Disney’s live action remake of Mulan has found itself in the middle of controversy in China ahead of its Sept. 11 release in the region due to remarks made by its lead actor Liu Yifei on social media site Weibo.
Liu Yifei, also known as Crystal Liu, shared an image of Fu Guohao, a journalist working at the Chinese state newspaper the Global Times assaulted during a recent spate of pro-democracy protests commenting, “I support Hong Kong police. You can beat me now. What a shame for Hong Kong.” The post was seen by many to be in favor of police brutality as there had been many violent attacks by Hong Kong police against peaceful protestors and in 2017 several prominent activists were imprisoned for their involvement with the 2014 Umbrella Movement.
The 2019-2020 protests in Hong Kong were sparked off by a number of factors such as extreme wealth disparity. Currently Hong Kong is the most expensive place to buy a house in the world. But the biggest factor was the now aborted Hong Kong extradition bill which would have seen Hong Kong residents extradited to mainland China to face their legal system which involved televised confessions and no legal safeguards. Though Hong Kong was officially returned to China after 156 years of British colonialism in 1997, currently Hong Kong operates as its own entity under the One country, Two systems principle. Pro democracy protestors feared the Hong Kong extradition bill would be an erosion of that principle.
Ironically Mulan was seen as a symbolic figurehead for the pro-democracy movement as the film is centered around a young woman doing whatever she can to fight for her country. When Hong Kong politician and activist Agnes Chow was recently arrested under the national security law, she was dubbed “the real Mulan”.
Since making the post last year, Liu Yifei didn’t appear at the D23 Expo in 2019 when the first footage of the live action remake was released. When asked in an interview about the boycott Yifei replied “I think it’s obviously a very complicated situation and I’m not an expert.”
Source: The Guardian
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