Don't scold poor aesthetics, scold is discrimination? Sorry, not watching "The Little Mermaid" has nothing to do with backward thinking
Text | Ling Hu Boguang
This Disney's latest blockbuster "The Little Mermaid" can be said to have completely pounced in the Chinese market, with a box office of only 20 million in 6 days of release, ranking sixth at the box office, and finally predicting that the box office is sad to be 30 million, which can be said to be a new low. Of course, I believe that for many Chinese viewers, it actually has 30 million?
This film can be said to have been controversial since its birth, absolutely controversial at home and abroad.
But because the United States and the West have their own national conditions, and there are still a large number of audience black groups, the box office is still very good, and the domestic box office is really hitting a new low. Chinese audiences, especially young people on the Internet, are mainly critical, but occasionally there are still media and netizens who come out to sing the opposition.
This netizen will not talk about it, after all, the voice is too small, two days ago there was a media Litchi News ended, its original title is: "The mockery of the Little Mermaid is a regression of thought"? You see, mocking a movie even "thought regression" came, almost shouting out Chinese reflection.
According to the meaning of this article, we do not scold is an insult to aesthetics, and scolding is not catering to Western political correctness is discrimination. So the question is, what should we think of Disney's "The Little Mermaid" movie?
My answer is: the domestic Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts squinted, "Lion Boy" and Yi Wao Daihua, etc., these domestic cultural aesthetic events netizens are mocking, why insult aesthetic foreign cultural events, we can't mock? Mockery is a regression of thought?
Aesthetic bullying, cultural tolerance? Would you like to go to The Little Mermaid?
Although there are few in China, there are still netizens who support "The Little Mermaid", and the banners they are carrying are imported from the United States, that is, racial discrimination, multicultural tolerance, and see a bunch of "Little Mermaid" black princesses, how much influence does it have on black children, give them dreams or something.
The most important issue is that even if we agree to disagree with black leading, it's not multiculturalism, it's not political correctness.
What does this American political correctness have to do with Chinese audiences? Is it true that American cultural values are Chinese cultural values and world cultural values? The Chinese audience is about to agree with it, and if the Chinese audience does not agree, it is a regression of thought? Is it time to reflect?
I am very interested in the word "diversity" now, you can't criticize him, otherwise it is against pluralism, against the goals pursued by the human spirit, against the rejection and fear of "universal values". When was pluralism in the United States and the West the goal of spiritual progress? I think that the more different cultures communicate, the more they converge, and the more they can communicate, the more they diverge?
The United States and the West are indeed quite diverse, and have become a plaque of opposition, tearing, and personal extreme thought.
In the history of Chinese civilization, foreign cultures have been integrated and absorbed and converged, and under the convergence of mainstream values, ethnic individuals, customs, beliefs, and other differences, this is called common development and a hundred flowers bloom.
The main reason for the Chinese audience's disdain and ridicule of the movie version of "The Little Mermaid" is not that the ideas that people believe are "regressing, returning, becoming more and more conservative, showing an extreme trend", let alone what cannot be integrated into universal values, and what political correctness.
It is that Chinese audiences are becoming more and more disgusted with preaching Western values and forcing aesthetics.
China is a multi-ethnic country, and at the same time there is no debt to black people in history, there is no discrimination on the basis of skin color, and there is no market for racial issues in China. For the story of "The Little Mermaid", there is also a remake into a movie.
What Chinese want to see is not based on the moral preaching of "racial equality" in the context of American society, nor is it an actor who is completely different from the fairy tale characters in the perception of the vast number of Chinese audiences, but he has acted in a story that is not wonderful.
If we look at the macro narrative level, what Chinese audiences see in this film is that Disney and Hollywood's arrogance in the culture of the world, the challenge of people's acceptance ability and aesthetics, is another morality of American political correctness, and is a condescending bullying of Chinese audiences.
You can't expect viewers who feel insulted to have any good comments about such a movie.
The box office of 20 million in 6 days, "The Little Mermaid" Chinese box office pounced, really not because "too dark"
More importantly, I think Chinese cultural aspect is still too restrained, and foreign pop culture like this comes into the country. Because cultural values, aesthetics and various issues are attacked by the Western media and those who follow them, many people are used to falling into their topics to fight back and think with their thinking.
For example, the West and those people say that we discriminate against black people and that our culture and aesthetics are not diverse.
A bunch of people, including the media and officials, will also counter that we do not discriminate and that our culture is very diverse.
But in fact, there are two better ways, one is to use magic to bombard you "discriminate against Asians", and the other is to tell the essence and truth, Chinese do not care about how blacks are, because there is no entanglement between China and blacks in modern history, and Chinese audiences do not like "The Little Mermaid", simply because the heroine is not good-looking.
