The story behind Chinese Powerplay in US film industry
Amy Qin & Audrey Carlsen | NYT NEWS SERVICE  (THE TIMES OF INDIA; November 22, 2018)

When was the last time you watched a movie with a Chinese villain? If you can’t remember, that may not be too surprising. Take the 2012 remake of the Cold War drama ‘Red Dawn’. It depicted Chinese enemies invading a US town. At least it did until the script was leaked and angered the Chinese state media. In the end, MGM spent $1 million digitally erasing evidence of the Chinese army, frame by frame, and substituting in North Koreans instead.

China wields enormous influence over how it is depicted in the movies Americans make and watch. It’s part of a broader push by the government to take control of its global narrative and present a friendlier, less menacing image of China to the world.

China’s booming box office and seemingly inexhaustible cash reserves have provided a much-needed boost to Hollywood as it faces slowing ticket sales in the US and challenges from Amazon and Netflix. But Hollywood’s embrace of China has not come without strings attached.

So when the creators of ‘Pixels’ wanted to show aliens blasting a hole in the Great Wall of China, Sony executives worried that the scene might prevent the 2015 movie’s release in China, leaked studio emails show. They blew up the Taj Mahal instead.

In the 1960s, Marvel Comics introduced a character known as the Ancient One into its universe. He was portrayed as an elderly Tibetan man. But in the 2016 movie ‘Doctor Strange’, the Ancient One is Celtic, played by white actress Tilda Swinton. Moviemakers decided to change the character’s ethnicity, reportedly to avoid offending the Chinese government.

‘Seven Years In Tibet’, which depicts Chinese soldiers brutalising Tibetans, released two decades ago. It was one of the top 100 grossing movies of 1997. “You’re not going to see something like that anymore,” said Larry Shinagawa, a professor at Hawaii Tokai International College. Studios that make films critical of China, he said, risk being banned in the country.

President Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasised the need to “tell China’s story well”.

“There is a notion that its propaganda has not worked well enough,” said Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society. “There’s sensitivity to the blockbuster power of Hollywood.” And so, since 2013, China has co-financed 41 top-grossing Hollywood films.

Success in China can make up for a disappointing box office performance at home or even transform a hit into a global blockbuster. By the same token, getting shut out of the Chinese market can be devastating for a movie. That’s a powerful incentive to avoid causing any offense to China.

One of China’s movie regulators spelled it out in a speech at the US-China Film Summit in Los Angeles in 2013. “We have a huge market, and we want to share it with you,” said Zhang Xun, then the president of the state-owned China Film Co-Production Corp, to a room full of Hollywood executives. Then came the condition. “We want films that are heavily invested in Chinese culture, not one or two shots,” she said. “We want to see positive Chinese images.”