A boy looks at a poster promoting Disney movie Mulan outside a cinema on the day it opened in Beijing. The film has been pilloried internationally and given a lukewarm reception by Chinese cinema-goers. Photo: AFP A boy looks at a poster promoting Disney movie Mulan outside a cinema on the day it opened in Beijing. The film has been pilloried internationally and given a lukewarm reception by Chinese cinema-goers. Photo: AFP
A boy looks at a poster promoting Disney movie Mulan outside a cinema on the day it opened in Beijing. The film has been pilloried internationally and given a lukewarm reception by Chinese cinema-goers. Photo: AFP
Vivienne Chow
Opinion

Opinion

Vivienne Chow

How Disney’s misconceived Mulan lost the Chinese audience it so cravenly courted

  • Disney lost Chinese film-goers because they watched Mulan through a magnifying glass, looking for errors of cultural representation and historical inaccuracies
  • They found plenty. For starters, Disney doesn’t understand qi. On top of that are plot changes, dire action scenes, bland characters and lifeless acting

Vivienne Chow
Vivienne Chow

Updated: 3:26pm, 16 Sep, 2020

Why you can trust SCMP
A boy looks at a poster promoting Disney movie Mulan outside a cinema on the day it opened in Beijing. The film has been pilloried internationally and given a lukewarm reception by Chinese cinema-goers. Photo: AFP A boy looks at a poster promoting Disney movie Mulan outside a cinema on the day it opened in Beijing. The film has been pilloried internationally and given a lukewarm reception by Chinese cinema-goers. Photo: AFP
A boy looks at a poster promoting Disney movie Mulan outside a cinema on the day it opened in Beijing. The film has been pilloried internationally and given a lukewarm reception by Chinese cinema-goers. Photo: AFP
READ FULL ARTICLE
Vivienne Chow

Vivienne Chow

Vivienne is a journalist and critic specialising in the arts, culture and cultural affairs. She was named one of the world’s best young journalists and critics while representing Hong Kong at the 2004 inaugural Berlinale Talent Press at the Berlin International Film Festival, and in 2015 was awarded the IJP Fellowship for mid-career journalism training and conducting research on cultural policy. Vivienne was a staff reporter with the South China Morning Post for 15 years, and remains a contributor after founding her own non-profit educational initiative, the Cultural Journalism Campus. Follow her on Twitter @VivienneChow and read her blog, Culture Shock, at www.viviennechow.com