Marvel's first Chinese superhero movie "Shangqi" (Shangqi) released a trailer, because the issue of suspected insults to China once again triggered discussion among netizens.
Remember that as early as the casting stage of the film in 2019, Liang Chaowei was boycotted and insulted by the vast number of Chinese audiences because of Fu Manchu's suspected insult to China.
Now in the trailer, there is a background music suspected of being sung by Chinese artist Wang Jiaer, which has also been questioned by netizens again.
In fact, netizens questioned the main reason why "Shangqi" was suspected of insulting China or the villain "Mandarin" in the film. Today, we will analyze the reasons for the suspected insult to China through the two roles of "Shangqi" and "Mandarin".
Shang-Chi in the comics was born in Hunan, China, also known as the "Kung Fu Master", and he is proficient in martial arts and the use of various weapons, most commonly guns, double-cut sticks and swords.
Inspired by Bruce Lee, the characters first appeared in the comics in December 1973. Just looking at the role of Shangqi alone, it seems that there is no problem, and the most controversial thing is Shangqi's father.
The father of the earliest "Shangqi" in the comics was named "Mandarin", but because Marvel lost the copyright to "Fu Manchu" in 1983, it renamed "Mandarin" to "Zheng Zu".
In the follow-up comics, "Mandarin" became one of the false identities of "Zheng Zu".
On this point, some people believe that the character prototype of "Mandarin" is "Fu Manchu", with strong racial discrimination. Some people also say that "Fu Manchu" has nothing to do with "Mandarin".
Is this really the case?
Whether "Fu Manchu" and "Mandarin" have anything to do with each other, let's put aside, and Shi Guangjun will first take everyone to know the past and present lives of the role of "Fu Manchu".
At the end of the 19th century, a large number of Chinese went to the Western United States to work, which triggered an employment crisis for the bottom white people in the United States. As a result, many Europeans and Americans began to advocate that "yellow people" would pose a threat to "white people".
This was the beginning of the "Yellow Peril Theory."
At the beginning of the 20th century, when the "Yellow Peril" became the mainstream of Western public opinion, the British novelist Sachs Lomore created the image of Fu Manchu in "The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu".
Lomoer, who had never been to China, could be said to have accurately grasped the ignorance and fear of westerners at that time about Chinese, and he directly called Fu Manchu "the embodiment of the Yellow Peril."
Dr. Fu Manchu in the book has a very high IQ and is proficient in all kinds of torture and poison, and ancient Oriental mysteries.
"With Shakespearean eyebrows, Satan's face, long eyes, thin beard, flashing green light", inner darkness, is the most evil person in the world".
The demonization depicted in this novel alone brings together the prejudices of Westerners against yellows. Later, the film industry in the West developed rapidly, and the role of "Fu Manchu" was quickly "carried forward".
Fu Manchu in the movie, with the iconic two strands of beard, the image of a Manchu Qing official, has a vicious face, ambition, and a strange and terrible appearance.
Searching for "Fu Manchu" related film and television works on the Internet are mostly ugly and pleasing works such as "Fu Manchu's Blood" and "Fu Manchu's Treacherous Schemes" such as "How Fu Manchu Killed White People and Finally Punished by White People".
For a time, "Fu Manchu" became a super big IP and became a household name.
By the 1980s, decades of experience had led Westerners to prejudice that Chinese was as "abominable" as Fu Manchu.
In the 1960s, Marvel acquired the rights to Fu Manchu's comic adaptation and created the comic book image of "Mandarin".
Man Daren in the comics is Iron Man's number one rival. A self-proclaimed descendant of Genghis Khan, he was born in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, and like Tony Stark's "Iron Man", he was also a wealthy family.
In the early Days of Marvel, he was also used the term "yellow peril" to describe it with prejudice. And is portrayed as ugly, sinister, vicious, cunning.
After the expiration of the copyright of the novel, Marvel renamed "Mandarin" to "Zheng Zu".
Are "Fu Manchu" and "Zheng Zu" a person? The Chinese Academy of History once pointed out that Zheng Zu and Fu Manchu are one person, and Mandarin is a derivative of Fu Manchu's image.
That is to say, "Mandarin" and "Fu Manchu" are the same "Yellow Peril Theory", at least in the early days.
However, some netizens believe that the Mandarin who appeared in the movie "Iron Man 3" is a Middle Easterner, and there is no evil image in early comics or early movies, so it is not insulting.
It has also been suggested that the name of Mandarin is derived from the transliteration of "Mandarin", which translates to Chinese means "Mandarin", which is also a word that was first used to refer to Chinese officials, and there is no ambiguity.
It is true that Marvel has got rid of the stereotypical bias of early comics, and the early creation must have certain historical limitations. Jim Stirling, one of the comic's creators, also said:
"I hope Marvel doesn't use Fu Manchu's personality, because what he created back then doesn't seem appropriate to him now."
Some people say that the Chinese image cannot be a villain?
No, although the "Mandarin" personality is already clearly different from Fu Manchu. But Manda is a derivative of the vicious character setting of "Fu Manchu", which really can't be washed.
And this is precisely the reason why Marvel is walking on thin ice and makes the Chinese people care about it incomparably. Some people once described Fu Manchu as a mirror that reflected the humiliating history of modern China and the sad history of Chinese immigrants.
It is deeply believed that today's Chinese image and China's international status have long been very different from the past, with the emergence of Chinese stars such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, and the continuous improvement of China's comprehensive strength, many Westerners' stereotypes of Chinese have gradually changed.
It stands to reason that the appearance of Chinese superheroes in the Marvel Universe is a good thing. Even "Shangqi" is revered by other superheroes in the manga as "Kung Fu Master", who is kind by nature and represents the "light of the Chinese".
But the subtle character of "Mandarin" is a collection of centuries of prejudiced and demonized western imaginations of Chinese. So much so that westerners' impression of "Fu Manchu" has long been a deep-rooted sinister and cunning "yellow peril."
His appearance is destined to cause controversy. The father-son file of the Chinese light "Shangqi" and the ugly "Mandarin" of the Chinese is also destined to make many Chinese unhappy.
As the Observer Network once commented:
"If the 'Fu Manchu' series is the Western prejudice against old China under the 'Yellow Peril Theory,' today's use of 'Shangqi' to circle money is the arrogance of the West that cannot correctly admit its mistakes and attempt to fool through the barriers."
So the focus of the problem is not the villain, but the past and present lives of the villain and the bad effects it has caused.
Shiguang said:
In fact, in the 21st century, with the rise of China, China's film market is increasingly valued by foreign film and television companies, and they will inevitably reset the role of "Mandarin".
It's just that there is a black history of "Fu Manchu", and it is not easy for the character of "Mandarin" to be whitewashed.
This is a challenge for Marvel and a test for our Chinese artists. And what kind of "Shangqi" will be in the end, we will wait and see.