No justice, no peace, unless it’s the Chinese

Why boycott Mulan?

After all, it’s just another Disney movie, based on an older Disney movie, based on a 1,500-year-old short ballad that is probably purely fictional anyway.

By the way, no one’s ever figured out where in China Mulan was from, what year she was born in, under which government’s command she served, or if she ever existed in the first place.

Plus, the original story claims that throughout her 12 years of military service, none of her fellow soldiers ever found out her real identity — which I find really hard to imagine, as if they never once had to shower or bathe together being in a war zone.

Is it because of the lead actress Yifei Liu’s political stance? Perhaps.

At least that’s what everyone is talking about.

Because she posted “I support the Hong Kong Police. There, I said it — y’all can beat me up now.” on social media last year, and many people are upset about it.

Understandably.

But I do feel the need to put things in perspective here by adding some context (and certainly not because I intend to be an apologist of hers).

Liu may have a U.S. passport, but a majority of her career is still based in China. And China — as I’ve said numerous times before — is not a normal country.

It’s a country where you are not allowed to disagree with the government, and in many cases, you don’t even have the freedom to stay neutral. You are expected to be always “politically correct” (in the most literal sense) — where the definition of “correct” is, of course, fully controlled by the government — especially if you are a celebrity.

“We already know that in a communist country, you don’t have the freedom to speak; but now we know that over there, you don’t even have the freedom to stay silent.”

— Hu Shih (1891–1962)

So, was Yifei Liu really sincere when she made that post on social media? We’ll never know.

Still — assuming she was indeed sincere — I personally wouldn’t boycott a movie because I disagree with its actor’s politics. Hell, I can still enjoy Pablo Neruda’s poetry even though he was a zealous fan of Joseph Stalin.

Yet one problem remains. A much, much bigger problem that is not being talked about nearly enough. A problem that goes far beyond any single individual’s political beliefs:

Quite a few scenes in Mulan were filmed in Xinjiang.

Yes, that Xinjiang. The northwestern province where an actual genocide — both figuratively and literally — is taking place at this very moment. Millions of Uyghur people, on their own land, are being systematically imprisoned in actual concentration camps for the crime of being an ethnic minority.

Nevertheless, not only did they choose to film in Xinjiang (even when they most definitely had numerous other options), the moviemakers even went as far as to extend their “special thanks” in the credits to multiple Chinese government and Communist Party bureaus, the most noteworthy one being:

“Turpan Municipal Bureau of Public Security”

Yes, this is one of the police forces that operate the aforementioned concentration camps.

The Disney company surely didn’t see anything wrong with this. That’s right, this is the same Disney that didn’t hesitate one second before condemning the “police brutality and flaws in the judicial system” in the U.S. — but of course not China, where the situation is only a hundred times worse.

Act righteously and speak up against injustice — but only when it’s in the U.S., where you’re certain that doing so would result in nothing but praises and cheers, and absolutely no adverse repercussions.

You fucking hypocrites. (And speaking of hypocrites, LeBron James, you are one too.)

Recall that the International Olympic Committee has apologized, for that they chose to host the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany — the government of which, at the time, was on its way to carrying out one of the most infamous genocides in human history.

I long for the day when Disney does the same.