They really don't want to watch the new Matrix movie. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)
Filmmakers often end up as propagandists. Hollywood’s biggest directors went to the front lines, cinematically speaking, during the Second World War. Luminaries like Frank Capra, John Ford and John Huston made Why We Fight films to rally a war-weary nation. The series was so effective that Franklin Roosevelt thought they were “dangerous”. Movies were another way of making war.
Today, China has something different, and more sinister, in mind under President Xi Jinping. In speeches Xi and other party officials have repeatedly emphasised the need to “tell China’s story well.” That responsibility — until very recently — has been outsourced beyond the parties propaganda agencies.
The Communist nation sees film not as a weapon, but as the ultimate in soft power. A way to assure citizens and woo skeptics alike that China’s way of life is superior. Obey the state. Never think for yourself. Silence dissent. Is it any wonder it needs glamorous stars to spin those bleak messages?
But which stars? The answer for most of the 2010s was: Hollywood’s. The studios are only too happy to play along with China, assuming all those checks keep clearing. Erich Schwartzel’s Red Carpet: Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy is a terrifying portrait of a slugfest for hearts and minds around the world. It’s one the West is losing. Badly.
Casual observers know how Hollywood genuflects to the Chinese film market. They chuckled over John Cena’s apology, in Mandarin, for suggesting Taiwan was a nation. Others noted that the upcoming Top Gun sequel removed a patch from Tom Cruise’s iconic jacket for the same reason. Those with longer memories will recall Paramount changing 2013’s World War Z to ensure China wasn’t the source of the zombie outbreak, like it was in Max Brooks’ novel of the same name.
These humiliations only hint at the geopolitics in play, and the long game enacted by China. Schwartzel fleshes out the bigger picture, revealing a nation keen on weaponising pop culture’s ability to impact thought on a global scale. It’s also the world’s biggest bully, using its fiscal might — and enormous market of movie watchers — to turn capitalism against itself. “Propaganda” doesn’t do justice to the thought control aimed at by Chinese policymakers.
They first opened their borders to U.S. films in the 1990s, without ever losing sight of the prime directive: Chinese supremacy. China’s cinematic market exploded in the 21st century, pulling U.S. film studios towards them in the process. Think of all the money you’ll make from our film-frantic citizens. Stateside flops became hits after opening in China — remember the World of Warcraft movie? It sank in every market other than China’s, where it banked nearly half a billion dollars for Universal Pictures.
How much extra coin did Disney earn by opening Avengers: Endgame in China? Try $629 million. Stars have sold their souls for far less.
Except not just any film is allowed into Chinese theatres. Gay themes are quickly excised, as is any excessive violence and nudity. Puritanical censors are one of the many hurdles American films have to jump before they are screened in China. Films defying authority or suggesting the CCP is incompetent are verboten. It’s a miracle anyone suggested a Red Dawn remake where China is the villain, as MGM did in 2008. So China became North Korea before the film was released in 2012 — one of many examples of China’s ability to warp storytelling that criticises the party.
China is by no means the first country to put pressure on Hollywood. A fascinating chapter in Red Carpet looks back at 1930’s All Quiet on the Western Front. The German government cajoled Universal to restructure Front to make it less critical of their efforts in the war. Universal did as it was told in order to access German theatres.
Decades later, Hollywood is once again ceding to a foreign power’s requests, but on a far larger scale than in the past. No US studio could ignore the fact that, before the pandemic, at one point China was building around 25 movie screens every day. So they censored their products. And it wasn’t just the studios. A-listers will lecture the American public on any topic that comes to mind — recall Robert De Niro’s splenetic interventions during the Trump era — except China.
It adds up to a chilling indictment of Western capitalism. When uncoupled from moral scruples, it plugs smoothly into China’s mainframe.
Authoritarians are usually afraid of their own citizens. If their leadership was so good, and so effective, they wouldn’t need to fiddle with every film that enters the country. But it goes further than censorship. The saga of Chinese actress Fan Bingbing’s fall from grace is deeply unsettling. This rising star had it all … until she incorrectly reported her film income, and the story went viral. The government erased her face from movie posters and placed her under house arrest, going so far as to observe her around the clock — even in the bathroom.
Her appearance this year in The 355, a girl-power actioner with Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz and Diane Kruger, came via digital trickery. Bingbing wasn’t allowed to be on-set during the shooting due to her banishment, so she was summoned on screen via green screen technology. You either play by the party’s rules, or your career is vaporised.
