their concern, with one user, Ehi Omigie, saying, "Everyone is live right now," in a livestream on the app Friday night after news of Trumps statement spread. "Everyone is going cray cray ... If it does happen, follow me on Instagram."

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MUSIC

From SXSW to Coachella, Will the Coronavirus Kill Live Music in 2020?

With a recent spate of cancellations and mounting fear of an emerging pandemic, the near-future of live music is in doubt.

Photo by Yvette de Wit on Unsplash

UPDATE:

Both SXSW and Coachella have been canceled, with the latter beung technically postponed until October. Coachella organizers released a statement on March 10:

At the direction of the County of Riverside and local health authorities, we must sadly confirm the rescheduling of Coachella and Stagecoach due to COVID-19 concerns. While this decision comes at a time of universal uncertainty, we take the safety and health of our guests, staff and community very seriously. We urge everyone to follow the guidelines and protocols put forth by public health officials.

Coachella will now take place on October 9, 10 and 11 and October 16, 17 and 18, 2020. Stagecoach will take place on October 23, 24 and 25, 2020. All purchases for the April dates will be honored for the rescheduled October dates. Purchasers will be notified by Friday, March 13 on how to obtain a refund if they are unable to attend.

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you in the desert this fall.

Less than a week prior, for the first time in 34 years, SXSW was canceled by the city of Austin, citing public safety concerns over the coronavirus.

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CULTURE

Rush Limbaugh Is a 30-year Infection in American Media

His latest insanity involved claiming that the coronavirus is both "the common cold," and a bio-weapon designed by China.

Rush Limbaugh's life and controversy

There are few people in American media as reliably unhinged and distasteful as Rush Limbaugh.

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CULTURE

Americans Are Shocked At Terry Crews' Seemingly Pro-China Posts on Instagram

Whether the post was really intended to be pro-China remains unclear, but it wouldn't really be that shocking

Screenshot via Instagram

Americans love to have a villain.

Someone they can really sneer at and come together to root against. But Terry Crews is usually the furthest thing from the bad guy. He's a gifted painter, a former NFL player, and a fountain of positive energy and open communication whom we loved for his role in Brooklyn Nine-Nine even before he became a hero of progressive cultural change.

In 2017, when Crews shared his personal experience with sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood, he made himself vulnerable in a way that a lot of men—particularly men who are perceived as strong and masculine—would shy away from. His story became as clear an illustration of the toxic power dynamics in the entertainment industry as most of us could imagine—showing that even someone with the strength and confidence of a literal superhero could be taken advantage of and violated by the powerful figures in a system with such pervasive problems.

How could a man who has done so much to win our love provoke American society to suddenly turn against him? By siding—or at least seeming to side—with America's favorite villain du jour: China.

Crews is currently in Shanghai with his family and apparently having a great time. Some people would probably take issue with that alone—with an Instagram post asserting that China's largest city is "INCREDIBLE!!!" and "Truly a wonder to see in person!" Many American's have so thoroughly written off China as a force of pure evil that even innocuous positivity like this, delivered with a message of "WORLDWIDE LOVE," would be unacceptable, but it's not really surprising or out of character.

What really surprised people was when Crews posted a picture of himself, earlier this week, posing in front of the flag of the People's Republic of China, with the phase "POWER TO THE PEOPLES." This is the post that opened the floodgates on a torrent of negative responses, with thousands posting messages expressing their shock.

Most of the commenters seemed particularly concerned with the protesters in Hong Kong and with the perception that Crews was aligning himself with the mainland government, against the people who have occupied Hong Kong's streets for the past seven months fighting for autonomous democracy in their city. While it seems like a stretch to assume that Crews intended the post as an endorsement of Xi Jinping's government, the image was certainly suggestive of pro-China propaganda, with Crews looking buff and tough, with the red and gold flag framing his head. It's reminiscent of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, posing in front of the flag of the USSR. And just like Ivan, Terry's post could not be more perfectly calculated to inflame American patriotism against him.

It may be that Crews is not particularly familiar with the issues in Hong Kong—he's a busy man, with a lot on his plate. Or maybe, seeing the way people live in Shanghai, he doesn't think that Hong Kong has a great deal to fear in losing their autonomy. That's debatable, but there are other, more pressing reasons to maintain a strong critical stance when it comes to China. In particular, the "Vocational Training" that is being provided to Uyghur Muslims against their will in the Xinjiang re-education camps. There are reports about various atrocities—everything from rape to organ harvesting—that may be taking place in those camps. Without a free press in China, it's difficult to say for certain what's going on there—which is a problem in and of itself.