This is a simple thing, Chinese audiences themselves are mocking the small fresh meat of internal entertainment, and the new generation of actresses is "Pu Nu".
What do you want to change the trend of Chinese social thought in American movies, the heroine of "The Little Mermaid" is indeed completely out of line with the aesthetics of Chinese audiences in her choice, just such a simple truth. In fact, many audiences do not watch this movie simply because they think that the male and female protagonists are not good, and many people have not thought about so much deep meaning.
As a result, some people want to dig out so many small words for him, this kind of film criticism and these people who mock Chinese audiences, but they want to take the small words and righteousness they dug up as the true thoughts of the main creators, completely ignoring the various American magic changes and blackening background insult aesthetics.
For this film, netizens spray the heroine, I think it has little to do with skin color and race. The core of this matter is that although Disney holds high the banner of respecting multiculturalism, it is actually shoddy, cheating and slippery, and does not tailor a suitable plot for the black heroine.
Even if you really want black women to play "The Little Mermaid", there is no selection of black actresses who are more suitable for the role.
This is essentially the same as the unscrupulous game manufacturers who now play a large number of skinning games, and skinning is self-defeating.
The old version of mermaid animation is actually the most traditional narrative logic and values in the West. Women put beauty and love first, fold some kindness, love and other buffs, and finally build a family with the prince. Under this logic, it is naturally more appropriate to be a white actor.
If you really want to find a little black girl with a dirty braid as the protagonist, you should naturally change the plot, how to change the magic here will not diverge thinking.
The most important thing is that there are actually two Disney black princess animations, one is 2009's "The Princess and the Frog", which is a 2D animation that tells a rather old-fashioned prince and princess story. The other is New Era's "Moana" in 2016.
The heroine of this anime is Princess Moana Polynesia, she is brave and optimistic, resilient and helpful. I personally like this black princess among Disney princesses, and there is no love in this film, and the male lead is similar to the role of partner and mentor.
You see, there are obviously two black princess animations waiting to be live-action, and Disney has replaced "The Little Mermaid" live-action with a black heroine.
"The Little Mermaid" is from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "Daughter of the Sea" and is a mythological story from Northern Denmark. Northern Europe is actually a relatively small country, and in reality it is a fan of the United States. So don't dare to bully blacks, just bully the aesthetics of the Nordic countries.
And you see that the heroine is not good-looking black, but the female villain is a beautiful white actress, and the people are clean.
ps: The little mermaid of the original "Daughter of the Sea" seems to have golden hair, and later Disney changed to red hair and became a representative of the red-haired race, which can be said to be their childhood princess, but now it has been replaced by black people.
Diversity, aesthetic bullying? Is it possible, "The Little Mermaid" is just not good-looking？
Finally, foreign countries do not talk about it, I found that Chinese audiences have also been "aesthetically bullied" by capital over the years, and there are a lot of small fresh meat and popular female stars, but the vast majority of Chinese audiences are just Yan dogs, and they will still resist when they encounter this kind of aesthetic bullying, like the heroine of "Little Mermaid".
I see that when major social media and netizens comment, the frequency of this view is not low.
That is, it doesn't matter if it's a black actress, but you at least have to choose a black actor who is more suitable for the role of the Little Mermaid, and Chinese audiences really don't value it so much about whether they are black actors.
Just like the same Disney live-action "Aladdin" lamp god is played by Will Smith, after the movie was released, no Chinese audience scolded Will Smith's lamp god as black, right. You say it's a man, and it's a trick that the lamp god or blue skin is.
Okay, that superhero movie has a very famous character called Catwoman, and Catwoman is a white beauty in the original book. Later, Harley Berry's version of "Catwoman" was recognized as a bad movie, but the global audience, including Chinese audiences, did not scold this Catwoman where she couldn't do it, because Halle Berry was beautiful and sexy.
Are you going to say that the environment was different from the present? The 2022 "The New Batman" Catwoman is also a black actress, and no one scolds.
Now it is a commercial entertainment movie, to pass the time, by the way to sell cola popcorn, the United States to give people a whole high and low nobility, there are still media and people here in the country to echo this view, like it represents civilization progress, do not like is backward thinking.
Why do Chinese audiences attack this movie without a little count? Is it because of the actors? That's not because I can't get used to the aesthetically correct face of American saints. Speaking of which, in recent years, Chinese audiences have mostly scolded the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts, which is aesthetically bullying by the two devils, "Lion Boy" and Yi Wadaihua.
In fact, we should have scolded the source of aesthetic correctness, Hollywood blockbusters!