I am not sure what the critic said of CRA is valid It might be true to AA But Chinese in SEA still definitely practice Chinese tradition and value more so than Chinese in China . A lot SEA OC when they travel to china does not see much of Chinese culture except the vestiges of old building that is mostly empty building or temple that more of a show than house of worship
‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Has Soared, but It May Not Fly in China
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“Crazy Rich Asians” does not yet have a release date in China. Under China’s strict quota system, a limited number of foreign films are approved for import every year and some experts are skeptical about the movie’s chances there.CreditCreditSanja Bucko/Warner Bros. Entertainment, via Associated Press
By Amy Qin
Sept. 6, 2018
HONG KONG — “Crazy Rich Asians,” the first major Hollywood studio release in 25 years with an all-Asian cast, has been hailed as a breakthrough in the United States, one that has . It has been dominating in other markets with large ethnic Chinese populations as well, including Taiwan and , where the film is set.
With its cast of mostly ethnic Chinese characters, a soundtrack featuring a number of Chinese artists and story notes that emphasize Chinese culture, it would also seem assured of success in China, the world’s second largest film market, which is playing a growing role in Hollywood’s calculations. The movie even opens with a quote from Napoleon: “China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world.”
And yet the film has not resonated with the “sleeping giant” and may not even be released there. Reached for comment this week, John Penotti, one of the film’s producers, said the application for official release in China was “still ongoing.”
Under China’s strict quota system, a limited number of foreign films are approved for import every year and some experts are skeptical about the movie’s chances. The depictions of profligate spending and vast wealth inequality in “Crazy Rich Asians,” they say, might not sit well with Chinese officials amid the country’s growing push for positive “.”
, a Chinese website (compared to an audience approval score of 86 percent on ). One Douban reviewer compared the viewing experience to the pleasant surprise of “finding a decent dish in a popular American Chinatown restaurant.” Another panned it, calling the movie “crazy stereotypical.”
Dong Ming, a Shanghai film critic, said: “Maybe the content of the film wouldn’t get censored but it’s a question of whether the film would even be popular in China.”
“Chinese people really dislike this kind of westernized Chinese culture,” he added, comparing the movie to American Chinese food staples like General Tso’s chicken and fortune cookies. “The flavor is not authentic.”
The stark contrast speaks to the wide gap between the mainland Chinese experience and the Chinese diaspora experience — and in particular, the experience of ethnic Chinese communities who are minority populations in Western countries.
In America, many Asian-Americans have spoken out about the emotional impact of feeling represented onscreen in a major Hollywood film.
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You’re 20 years old.
You’ve spent the past several years repatriating yourself. You get your family’s name inked into your skin. That character is there forever. You won’t let anyone make you feel the way you did all those years ago. You love being Chinese.
You’re 25 years old.
You see a movie with an all-asian cast at a screening and for some reason you’re crying and you can’t stop. You’ve never seen a cast like this in Hollywood. Everyone is beautiful.
You’re so happy you’re Chinese.
. “I want all of them to have an anthem that makes them feel as beautiful as your words and melody made me feel when I needed it most.”
to exert influence over China’s diaspora communities run the risk of falling flat or igniting a backlash that would only see them drifting further away.
“Crazy Rich Asians” showed “Chineseness at its most potent,” said Ying Zhu, a professor of cinema studies at City University of New York. By evoking a more nuanced vision of diaspora culture, she added, the film “galvanized the diaspora Chinese in a way that the mainland film industry — under the tight grip of the Communist Party — has not been able to deliver.”
The challenge of navigating complex racial sensitivities on both sides of the Pacific was again evident in 2016 with the release of “The Great Wall,” the high-profile, China-Hollywood coproduction. The decision to cast Matt Damon in the lead role was by Asian-American actors as “white savior complex ” and “whitewashing,” referring to the practice of casting white actors in roles originally conceived as Asian or nonwhite.
Filmmakers were caught off-guard by the criticism. In their mind, the film, if anything, was conceived as an effort to avoid another diversity problem: pandering.
Chinese audiences had become irritated with Hollywood studios for perfunctorily dropping Chinese actors and Chinese elements into movies in what appeared to be a blatant effort to pander to moviegoers. Making a movie with a mostly Chinese cast that was set in China was meant to solve that problem.
To many in China, where audiences are accustomed to seeing Chinese stars on screen, the concept of whitewashing was completely foreign. They may have shared a common goal — to see more meaningful movie roles for ethnically Asian actors — but their reasons for wanting it were totally different.
explaining the whitewashing controversy in the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper.
There is, however, at least one area of cultural exchange that seems to be resonating with both mainland Chinese and the diaspora population in North America. Chinese up-and-coming hip-hop artists and rappers are finding crossover success, with substantial and growing fan bases both in China and abroad.
The “Crazy Rich Asians” soundtrack features one of those artists, an up-and-coming female rapper named Vava.
"My New Swag" by Vava.CreditCreditVideo by 華納音樂 Warner Music Taiwan Official
Of course the life experiences of Chinese in China are different from Chinese elsewhere, it is both presumptuous and illogical to think that they would be the same. You seem to be pre-occupied with being judgmental about some absolutist practice of "Chinese tradition and value". I see the many flavors of practicing Chinese traditions and values as inherent diversity to be expected and celebrated of a culture of well over a billion people spread all over the world.
It's been quite awhile since I last saw a good more modern submarine movie (Phantom in 2013).