U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo) has spoken out against Disney's Mulan for what he says is a whitewashing of genocide in a letter addressed to the CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek. This is just the latest in a string of complications Mulan has faced on its way to the screen. The film faced several delays as it shifted around the release calendar due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Mulan is currently gearing up for a release in China after hitting Disney+ in the U.S. on September 3rd for a premium price of $29.99. While the move has been lucrative for Disney, it has arguably led to more backlash as the film is more easily accessible because people can watch it in their own homes. Initially, calls for the film to be boycotted were sparked by its star expressing support for the Hong Kong police. The ongoing civil unrest in Hong Kong is not directly related to film, but the most recent controversy is.
According to Deadline, backlash against Mulan has been heating up over the last several days after viewers spotted a note in the credits thanking authorities in Xinjiang province for letting them shoot in the area. For the past several years, Uighur Muslims and other Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang province have been detained in concentration camps by the Chinese government. One of the groups thanked in the credits, the Turpan Public Security Bureau, is on a sanctions list that prohibits U.S. entities from selling or supplying products to them due to their participation in running the camps. Senator Hawley sent the letter to Chapek on Wednesday condemning the studio for ignoring the human rights abuses in the province.
While Disney may not have broken the rules of this specific sanction, their working with the department ignores the issue at hand. Hawley's letter asks if Disney will pull the film from its streaming services to acknowledge, and not glorify, their involvement with the bureau in question. Hawley further asks about Disney's relationship with China and the communist party, questioning what sort of assistance they are receiving from any political parties. Disney has yet to respond to Hawley's letter or requests for comment from Deadline or The New York Times and neither director Niki Caro nor star Liu Yifei have acknowledged the controversy.
Disney will have to address the letter and the controversy eventually, but their answer may not be what people are looking for. The actions of the authorities in the Xinjiang province have been public knowledge for quite some time and to be unaware of what is happening is blatantly naive, but to ignore the human rights abuses and film there regardless is another thing entirely.
If Disney chooses to remain silent about Mulan, it will only further the rightful condemnation of their decision to film there. In an especially politically charged year, one where China has become a hot topic for both sides of the political aisle, a controversy like this will be hard to ignore.
Source: Deadline