To make Mulan, Disney worked with four propaganda departments in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, the site of a genocide against Muslims, and the Xinjiang public security bureau. This is a horrific. Here's my article on the subject, and a thread on why. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/07/why-disneys-new-mulan-is-scandal/
What's wrong with thanking Xinjiang? Well, More than a million Muslims in Xinjiang, mostly of the Uighur minority, have been imprisoned in concentration camps. Disney worked with regions where genocide is occurring, and thanked departments that are helping implement it.
It's especially galling that they thanked the Public Security bureau of Turpan, which released a chilling document telling officials how to respond when relatives asked about their family members in concentration camps.
Why did Disney need to work in Xinjiang? It didn’t. There are plenty of other regions in China, and countries around the world, that offer the starkly beautiful mountain scenery present in the film. But in doing so, Disney helps normalize a crime against humanity.
“They’re in a training school,” officials were chillingly taught to reply. “They have very good conditions for studying and living there, and you have nothing to worry about.”
It’s unclear exactly what the “Mulan” story’s relationship with Xinjiang is. Some of the crew members, such as the production designer Grant Major, spent months in and around Xinjiang, while the director Niki Caro visited Xinjiang at least once, on Sept 2017 scouting mission.
Here's the screenshot, buried at the end of the credits, about who Disney thanks in China. Notice the 'publicity departments.' That's a mistranslation of 宣传部,"propaganda department.
Mulan is Disney’s most problematic movie since then. Not because of its content, but because of the shameful compromises Disney made in order to shoot it. (end of thread).
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