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this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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Then why change the movies? Why not just not release them if Chinese society isn't ready to have that conversation yet?
They're having the conversation right now. Like there was a recent incident where LGBTQ stuff was banned off Weibo (Chinese social media) and there was a public outcry that reversed the decision. It's up to China to decide how they'll progress and I'm optimistic about it.
China's censorship laws are mostly designed for protectionist reasons, like they don't want their domestic film industry overrun by Disney or Sony. They'd rather have an internal market that's not bound to international businesses. That said, their censorship board is, for better or worse, operated by a bunch of stick in the mud boomers. Hopefully it'll get better with increasing awareness among younger people and changing trends. That said, the idea that China needs its government overthrown because it censors movies or that the state isn't as progressive as it could be? That's absurd and not helping anything.
I should also mention that homosexuality was mostly seen as normal or ignored throughout Chinese history up until the 19th century. It was a theme at the time that Britain or some other western power would start involving themselves within an Asian country and rewrite local laws, including restrictions on homosexuality.
I've never said they need to be overthrown? That's literally not what I'm saying at all.
Ok sorry I was responding to people in my head
Well, I'd say sorry on his behalf, considering you seem to ask the question in good faith...
Most of the useful conversation to be had is not from the west demanding they just adopt western culture. I don't support censoring movies on homophobic grounds, but I think gay media produced and shown domestically (which absolutely does exist) is much more productive and important.
Because giving the impressing that LGBT issues are an imposition on Chinese society by the West in general and America specifically is going to distort the issue at best and at worst give the conservatives ammo to say that LGBT is an American plot to blah blah blah. Especially in the context of a Disney movie, aimed at kids, which adds in a "they're coming for our children" factor.
It would do incalculable damage to the advancement of LGBT rights in China for such rights to be tied to America or the West, so on balance the censors probably did the LGBT community a solid here.
Plus, that's assuming that this is the censors in China and not Disney self censoring because Disney thinks the Chinese censors care.
I don't see how a story about a gay character could possibly do such damage to an entire movement regardless of its country of origin.
I'm really not trying to be obtuse I actually don't understand.
Well for one, China and much of the global south have been struggling against the political, economic, and cultural hegemony of the West for centuries now and there's a pretty visceral aversion to doing whatever the west is perceived to be telling us to do. Especially so on a cultural and societal level where Westerners have zero idea of who we are and how we do things but just constantly tell us how we should think and behave.
In this specific context, there well recognized scholars who posit that homophobia was spread in China by Westerners during the late Qing and Republican era. In addition to being rightfully wary of Western social and cultural meddling, there is also a strong rejection of the hypocrisy of the West causing this problem in the first place and now judging us for not immediately following their model in solving it.
For another, Western media just recently demonstrated how willing it is to politicize Disney movies by accusing China and Occupied Korea of being racist because of poor ticket sales of The Little Mermaid. If Westoid media makes a big song and dance about how a billion and a half Chinese people are homophobes because we didn't turn up to see a Disney movie, that's going to taint the whole movement with an association to hysterical Western political media.