Disney’s film Mulan remake is receiving flak over some of its blockbusters scenes that were shot in China’s Xinjiang – the region where widespread rights abuses against its Muslim population were carried out.
The film, which depicts the story of a legendary Chinese warrior, was already in the midst of controversy after the lead actress Liu Yifei extended her support to Hong Kong’s police following their actions against the democracy protests last year. This sparked the #BoycottMulan movement, which, on the film’s release, re-emerged in Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong, with ongoing protests in other countries.
The fresh calls for boycott erupted after the credit scenes of the film mentioned a “special thanks” to Xinjiang government. Eight entities in Xinjiang were thanked, including the public security bureau in Turpan – a city where numerous internement camps have been documented.
Another entity mentioned was the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department in Xinjiang.
The fresh angered have sparked after it was revealed that Uighur and Kazakh Muslims have been forced to work under dangerous situation along with restriction on their movement.
Isaac Stone Fish, a senior fellow at the Asia Society,have called the film an “arguably Disney’s most problematic movie” since “Song of the South”.
“It’s sufficiently astonishing that it bears repeating,” he wrote in a Washington Post column.
“Disney has thanked four propaganda departments and a public security bureau in Xinjiang, a region in northwest China that is the site of one of the world’s worst human rights abuses happening today,” he added.
Mulan which is the remake of the 1998 animated film of the same name, was first premiered in Hollywood on March 9, 2020. The film’s release was delayed multiple times and was later premiered on Disney +.
