The new Disney movie “Mulan” is facing calls for a boycott after it emerged that some scenes of the massive action were filmed in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, which witnessed documented violations of the right of the Uyghur Muslim minority on a large scale.
The film, with a production budget of $ 200 million, and its story about a famous Chinese warrior, was finally thrust into the political debate, after its star Liu Yifei announced her support for the Hong Kong police in confronting the pro-democracy protests last year.
However, he returned to raise controversy after his first broadcast on its “Disney Plus” streaming service last week. Viewers were noticed by a phrase in which the American group addressed “special thanks” to eight government entities in Xinjiang, including the Public Security Bureau in the city of Turpan, east of the province. There were several reports in the past of concentration camps.
Among the other destinations that “Disney” thanked for, was also the political propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang.
The issue has revived anger among Beijing’s critics in light of the increasing surveillance of Hollywood, accused in many ways of favoring the Chinese regime.
Rights groups, academics, and journalists revealed violations of the right of Muslim minorities, including Uyghurs and Kazakhs, in Xinjiang, including mass arrests, forced sterilizations and forced labor, in addition to severe restrictions on freedom of worship and movement.
According to the official at the Asia Society Museum, which specializes in Asian culture, Isaac Stone Fish, “It can be said that we are in front of the most problematic films of Disney” since “Song of the South”, which went into halls in 1946 and included a glorification of farmers’ life before the Second Operation War, before To be withdrawn from trading at a later time.
While the dissident Chinese artist Padiokao, who lives in Australia, said that he is currently working on creating new cartoons that show the character of “Mulan” as a prison guard in Xinjiang, as a kind of mockery of the “Disney” movie.
“This is very problematic and cannot be justified,” the artist told AFP. I mean we are facing a clear matter; We have all the evidence that shows what is happening in Xinjiang. ”
Badwikawu accused “Disney” of adopting “double standards”, through its support on the one hand of Western social justice movements such as “Me To” anti-harassment and “Black lives matter”, and on the other hand, it overlooks Chinese human rights violations.
The film, in which Disney presents a new version of her famous work released in 1998, faced unrest that accompanied its preparation.
The film was supposed to start showing in March, but from the start it fell victim to the emerging corona virus, and this step was postponed several times.
Disney surprised the industry, including the participants in the work themselves, by announcing that it would replace the “Moulin” show in cinemas with its home screening in several countries, including the United States. Which is what I really started with last Friday.
Xinjiang is a resource-rich region that is predominantly inhabited by the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uyghur minority, with stunning views of the mountains and desert.