Miscellaneous News

FairAndUnbiased said:

Americans talk about Chinese movies all the time - to trash talk them.

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Mostly critics are the trash talkers, just look at the split between viewer reviews (97% positive) vs. professional reviews (71% positive)

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This is actually spectacularly backfiring as people will now watch them just to see if its actually bad. Wandering Earth got $5 million box office sales in North America itself. That's small compared to $600 million in China but its rare for a non-English film in the US.

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The reality is that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

You can put out all the attractive cultural products that you want, but some people will just refuse to see it. No reason, they just won't. What are you gonna do about it?

The real soft power isn't movies, music, TV, anime, books... its news. Everyone knows movies are fake, but is news fake? And that is where China can't compete, because its Xinhua vs the entire news agency empire.

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Chevalier said:

A Shitcoin.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1657600923827593216

A bit of historical perspective from a Chinese migrant labourer of the 1840s; how times change, how the wheel turns...

If Indians of all people can assume false superiority over Chinese, is it far fetched to see the same from the Thais and filipinos who aspire only to become 'LBFM' of the white anglo, so as to escape the crushing poverty which was caused by white anglo led austerity and the white anglo led financial system.

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FairAndUnbiased said:

Americans talk about Chinese movies all the time - to trash talk them.

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Mostly critics are the trash talkers, just look at the split between viewer reviews (97% positive) vs. professional reviews (71% positive)

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This is actually spectacularly backfiring as people will now watch them just to see if its actually bad. Wandering Earth got $5 million box office sales in North America itself. That's small compared to $600 million in China but its rare for a non-English film in the US.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

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The reality is that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

You can put out all the attractive cultural products that you want, but some people will just refuse to see it. No reason, they just won't. What are you gonna do about it?

The real soft power isn't movies, music, TV, anime, books... its news. Everyone knows movies are fake, but is news fake? And that is where China can't compete, because its Xinhua vs the entire news agency empire.

Click to expand...

FairAndUnbiased said:

I also noticed that HK and Taiwan used to have their own pop culture industry but since the mid 2000's they're dead. Those who are pro China follow Chinese pop culture, the rest went to US pop culture, nobody talks about their local pop culture.

I must point out that Japan doesn't have hard censorship of the US cultural products yet they've maintained an independent pop culture with 8/10 movies being non-US.

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China also has 8/10 movies being non-US with hard censorship. However, the allowed US movies are still quite low at rank at #5 and #9 so it shows that even in the absence of censorship, they wouldn't be doing too good.

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My hypothesis is that Chinese and Japanese culture are too different from Indo-European cultures and highly resistant to their cultural influence if there's a strong alternative. Its much easier to overwhelm HK or TW culturally than to overwhelm mainland China.

I'm just surprised that Thailand is so easily brainwashed if it has its own pop culture. I'm also surprised Malaysia has no pop culture anymore. I guess I'm still thinking of the Malaysia of Fish Leong and Michael Wong.

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Sardaukar20 said:

I'm gonna get alot of stick for saying this. But this my own personal opinion. The Wandering Earth I & II, and Moon Man pretty much sums up a problem with Chinese sci-fi genre today. It has not matured yet. While the stories are conceptually ok, there is always a sense of cringe when watching these movies. It resonates well with Chinese-speaking audiences, but for audiences who grew up on Hollywood, its difficult to take in. I know that they wanted to implement traditional Chinese values like the family, the home, and sacrifice into the sci-fi genre. But I just think that it can be written better. Still, I'm optimistic that they'll improve in due time. Nevertheless. Chinese cinema are excellent in making historical, drama, and martial art films. Some of their films, are considered classics among foreign audiences.

But you're right, movies are fake, but news is real. Its the news that drives people's opinion, and the Chinese news media is just outclassed by its Western counterpart. China would have to up their game, but the task is monumental. The Chinese media is just too rigid. It's gonna take a long time to catch up. China has little choice but to play with economic and hard power for now.

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eprash said:

Any specific reason Japanese prefer local movies their choice seems "natural" so to speak since they don't have any censorship in place

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Eventine said:

Again... It's a propaganda weakness inherent to authoritarianism.

Young people rebelling against the establishment and embracing the idea of democracy is an age old story. It is the perfect demographic for Western influence campaigns to target because it fits the psychological profile so well. Young people every where resent the fact that they lack political power, believe they know more than everybody else, and yearn to be free of all authority. These facts make them very susceptible to the promises of liberal democracy, because liberalism is all about empowering the individual, rebelling against authority, and pursuing freedom above all else.

It's not until people get into their thirties and forties that they realize the world doesn't work that way; and that the "freedom" offered by the West is nothing more than a different form of enslavement. When the thrill of protesting on the streets and throwing rocks at the police wears off, they will realize no, you can't survive off of pride parades and smoking weed and "revolution in our time." That there are objective power dynamics at play, which Western media actively attempts to hide in an effort to fool people into acting against their own interests.

Unfortunately, young people must be taught the hard way about these lessons; and the failure of their societies is the price they must pay. Look at the Arab Spring - that was an attempt by the West to rally the Muslim youth to the cause of liberal democracy. It brought little more than chaos across the Arab world, didn't move them up in the world what so ever, and failed in pretty much all of its goals.

The same will repeat, else where. Liberal democracy doesn't bring freedom to countries - it makes them vassals to the West. Look at the Koreans and their president's shameful display in Washington; or the Japanese and their commercial interests getting wrecked by US sanctions. Look at the pathetic birth rates across East Asia, and the South American countries run by drug lords. But democracy is a hell of a drug - by the time their young people wake up to the state of their societies, it'll be too late. The worst is yet to come.

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FairAndUnbiased said:

I also noticed that HK and Taiwan used to have their own pop culture industry but since the mid 2000's they're dead. Those who are pro China follow Chinese pop culture, the rest went to US pop culture, nobody talks about their local pop culture.

I must point out that Japan doesn't have hard censorship of the US cultural products yet they've maintained an independent pop culture with 8/10 movies being non-US.

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China also has 8/10 movies being non-US with hard censorship. However, the allowed US movies are still quite low at rank at #5 and #9 so it shows that even in the absence of censorship, they wouldn't be doing too good.

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My hypothesis is that Chinese and Japanese culture are too different from Indo-European cultures and highly resistant to their cultural influence if there's a strong alternative. Its much easier to overwhelm HK or TW culturally than to overwhelm mainland China.

I'm just surprised that Thailand is so easily brainwashed if it has its own pop culture. I'm also surprised Malaysia has no pop culture anymore. I guess I'm still thinking of the Malaysia of Fish Leong and Michael Wong.

Click to expand...

56860 said:

This hit deep. My great-great-great grandparents migrated from Fujian to SEA in search of a better life for their descendants. At that time, China was suffering greatly under Western and Japanese imperialism.

The english translation of the poem fails to fully convey the feeling of sorrow and hopelessness. Since then and now, how many generations of patriots have sacrificed their lives and blood to bring China to where it is today? I am ever more convinced that it is my generation's mission to rejuvenate China and return it to its rightful position at the apex of human civilization.

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