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China’s Communist Party
AbacusCulture

Hollywood is being called out for appeasing Chinese censors, but state media doesn’t see the problem

  • An exhaustive report from advocacy group PEN America examines how China’s economic clout affects Hollywood decision making
  • Chinese state media says Hollywood needs China’s film market

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
People watch a movie with masks on in a cinema in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei Province, on July 20. Photo: Xinhua
Xinmei Shen
When Marvel Studios was adapting super hero Doctor Strange for the big screen, dedicated fans noticed a conspicuous change: the Ancient One would be a Celtic character played by Tilda Swinton. This was a departure from the character’s Tibetan roots in the comics, and his home of Kamar-Taj was moved from the Himalayan Mountains to Kathmandu.
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Many people believed the change was a political decision from the Disney-owned studio to avoid angering China. This has become common practice in Hollywood, and it’s the subject of a recent report from PEN America.
In another example highlighted by the report, the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick changes patches on the back of Tom Cruise’s signature leather jacket from what was in the original 1986 film. Eagle-eyed fans were quick to notice that Japanese and Taiwanese flags have been replaced by different patches that look vaguely similar.
In Marvel's 2016 movie Doctor Strange, Tilda Swinton plays a Celtic version of the Ancient One, the mentor of Doctor Strange. Picture: Marvel
In Marvel's 2016 movie Doctor Strange, Tilda Swinton plays a Celtic version of the Ancient One, the mentor of Doctor Strange. Picture: Marvel

Doctor Strange and Top Gun are just two of many examples of how Hollywood seeks to avoid losing access to China’s massive movie market, the PEN America report argues. That economic clout has made Hollywood largely compliant to Chinese authorities’ and fickle censorship rules, according to the report.

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The impact isn’t just limited to film releases in China, either. The report says Americans are often stuck watching the same version of a film because studios sometimes decide that it’s better to simply alter the master version a film to hide the fact that they self-censor.

The report comes amid increasing tensions between the US and China. Just last month, the Trump administration took a swipe at Hollywood for caving to Chinese censorship. US Attorney General William Barr slammed Hollywood on July 16 for “regularly censoring its own movies to appease the Chinese Communist Party.”

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