This authoritarian approach to cinema — a blend of puritanical censorship and pro-state cheerleading — is spreading. “If you want to change a nation, change it through stories,” the head of Kenya’s Film Classification Board tells the author in another segment of Red Carpet. Since 2006, China has loaned Kenya the best part of $10 billion for infrastructure projects — but Chinese influence is now more than roads and bridges. It’s culture, too.
In moviemaking, as in diplomacy, China is increasingly striking out on its own. Hollywood’s slavishness is no longer as effective as it once was. Some US movies now don’t get a Chinese debut despite endless diplomacy and backpedaling. And China is accepting fewer Hollywood imports than it has for years. Last year it blocked all four of Disney’s Marvel movies from release in its theatres.
American fare that does get past the censors is regularly rejected by Chinese audiences who a decade ago lapped it up. Blockbusters like Wonder Woman 1984 now generate a fraction of the cash they once did in China. (2017’s Wonder Woman generated $90 million compared to $25 million for its 2020 sequel.) The recent Matrix Resurrections belly-flopped in China with an $11 million haul to date.
Instead Chinese audiences are turning to more blatantly nationalistic movies. Take The Battle of Lake Changjin, made in co-operation with the CCP’s propaganda department, and the most expensive film ever made in China. It tells the bloody story of Chinese soldiers thwarting American forces during the Korean War, with a cast of China’s biggest stars.
Luo Changping, a journalist famous for his corruption investigations, critiqued the film’s historical accuracy on Weibo as it stormed the box office. He vanished after was detained by police in October last year. In the end, this patriotic gore fest made over $900 million, making it the second largest global release of 2021, behind Spider-Man: No Way Home. Never has party propaganda been so effective, and so frightening.
Such brash patriotism is no longer the American style. We are a long way from the days of Capra and Ford. Hollywood stars routinely apologise for perceived sins, past and present. The wrong joke, the wrong political statement or just sharing the wrong virtue signal can spark an apology tour. When can we expect some mea culpas for an entire industry doing China’s bidding, while ignoring the country’s authoritarianism, militarism, and human rights abuses? Don’t hold your breath.
Red Carpet ought to be parachuted into the mansions and villas of Beverly Hills. Stars ought to emulate the courage of Richard Gere, who abandoned his mainstream movie career to speak up for Tibet. “Hollywood, once America’s most persuasive evangelist, remains beholden to another country,” Schwartzel writes late in the book. Ironically, that country is less and less interested in Hollywood. Gone are the days when American imports dominated China’s box office charts.
It’s a disturbing picture for US studios. Did Hollywood sell its artistic soul for nothing?
Christian Toto is the founder of HollywoodInToto.com, and the author of Virtue Bombs.
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SubscribeMr Putin is very fortunate indeed that he does NOT have to deal with the wretched RMT, ASLEF, & TSSA*
(UK Railway Unions for American readers.).
Conversely, they should be grateful they don’t have to deal with him.
But of course, their leaders wouldn’t have objected to having to deal with previous Kremlin regimes.
You can’t make this up.
The gauleiter of Kherson just died in a car accident–and a Russian reporter then proudly displayed the nom de guerre written on his pass:
“Stalin”
Putin has poisoned everything and everybody in Russia.
What’s striking is that Russia’s actions exactly mirror that of the Arabs WRT Israel in the latter part of the 20th C. An independent Israel was anathema to leaders like Nasser, who also hoped to unite the Arab World.
They kept attacking–and kept losing.
Eventually they decided that neither Arab unity nor the destruction of Israel actually made much sense. So, they made accommodations, and learned to live with an independent Israel.
But then Arabs are intelligent people.
(How about Kherson, BTW?)
This will be a long war, regardless of whether the West continues to fully support Ukraine.
Russia’ objective is simple–and unachievable: to change the identity of 40 million people. This can only be done with an incredible amount of resources, accompanied by an incredible amount of brute force.
But Russia simply lacks the resources to militarily occupy even part of the country. Significantly, even high-ranking Russian officials can’t be protected in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Moreover, no sane Ukrainian would dare live under the Russian regime that now prevails in places like Kherson and Mariupol. Even if they favor Putin and Russia, there is no way most can prove their loyalty. As with Stalin’s policies after WW2, they will always be categorized as traitors for having lived under the “Nazi” regime. Until physically conquered, they will continue to support Zelensky.
The great unknown is whether Putin (or, more likely, his successors) can replicate a fully Stalinist regime. If it can, then the war will last longer. A ceasefire will only be a means to rebuild the army.
