Disney’s live-action Mulan remake is facing another round of criticisms and boycott efforts for filming in China’s Xinjiang region, where over a million Uyghur Muslims are reportedly being detained in state-run internment camps. Mulan is the latest in a string of Disney live-action remakes that includes Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Disney intended a wide theatrical release for the film, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, Mulan was released direct to video via Disney+ instead of in theaters worldwide.
The outrage over Disney’s relations with Xinjiang authorities is the latest in a long line of controversies for Mulan. A boycott movement began months ago after star actress Liu Yifei made posts on social media in support of the Hong Kong Police Department, which has been widely criticized for brutal and abusive tactics in response to the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests. Mulan has also drawn critiques for cultural inaccuracies and exoticization, primarily attributed to the mostly white writing and production teams.
Per the New York Times, The #BoycottMulan hashtag is now gaining even more traction on Twitter after viewers noticed the special thanks to Xinjiang officials in the credits. The film’s credits specifically thank several regional government groups, including the Publicity Department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee and the Turpan Municipal Bureau of Public Security. British novelist Jeannette Ng joined the protest movement in a tweet that features a picture of the Mulan credits, and a caption that reads, “Mulan specifically thank the publicity department of CPC Xinjiang uyghur autonomous region committee in the credits. You know, the place where the cultural genocide is happening.”
Xinjiang is largely inhabited by primarily Muslim minority groups, of which the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs are the largest. Numerous reports from international news sources have fought to unveil the growth of Chinese government “re-education” camps in the area over the past several years. The detainment of Muslims within these camps has been repeatedly accused of human rights violations, and two Uyghur organizations recently lodged a formal complaint of torture and mass-detention with the International Criminal Court, according to NBC News.
Since the original animated film, Mulan has primarily built its cultural identity off of a perceived progressivism – seen by many as promoting both gender equality and cultural diversity. That legacy has been complicated by the recent wave of criticisms, which include discussions of Disney’s “diversity” efforts being largely driven by the Chinese box office, and suggestions that the new film’s feminist messaging is relatively shallow.
For fans, the story at the heart of Mulan – the story of a woman who bravely fights for her own place in the world – remains resonant. But for many of those same fans, the various circumstances surrounding the new film have tarnished the story at its core. Given accounts of the humanitarian crisis occurring in Xinjiang, many see Disney’s special thanks for filming in the region as tone-deaf at best, and complicit at worst.
