Before You #BoycottMulan, Consider the Context
By: Roc Su
Tags: Mulan, Film, China, Politics, Disney

Inaccurate and incomplete

Here is part of it, as presented by CNN:

“I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now. What a shame for Hong Kong,” she posted on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese social media platform.

Joshua Wong calls for everyone to #BoycottMulan

Joshua Wong, a pro-Hong Kong activist and one of the leaders of the #BoycottMulan initiative, retweeted this CNN article and states that “Liu Yifei openly and proudly endorses police brutality in Hong Kong.” This version of events is echoed by practically every major Western news outlet. It is also inaccurate and incomplete.

Here is Liu Yifei’s original post on Weibo:

Liu Yifei’s controversial Weibo post

We can see that she’s actually “retweeting” a post from 人民日报 (People’s Daily), the largest news outlet in Mainland China. Most Western news articles seem to omit this detail in their reporting. As an addendum to the retweet, she has added the hashtag #我也支持香港警察, which translates to “I also support the Hong Kong police.”

What most Western articles also omit is that the original post by People’s Daily is itself a quote from reporter Fu Guohao, who was assaulted and detained by protestors at Hong Kong International Airport on August 13, 2019, the day before Liu Yifei retweeted these words.

On this day, protestors grabbed a 23-year-old Chinese man named Xu, accusing him of being an undercover police officer. With no evidence, they detained him, and a number of protestors punched and kicked him until he was unconscious, some continuing to do so even afterwards. He was detained for over 4 hours before security and paramedics finally got past the mob and carried Xu out on a stretcher.

Fu Guohao was detained and beaten by protestors at HK International | CNN

Fu Guohao was the second man to be detained. In a video that would later go viral in China, he is heard saying, “I support the Hong Kong police, you can beat me up now.” He soon ended up in the hospital as well, and People’s Daily jumped on the propaganda opportunity and quoted these words. This post was then reposted over 8.7 million times, and one of these reposts was from Liu Yifei.

China: No free speech, no free press

I am in no way suggesting that these isolated incidents of violence invalidate the protests at large. The vast majority of protestors were peaceful, and the police did and do engage in brutal tactics that must be condemned. Let us consider, however, how such an incident realistically plays out in Mainland China.

People’s Daily is not just the largest state-run media outlet. It is the largest media outlet, period. Most other major media outlet are state-run, too, and the ones that aren’t are still heavily regulated by the CCP. Reporters without Borders publishes an annual Press Freedom Index, and China ranked 177th out of 180 countries in its 2020 rankings.

In the US, which is ranked 45th, you get to go on Twitter, type something snarky, “@” realDonaldTrump, add a trending hashtag, and go to sleep feeling good about yourself because your tweet went viral and you’re now certified “Woke.” That’s not how China works.

Imagine for a moment what the Black Lives Matter movement might look like in the Chinese system. Every major news network is a more biased version of Fox News, constantly circulating videos of protestors burning buildings, smashing windows, and looting stores. All posts with #BlackLivesMatter are immediately deleted. You voice a dissenting opinion, and instead of being “woke,” you are woken up by policemen at your door. Lebron James shows support for the protestors, and instead of being told to “Shut up and dribble,” he just disappears. Maybe six months later, he reappears in a press conference, wearing a MAGA hat. Maybe he swears that Donald Trump has done more for Black people than Martin Luther King. Maybe he never comes back at all.

Welcome to China, and welcome to the reality that someone like Liu Yifei must navigate under constant scrutiny of the Chinese Communist Party because of her massive popularity and following (she has 67 million followers on Weibo).

Navigating a harsh reality | Screen grab from “Mulan”

If you truly support freedom of speech and press, you must inherently acknowledge how the absence of such freedoms can and will twist public opinion. The Chinese government has meticulously crafted a system of surveillance, censorship, and propaganda ensuring that, when news reaches the eyes and ears of Chinese people, it has already been vetted to stoke support for the CCP. Is it that surprising that Liu Yifei, one of over a billion victims in this system of misinformation, would echo support for a man beaten by violent protestors?

Can we even be sure she means what she says? For the CCP, Liu Yifei’s visibility and platform make her a perfect target to coerce into echoing support for the crackdown. Westerners may think being cast in an American movie gives her the responsibility to speak up for democracy. Xi Jinping would think the opposite, and he can cancel her life way faster than you can cancel her movie.

I do not pretend to know what Liu Yifei believes. Maybe she is every bit as pro-CCP and anti-democracy as her worst critics say. I’d love to sit down and ask her about it, but we’re not on that level. You shouldn’t pretend to know what she believes, either. A confession at gunpoint holds no weight and should not be admissible in court. In a country with no freedom of speech and press, words on social media reveal little about a person’s politics. I would not pass judgment on Liu Yifei based on her Weibo post on 8/14/2019. I would certainly not consider this post as evidence that she “openly and proudly endorses police brutality.”

Support both

Maybe you don’t want to pay $30 on top of a Disney+ subscription to see the film now. Maybe you don’t like that they cut out Li Shang, Mushu, and Cricket. Maybe you wish they kept the musical component of the original. Maybe even after understanding the context, you still think Liu Yifei’s Weibo post warrants a boycotting of the film.

I encourage everyone to form their own opinion. I welcome anyone to refute my points, because that is the beauty of having free speech. I just ask you to remember that not everyone has this privilege—that this is precisely what people are fighting for in Hong Kong. Part of supporting free speech is empathizing with those who don’t have it.

Thousands of peaceful protestors in Hong Kong | Vox

I also encourage everyone to consider the benefits of supporting Mulan. It is, after all, the most expensive live-action film ever directed by a woman. It features an entirely Asian cast, and it is the highest-profile Hollywood film to feature a lead performer from Mainland China. None of this is even to say the film is good, because that’s not the point.

I support this film because it can give another generation of young girls a strong role model. It can help modernize views in a country deeply rooted in patriarchy. It can pave the way for more POC narratives, especially ones cast and crafted with authenticity. It can encourage everyone to value family and to be loyal, brave, and true.

Loyal, brave, and true | Screen grab from Mulan

It can even provide performers like Liu Yifei an avenue to become less dependent on the authoritarian government that polices their every action. If Hollywood/America provides a safety net for their careers and their lives, perhaps they could then speak more openly about political issues. Perhaps then we’ll know what Liu Yifei actually thinks.

If actions speak louder than words, then let us look past her empty words on Weibo and recognize the grueling work she put into the role. As Liu Yifei, she is censored and restricted by the most powerful authoritarian regime in the world. As Hua Mulan, however, she calls on everyone to be strong and true to themselves.

“I put Mulan’s spirit in me” — Liu Yifei

To all those who criticize Liu Yifei for not fighting the system like Mulan: Disney’s Mulan is a children’s story—they even made a big deal out of it being PG-13. There is nothing PG-13 about the real China: as the Ballad of Mulan was passed down for nearly 1500 years, there have been thousands (if not millions) of women who were banished, mutilated, or executed for “not knowing their place.” In the original tale, Mulan hid her true identity for 12 years. Every Chinese person knows that, had she revealed herself, she would probably have been beheaded.

If Mulan teaches us anything, it is that one must sometimes deceive others in order to be true to oneself. Compare this with a piece of wisdom from Sun Zi:

All warfare is based on deception.

When able to strike, one must appear unable; when using force, one must appear at rest.

When near, one must appear far; when far, one must appear near.

Who is to say the real Liu Yifei is not the one on our screens, calling herself Hua Mulan?