Red Dawn

[Jimbo]

There is quite a bit of fear/anger in the U.S. about China these days. The vast majority of it is due to U.S. manufacturing transferring to China, copyright infringements, etc., etc. In that sense, a movie about an invading Chinese army could be symbolic.

One thing I do see, and I think I mentioned this way earlier in this thread(?), is that American movies of this type can often incite paranoia that may inspire already-stupid people to single out anyone they think is Chinese (i.e., anyone of Asian heritage) for racist rants or even hate crimes. America is multi-cultural, but the heroes in these films are overwhelmingly white, usually with an African-American or two for "racial balance" and maybe a token 'good Asian' (usually a sexy female in love with the white hero).

[CLFNole]

Jimbo: you raise a good point. If a movie raises anger against a race even if it is just an ignorant person that isn't good. I am a gwai lo and my wife is from Hong Kong so I am not necessarily on the side of the US film makers per say. I just don't like to see political pressure of any kind force a change to a movie. That being said movie makers do need to be sensitive to the political climate.

[SPJ]

so I was playing x-box with home front

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single player mode has to follow the story line

kpa korea people army--

so i bought the game book to follow the story line, hidden history--

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multi player mode is much better, with actions all the time, not so much story telling

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it was quite a script about how KPA invaded US

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[GeneChing]

U.S. business self-censors to keep China satisfied
David Sirota, 2011 Creators.com
March 24, 2011 04:00 AM
03/25/11

"Red Dawn," a '80s movie about Russians invading, is being remade with a few characters stripped out.

The 1984 film "Red Dawn" fantasized about a group of American teenagers called the Wolverines who repelled an invasion of foreign communists. For its mix of dystopia and hope, the movie became such an enduring cultural touchstone that U.S. military leaders honored it by naming their 2003 effort to apprehend Saddam Hussein "Operation Red Dawn." Amid the triumphalism, however, the invaders started winning - a fact that none other than "Red Dawn's" 2011 remake underscores.

That's the subtext of this week's Los Angeles Times report about MGM taking "the extraordinary step" of digitally removing fictional Chinese villains from the $60 million film "lest the leadership in Beijing be offended." Why the fear of upsetting such an odiously anti-democratic government? Because movie executives worry that a film involving a negative message about China "would harm their ability to do business" with a nation that is among the "most lucrative markets for American movies."

The studio suits are right to be concerned. China's government only allows about 20 non-Chinese movies per year into its theaters, and in the 1990s, the regime halted Walt Disney, Sony and MGM business in the country after those companies produced films deemed critical of China. Seeking to avoid a similar fate, the film industry now regularly shapes products to appease the Chinese regime. In that sense, the only thing newsworthy about the "Red Dawn" tiff is the public nature of the content revision.

Whether you are a "Red Dawn" fan or not, the episode shows that for all the theories about American cultural exports aiding democratic ferment and challenging autocracy, the dynamic is working the other way as autocracy gives orders to American culture. Indeed, China is now creating a pervasive ethos of what Times reporter Ben Fritz calls "self-censorship" - the kind in which America's media industries pre-emptively shape content to keep China's dictators happy.

The consequences are more far-reaching than just a change of bad guys in a campy '80s retread. Just ask Rupert Murdoch. In 1993, the media baron removed the BBC from his Star TV channel so as to satisfy Beijing and thus secure the station's access to China's audience. Then came Google's move in 2006 to censor its search engine in exchange for a pass through China's Great Firewall. And though Google recently said it was ending that censorship, Microsoft's Bill Gates - another powerful content gatekeeper with business in China - publicly slammed companies for questioning Beijing's demands.

In an interview this week, Fritz explained the cumulative effect: "If you think the rules and restrictions of the authoritarian government in China are a bad thing and amount to censorship, then in a global economy where products made in America are seen and consumed in China, those rules and that censorship is affecting what we here in America see."

And unfortunately, no band of Wolverines can stop it.

David Sirota is the author of "Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now."

I'm intrigued by Sirota's book now. Has anyone here read it?

[ngokfei]

this only proves that the USA needs to adopt the same business practices as China.

Start banning their "inferior" products on a larger scale and then we'll see what happens. ex: If china only allows a set number of foreign films into their country then we can do the same. yeah Yeah I know bad for us Kung fuers.

As an American I see how my country is slowly being eroded away by big business. In general terms its amount to Treasonous Practices that is causing us to follow the path of lets say the Roman Empire.

What China needs is a War in their own back yard. okay now I'm a hater