Recently, the American Hollywood blockbuster "Dune", which was popular in major theaters in China, suddenly attracted the attention of a number of Western media and became the target of these Western media accusing China of "racially discriminating against black people".
What's going on?
As the chart below shows, in the past week, a group of Western media, led by the British Daily Mail and The Times, have hyped up that Sharon Duncan-Brewster, a black British actress who played an important role in "Dune", was "removed" from the Chinese version of the movie poster and replaced by Taiwanese actor Zhang Zhen.
These Western media also claimed that the black actress 'disappeared' from the poster that hollywood was trying to "please" the Chinese market, and that the implication was nothing more than Chinese was "racist" and "discriminated against black actors."
Later, some Indian media and media in Taiwan Province of China also jumped out to report on the claim that "the black actress of "Dune" was removed in China" statement. A Muslim rights group called the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) even issued a "statement" asking Warner, the American company that produced the film, to explain "why black actors were removed from the Posters of the Chinese version."
However, these Western media and institutions' criticism of China is actually a complete rumor.
Some rational foreign netizens have found through their own investigations that "Dune" used multiple posters when promoting in the Chinese market, including posters of black actresses and Zhang Zhen's version. At the same time, the film was also promoted in the United States using these different versions of the poster. Therefore, there is no case of China "erasing" black actors at all.
(Foreign netizen Daniel Dumbrill found through the survey that many movie theaters in China are using this version of the movie poster with black actresses, and the United States and other Western countries have also used Zhang Zhen's version of the poster when promoting the film.)
Asian American news site Nextshark also clarified the matter in a report, noting that the rumor originally came from an NGO group called the China Africa Project (the "Central African Project"). The group first published the rumor on October 24, saying that black actors had been removed from the Movie Poster of the Chinese version of "Dune", and that black actors from the previous American movie "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" had also "disappeared" in the Chinese version of the movie poster.
(Note: The Chinese version of star wars episode VII movie poster did not remove the black actors, but only adjusted their position and proportion in the poster to highlight the other two actors who are more well-known in China.)
The Russian RT News Network, which also reported on the matter, further pointed out that the rumor-mongering NGO organization is a "US-based" organization that has been sponsored by the Ford Foundation of the United States in recent years, and many of its published content involves "negative" content in Cooperation between China and Africa.
However, although the NGO organization has deleted the rumor post (but there is no apology or clarification) after being angrily rebuked by netizens, the British media such as the Daily Mail and the Times are still hyping up the rumor that has been deleted by the original and publishing a report smearing China.
Among them, although the British "Daily Mail" was later scolded by netizens to delete this report on its official website, it still retained the wrong content they posted on social media, and has not yet clarified or apologized
However, the most ironic thing about this matter is that the Daily Mail and The Times, which vigorously hyped up this matter, are themselves right-wing conservative media in the United Kingdom, and what they like to do most is to ridicule and ridicule those european and American countries that demand "respect for people of color" and "racial equality". The Daily Mail was even labeled a "racist tabloid" by an American media outlet.
Not only that, these British media have opposed the poster of the black actress in the movie "Dune" and the poster of Zhang Zhen's version, in addition to clearly smearing China, there is also a layer of sinister intention to oppose black people and Chinese.
Moreover, in some Western countries where racism is serious, this practice of provoking confrontation between blacks and Asian groups, including Chinese, is a common means used by white racists to split people of color and prevent them from uniting for equal rights.
That's why the Daily Mail and The Times distort facts and fabricate rumors is racist.
On the other hand, the film "Dune" itself actually faces some racist controversy in the United States. For example, the Washington Post in the United States said that the original novel of this film was actually deeply influenced by Muslim culture, but this layer of color was erased from the film. There is also debate about whether the film is preaching the cliché of "white savior."
Of course, these controversies are far from our Chinese.
After all, we do not like to steal the culture of other peoples' countries, nor do we like to falsely call ourselves "God" or "Savior" while enslaving other peoples – even though those who commit these sins and nations want to lower us to their level.
Source: Global Times New Media/Geng Zhige
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Text Editor: Lu Xiaochuan Caption Source: Shangguan Caption Image Editor: Yong Kai
Source: Author: Global Times New Media