Putin and his circle see this as an existential issue for themselves. To them, even the destruction of Russia is a small price to pay for their own survival.
I am surprised that the Ukrainians haven’t made a move on Belarus where it appears most of the population would be glad to get rid of Lukashenko.
Obviously Putin and the West would view that as an escalation – but since it’s likely western support for Ukraine will decline in the next few months, especially after the Republican gains in the midterms, they really have nothing to lose by involving Belarus now: Escalate the war to the point where the West can’t reduce their support by taking it outside Ukraine.
Careful what you wish for.
This new phase of war by another means has never been possible before – the taking out of international pipelines, cables, freight, power lines, energy supply – Hacking vital computer controlled systems…. But it is now. It is where things could go if escalation instead of treaty and peace.
This war is going to cause Famine in the developing world – fuel and fertilizer poverty…And it may destroy the European economy – pensions may be toast already…
Thats right – it is so hard to stop because Biden forbids it – forbids peace – the reasons are not known – Military-Industrial? WEF Capture? Ukraine and/or Russia holds the dirt on the Biden and Clinton Families? (who always used Ukraine as their piggy bank). But Biden decided this would be his legacy, a gentler WWIII –
The thing is today the Americans vote, and Biden will not be the autocrat anymore – saner heads will have a say, and the treaty table will be used.
Obviously, you are unfamiliar with British history.
The problem with such attacks, as the Blitz and the V-weapon campaigns demonstrated, is that they anger people more than they frighten them. It simply makes the war more existential, and subsequent retaliation more severe.
But perhaps you can think of instances where Russians capitulated to such attacks?
“the reasons are not known”
Because you’re making it up you little Quisling.
Looks like Biden won’t have much to worry about after all.
And since most of the GOP wants to supply Ukraine, it’s an even bigger win for Zelensky.
Funny how a lot of prophecies don’t pan out.
Slavic phraseology.Russia should again recruit from Cambridge.
Given that several NATO countries have been implicated in attacks in Ukraine and specifically the UK has been accused of planning and aiding the bombing of the Kerch bridge (in Crimea, which is de facto Russia), should we take at face value that these attacks are by Russian protesters and not by foreign nationals? After all it has been explicitly stated by Biden that “regime change” is the objective in Russia. Also, Putin is known to be popular amongst the Russian public.
Russian disinfo. Ignore.
That’s why Russian support for the war has dropped from 26% to 16%.
I am so glad to not be a Putin supporter. It’s so good that Boris was able to come from England and talk Zelinski out of peace talks with Russia back in the Spring. The sanctions have been so successful. Look at how much the Russian people are suffering, their currency is crashing, look at all this internal strife and sabatoge they are having, and we’re not even sure if they have enough energy to make it through the winter.
And look at all the gains Ukraine has been able to accomplish, sadly at the cost of all those lives. Now they are in so much better of a position to negotiate an even better outcome! We were all told, and we all knew that Russia was so weak and that Ukraine would be able to beat them back like this, and boy has it happened. All the billions poured into Ukraine, more and more weapons. It’s all been a game changer…
I am so glad that I listened to all the smart people, all the right people told us the way things were, and they were right. We’re right to get behind them! They never tell us lies. They never stretch the truth. They can be trusted! They’re the good guys after all, and have our good in mind, Ukraine’s good in mind, and they are trying to save us from dangerous things like nuclear war, and WWIII and things like that. So smart, so good, so honest, so trustworthy. It’s a good thing I agreed and am good and smart and thoughtful and got behind the right things they said were true. I’m sure Russia is going to collapse or they’er going to get rid of Putin any day now. Keep fighting the good fight people!
The pathetic rancid sarcasm of a Russia apologist or bot.
It was excellent sarcasm – the problem is to you all his statements are really true – you and the down voters – you believe everything he is parodying – That is why you Down Vote – because he points out the ridiculous position the MSM Agenda has planted in your brain.
Do you all Neo-Con, Neo-Liberal warmongers flush with pride in your war as you pay the gas bill? The light bill, fill the car tank? Knowing it is for the Greater Good – for Democracy?
Are you Aaron’s sister???
Yep, I feel very pleased with myself.
We obliterated Russia in 1990, and now we’re doing it again. Go to Central Asia, the Baltics and the southern Caucasus to see how popular it was–and is.
It isn’t that we like democracy more.
It’s that we like Russia less.
Sounds like the panic of a loser.