China – Page 9 – Family Council

China and Hollywood

Oct 11, 2021John StonestreetChinaCCP, China

*John Stonestreet, Radio Host and Director of the Colson Center*

In 2020, Chinese box office revenue officially surpassed that of North America. Shirli Li writes in the Atlantic, “Filmmakers and actors have always been subject to bosses who decide which movies get to soar at the box office….Now, more than ever before, that boss is Beijing.”

Fast and Furious star John Cena demonstrated this deference in May when he posted a back-bending apology to China, in Mandarin, for calling Taiwan a country. Another example is the potential ban facing Marvel’s The Eternals because its director, Chloé Zhao, criticized the Chinese Communist Party … eight years ago.

Repeatedly, U.S. film companies posture as courageous defenders of human rights when they vocally oppose laws in states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas. But then they’re deafeningly silent about doing business in China, a country actively imprisoning more than one million Uyghur Muslims, hiding the presence of massive slave labor camps and no freedom of any kind when it comes to journalism. Hollywood, it seems, mostly just listens to the money.

The hope has always been that Western values would somehow infiltrate China and change it from the inside. But the opposite is happening. There’s nothing like the allure of massive profit to drown out our collective conscience.

John Cena and the House of Rock

Jun 7, 2021John StonestreetChinaChina

John Cena has built a persona, both in the wrestling ring and on the silver screen, as a tough guy. Last week, however, Cena made headlines for contritely apologizing to China for referring to Taiwan as a country. And he did it in Chinese, even.

As tempting as it is to get snarky about the whole scene, this story is about far more than one celebrity. Millions of dollars are on the line with a new Fast and Furious film, and Hollywood hasn’t been willing to criticize Beijing since Seven Years in Tibet twenty-four years ago. Beijing’s oppression of Taiwan and Hong Kong and Christians and Muslim Uyghurs has only gotten worse since then. Yet Hollywood and much of corporate America turn a blind eye, while criticizing Georgia and North Carolina.

Of course, the pressure of having to choose between your career and your convictions is very likely in the future for every Christian. As Christ warned, our faith won’t survive unless it is built on the Solid Rock.

Genocide – The Musical

May 10, 2021John StonestreetChinaChina, Genocide

Totalitarian propaganda takes many forms, for example, the Soviet-era paintings where everyone looks stoically to the horizon, or, the Nazi film “The Triumph of the Will”.

These more stoic examples aside, some propaganda is more lighthearted. Back in 1943, for example, an American fan portrayed Joseph Stalin as a kindhearted man instead of as the brutal killer of millions. And, despite his body-count of even more millions, Chairman Mao’s fatherly smile still adorns posters across China to this day.

And now, according to the UK’s The Guardian, Beijing has made a musical inspired by the 2016 American hit, “La-La Land.” But, the purpose of this Chinese film called “The Wings of Songs,” is to convince viewers there’s nothing to the ongoing genocide of Muslim Uyghurs.

The truth is far more brutal and ugly than the film portrays. If we’re going to stand for human rights in the face of a new holocaust, we must tell the truth of what’s happening in the Xinxiang province.