Stop judging China with US political correctness

Sunday’s 90th annual Academy Awards invariably hit the worldwide headlines. Just a couple of days earlier, an article in the Chinese edition of The New York Times gauged Chinese film and the Oscars, but the author went too far by concluding that China is headed in the opposite direction to the Oscars.

The Chinese action blockbuster Wolf Warrior 2 failed to be nominated a best foreign-language film. It was heavily criticized by some Western critics for stoking nationalism in Chinese moviegoers.

However, the article claimed that Chinese films are intrinsically drifting apart from the Oscars as they diverge in values: Chinese movies are driven by absolute power to unleash the wolf spirit of humanity, the author opined.

The author, albeit a Chinese professor, concluded that China’s imperial mind-set sought to export or reshape the world order, and with Wolf Warrior 2, it was declaring a culture war on Hollywood.

Violence and patriotism, ubiquitously portrayed in Hollywood movies, are often much admired. In The Patriot, Mel Gibson moved his audience carrying a US national flag through a rain of bullets from British troops. Why is a Chinese film with a similar theme lambasted so hard in the West, especially in the US?

The US media seem to object to anything positive about China, be it the country’s economic growth or love of the country, as this is now a matter of political correctness.

This happens not just in the film industry. In broader terms, the US media are blemishing the image of China in every possible way. They relentlessly publicize the so-called “China threat” theory to arouse fear and anxiety, and hype stories of Chinese espionage and penetration across the world.

This reminds us of McCarthyism when accusations were made without evidence and communism was demonized. It is because of this intensifying climate that politicians like China-basher Marco Rubio are gaining popularity, which in turn intensifies the climate.

Like the Nobel Prize, the Oscars are losing their public credibility and more often trigger controversy. If someone insists that Chinese films and the Oscars are drifting apart, that is because the Oscars are supporting a climate that grows increasingly hostile to China, not the other way around.