Sarah Goggin, Junior
With its stunning cinematography and slightly more serious tone, Disney’s live-action Mulan was set to be a hit; if it weren’t for the calls on Twitter to “Boycott Mulan”. Released on September 4th, the live action Mulan movie takes on a more intense feel than the classic 1998 animated film, abandoning lighthearted songs and humorous dragon Mushu in favor of more violent, action packed fight scenes. As a result, some previously die hard fans lost interest as some of their favorite characters were given the boot; and some outcry arose after seeing where many of the scenes were filmed.
On September 9th, after critics pointed out that the end credits thanked the “Chinese Communist Party Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee”, the hashtag “Boycott Mulan” quickly started trending. Located in the north of China, the Xinjiang region is currently detaining over one million Uighur Muslims in government sanctioned internment camps. Under the label of being “re-education facilities”, these Muslims are facing both physical and psychological torture. Alongside intense, invasive surveillance and intrusive medical exams, the imprisoned Muslims are being forced to eat pork and drink alcohol; two things that are clearly forbidden in their religion.
The film was already under fire after actress Liu Yifei, who played Mulan, voiced her support for the police in Hong Kong. After posting "I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now. What a shame for Hong Kong," on Weibo in 2019, pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were quick to criticize her views on the situation.
Many activists have taken to Twitter to spread the message of the boycott. Hong Kong activist Nathan Law tweeted, “Why should we #BoycottMulan? It’s about hypocrisy… They shamed themselves by upholding values they don’t believe in. Movies should be more than money.” Another prominent Hong Kong activist by the name of Joshua Wong went as far as to tweet, “I urge everyone who believes in human rights to #BoycottMulan.”
Disney has yet to release a statement on any of the events, but some fans have been quick to show their support of the movie in spite of the backlash. Many fans have cited the level of hypocrisy in many areas of Hollywood as a reason not to boycott, with user “pixiewithpens” tweeting, “By the logic of boycotting mulan, you should also boycott hollywood, since california uses prison labor aka slavery to fight fires? No?” Others argue that they have waited too long for the movie to boycott it, wanting to see a re-imagination of a childhood classic.
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