BBC sees Wolf Warrior II through Western bias

The Chinese fi lm, Wolf Warriors II, which grossed over 2.5 billion yuan ($ 372 million) in less than 10 days, has become a phenomenon. In the fi lm, a Chinese soldier ventures alone into a war zone in Africa to save his trapped compatriots. It inspired its audience enormously, so much so that many viewers said on social media that they would want to join the army.

However, not all who saw the Hollywood- style movie enjoyed it. While US superheroes who save the planet from time to time are taken for granted, the Chinese action fi lm caught the BBC’s attention, calling it a “nationalist action fi lm.” Furthermore, the BBC highlighted a tagline of the blockbuster and translated it this way: “Anyone who off ends China will be killed no matter how far the target is.”

How bad- tempered China appears to be in this sentence. It seems that anyone who deals with China can never be too cautious because they would be killed. China is made to look like an irritable and brutal killer. “It’s aggressive,” my foreigner friend said.

However, the original Chinese words actually mean that anyone who attacks China will be punished, however far the target is. The misinterpretation of one word draws a totally different picture of China and Chinese people. It’s very likely that the BBC intentionally used this translation to throw mud at China.

However, it is not unusual for the BBC to stereotype China.

Last year, the BBC said in its documentary, Taste of Shanghai, that “As Confucius says, ‘ The way you cut your meat refl ects the way you live.’” Yet Confucius was misinterpreted by the host, Rick Stein, in a hilariously wrong way. Confucius actually said that he didn’t eat meat that was not properly cut up.

Also in the documentary, Stein said “In certain parts of industrial China, dogs bark at the rare sight of the sun breaking through,” to mock China’s air pollution, while the Chinese idiom coined in the Tang Dynasty was only meant to show one’s innocence in getting surprised at normal things.

The BBC, which is supposed to be fair and rational, unfortunately often provides biased reporting on China. It seldom sees China’s progress, but never lets negative things slip away. This will only taint the BBC’s image. No wonder US President Donald Trump aide Sebastian Gorka called the BBC “fake news” earlier this year.

The BBC’s China prejudice is just the tip of the iceberg, and is very common among Western media. When reporting on China and Chinese civilization, they desperately need to do some homework.