But if Crews had instead appeared in front of an American flag—or wrapped in a flag suit like his character in Idiocracy—would people have taken that as an endorsement of Donald Trump? Does the fact that he hosts America's Got Talent mean he must deny that America also has police violence? Does it mean he should ignore the sexual assault that takes place in our concentration camps at the southern border? Maybe flags in general just make for cool backdrops. Or maybe a person can express appreciation for a nation and its people without endorsing everything the government does there.

Meanwhile, Flint Michigan, where Terry Crews grew up, still has poison flowing from many of its taps. The NFL, where Terry Crews used to play, has—at the behest of President Trump—banned kneeling on the sidelines during the national anthem to protest police violence. Los Angeles, where Terry Crews lives, is suffering from a housing crisis, with 1% of the population living on the streets or in shelters. And the United States is still officially home to the largest population of imprisoned people on earth.

It's easy to attack China's crimes, because China is far away and their political problems seemingly have little in common with our own—and there is absolutely a lot to be critical of. Their problems allow even a divided country like ours a moment of unity—with everyone from Elizabeth Warren (who penned an article titled "It Is Time for the United States to Stand Up to China in Hong Kong") to the Trump family jumping on board. It may yet turn out that Terry Crews was unaware of some of these problems, or he didn't want to take the risk of expressing his own criticisms while his family is still within the country's borders.

That would be understandable. It could even turn out that "POWER TO THE PEOPLES," was meant as a subtle, pro-democracy message of solidarity—we can't really know right now. But if it's not, would it be that shocking to learn that, as a black man in the United States, Terry Crews knows better than to judge a nation simply by its worst crimes or its greatest achievements. Crews has achieved tremendous success for himself and his family, but he has also seen how badly his home country tends to treat people who look like him. Maybe he can celebrate the best of what he's seen in China—e.g. the hundreds of millions there who have been lifted out of poverty—without endorsing the worst of that government's evils.

Maybe Terry Crews is more capable of nuance than the people who break everything into heroes and villains—who praise Hong Kong protesters for throwing bricks and attack American protesters for throwing milkshakes or distracting us from football.

Sports

Shaq Slams LeBron's Icy Hot Take on Hong Kong

Shaq is the king of ads.

Shaquille O'Neal

Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock

For people who've been following the saga of the NBA and Hong Kong, it may seem strange for Shaquille O'Neal, the emperor of commercials, to take a break from overseeing Shaqtoberfest to comment.

But did you know that Shaq is not only part owner of an NBA team—the Shaqramento Kings—he was actually once a giant basketball man? It's true! He even played for three of the same teams as noted GOAT LeBron James, and as it turns out, he has an opinion on the controversy that's unfolded between LeBron and the Houston Rockets' general manager, Daryl Morey.

In case you're unfamiliar, the story goes like this: Ongoing protests against mainland China's efforts to interfere in Hong Kong have prompted messages of support from many Americans, which China has been working to suppress. Earlier this month, Daryl Morey became one of those Americans with a now-deleted tweet that featured the slogan, "Fight For Freedom| Stand With Hong Kong," prompting a swift backlash from China and a noncommittal update from Morey. Reportedly, the NBA was urged to fire Morey, but declined.


Daryl Morey Risking His Job


Nonetheless, China is a huge market for professional basketball and, as former commissioner David Stern once said (in a pure distillation of capitalism), "I have a responsibility to my owners to make money." So a sloppy game of damage control ensued, culminating in LeBron James saying of Morey, "I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke, and so many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically. Emotionally. Spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and what we say, and what we do. Even though yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that too."

Some have defended LeBron's comments by pointing out that he and the Lakers were actually travelling in China at the time, and no doubt they had to deal with some of the turmoil that resulted from Morey's tweet. But on the whole, the reaction has been seething internet-hatred.

More than a week later, that hatred seemed like it was finally losing steam when suddenly Shaq stepped in to shake things up. Shaq loves to shake things up. Quoth Papa John's replacement papa, "Daryl Morey was right… one of our best values here in America is free speech. We're allowed to say what we want to say, and we're allowed to speak up about injustices, and that's just how it goes. And if people don't understand that, that's something they have to deal with."

And just like that, Kazaam's magic powers zapped life back into the story. How will LeBron respond? Does he know that the star of the Shaqfu videogame series has more championship rings than he does? And when will Shaq address his controversial friendship with infamous warlord The General? Only time will tell.