China's birthday movie has many seeing red
By Wu Zhong, China Editor
HONG KONG - In China, a novel, a movie or a song is often considered to bear political and ideological implications, and publication of fiction or the making of a movie is subject to examination and approval by the authorities. Now a new movie is provoking a tumult of narrow-minded nationalism that runs deep in Chinese society and is on the rise as China gains self-confidence.
The view that the arts are a vehicle for politics originated in the late 1950s, when Chairman Mao Zedong said anti-party elements were using novels to oppose the party. The idea was taken to an extreme during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when virtually all fiction publications and movies produced previously were banned as "anti-revolutionary".
China's political and ideological environment has undergone fundamental changes since the end of the Cultural Revolution, thanks to late leader Deng Xiaoping's reforms and open-door policy. Today, writers and movie producers enjoy much greater freedom, and the standards of the authorities' "examination and approval" processes have become comparatively much more lax, though censorship is still imposed.
But this decades-old suspicion of the arts has had a lasting influence on the Chinese people, with some still "censoring" works from a political or ideological perspective.
The current stir is over whether ethnic Chinese actors and actresses holding foreign passports should be allowed to appear in a film marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The movie, Jianguo Daye (Lofty Ambitions of Founding a Republic), is about preparations to found the PRC in 1949. After Japan's surrender in 1945 at the end of World War II, a civil war broke out on mainland China between troops controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the ruling Kuomintang (KMT).
In three years, communist troops had swept into control of most areas of the mainland. In 1949, the CCP moved its headquarters to Beijing in preparation for the founding of a new republic to replace the KMT's Republic of China (ROC), which fled to the island of Taiwan. The new movie tries to recreate this historic event.
The 30 million yuan (US$4.39 million) movie is produced by the state-owned China Film Group and directed by its chairman and chief executive, Han Sanping. It is scheduled for release on September 17, two weeks ahead of the 60th birthday of the PRC on October 1.
It is expected to be a big hit. As China grows stronger, patriotic and nationalistic sentiments are on the rise, and the film will tap into this. Given the movie's likely popularity, just about every Chinese actor - from superstar to starlet - wanted a role.
According to Jianguo Daye's official website, over 170 Chinese actors and actresses, including many superstars, have been signed up. An envious Hong Kong film director said, "It would be a director's lifetime dream to direct a film starring just a few of these stars. But Jianguo Daye has them all."
Many of the major roles are key historical figures, such as Mao and Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the PRC, and the stars are clamoring to be a part of this action. These include kung fu superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li, one of the best-known Chinese actresses, Zhang Ziyi, Hong Kong actor, comedian, screenwriter and film director Stephen Chow and another Hong Kong celebrity, actor and producer Andy Lau. Directors John Woo, Feng Xiaogang and Chen Kaige are also willing to play cameo parts, even if only for a few seconds.
The fuss began after the producer publicized the cast of Jainguo Daye, with bloggers claiming that more than 20 of the actors were not Chinese nationals but foreign passport holders. This immediately provoked uproar among China's netizens,
"It is a new march into China by the allied forces of a foreign power to celebrate the birthday of our republic," one wrote on Mop.com, an entertainment website, alluding to the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Allied Forces in 1900.
Major state-controlled media such as Xinhua and China Youth Daily soon joined the debate, publishing critical commentaries. Follow-up reports in state-run media found that nine actors could be confirmed as being naturalized foreign nationals, while some were Hong Kong residents who may still be considered Chinese nationals.
Jet Li, for one, has recently bought a luxury house in Singapore and become a Singaporean. Shanghai-born actress Wu Junmei, who plays May-ling Soong (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) in the movie, director Chen Kaige, and actress Ning Jing are all US passport holders.
What particularly angers some of the public and the media is that many stars simply evade the question of nationality. Wu Junmei is frank in this regard. Grilled by the media, she admitted she was an American citizen but added, "Nationality is just a symbol which does not change the nature of one being Chinese."
Her statement only drew more harsh criticism. The allegiance of the Chinese-turned foreigners is in question. Some commentators say that when one becomes a naturalized American citizen, one must pledge allegiance to the flag, giving up loyalty to one's original nation. So how could these people still claim they are patriotic to China?
Such criticism is familiar to those who experienced the Cultural Revolution, when anything could be raised to the plane of high principle. It demonstrates how narrow-minded nationalism can be easily become xenophobia.
It is personal freedom of choice for a Chinese, celebrity or not, to become a naturalized citizen of another nation. For its part, China now opens its doors wide to foreign businesses and foreigners are welcome to invest and do business in the country. Some Chinese provinces even invite foreigners to be advisers to local governments.
So why should ethnic Chinese artists who are naturalized foreign citizens be banned from playing characters in a Chinese movie like Jianguo Daye, which is not a historical documentary but a piece of creative work? It's not as if their acting would change a chapter of Chinese history.
Weng Li, a spokesman for the China Film Group, is perfectly right. In answering media inquiries, Weng said: "The major reason for choosing an actor is not which country he is from, but whether he is suitable for and able to play the character."
It is also good to see that some Chinese commentators and bloggers remain cool in the face of growing nationalistic sentiment. "Who cares who will play in the movie? As long as it is good, I'll go see it," said one blogger on Mop.com. "For ours to become a truly open society, our minds must also become open, not just our borders," said another.
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Originally Posted by SPJ
