Out of Frame
About this show
Video essays that explore the intersection of art, culture, and big ideas written & produced by FEE's Director of Media, Sean W. Malone.
Is Disney Praising Chinese Genocide!?
September 17, 2020
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The live-action version of Disney’s Mulan is now available for VOD on Disney+ for those willing to pay the $30 price tag. But Disney has come under some (highly justified) criticism for thanking multiple Chinese Communist Party government agencies in the credits of Mulan, including four different propaganda departments and a public security bureau located in the Xinjiang province, where some of the movie was filmed.
Why is this a big deal? Because the Xinjiang province is where the Chinese government is perpetrating a literal genocide of the Uighur Muslim population there.
The CCP has been tightening the economic, religious, and cultural restrictions placed on the Uighurs for years. And now, the Uighur people are subject to strict surveillance, mass incarceration, forced labor, indoctrination, destruction of their important cultural sites, and severe population control through involuntary birth control measures, sterilizations, and abortions. This meets the accepted definition of genocide.
Somehow, though, not many people are much aware of the appalling situation Uighurs are facing, which might be why Disney thought it could get away with thanking the government agencies committing or covering up gross human rights abuses. But they didn’t get away with it. Nor should they.
Because what we do and what we tolerate when we think no one else is watching matters.
CREDITS:
Produced by Sean W. Malone
Written by Jen Maffessanti & Sean W. Malone
Edited by Paul Nelson
Asst. Edited by Jason Reinhardt
LINKS:
--Disney Drama--
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/world/asia/china-mulan-xinjiang.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/07/why-disneys-new-mulan-is-scandal/
https://reason.com/2020/09/08/disney-thanks-chinese-labor-camp-authorities-in-mulan-credits/
https://twitter.com/xan_desanctis/status/1303402973859639298
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/09/09/mulan-backlash-disney-xinjiang/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mulan-strikes-chord-with-younger-adults-on-premium-vod
--What’s Happening to the Uighurs--
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/uighurs/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037
https://apnews.com/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c
https://www.cato.org/blog/uyghur-genocide-shows-urgency-combatting-neo-malthusianism
https://www.vox.com/2018/10/24/18018282/china-reeducation-camps-uighur-muslims
