United States
A report accuses Hollywood of practicing all kinds of tampering in order to reach Chinese consumers, such as removing a Taiwanese flag from Tom Cruise’s jacket in “Top Gun”.
Beijing has one of the most repressive censorship systems in the world, which decides whether a foreign film can gain access to the local market. (EPA / ANDREW GOMBERT)
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Redacted scripts and deleted scenes: Hollywood is accused in a report published Wednesday by the Pen America organization of censoring itself to allow its films to reach the gigantic Chinese market.
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Screenwriters, producers and directors practice alterations of all kinds, in the hope of reaching the 1.4 billion consumers in China, according to Pen America, an American association for the defense of freedom of expression.
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This ranges, she notes, from the removal of a Taiwanese flag from Tom Cruise’s jacket in “Top Gun: Maverick” to the erasure of China as the source of a zombie virus in the film “World War Z”. », Released in 2013. It is also a question of avoiding certain sensitive subjects, such as Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Xinjiang, and of not showing characters from the LGBTQ community.
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“The appeasement of the Chinese government and their censors has become a way of doing business like any other,” the report said.
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Beijing has one of the most repressive censorship systems in the world within the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department, which decides whether a foreign film can gain access to the local market.
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Influence of the Chinese Communist Party
Only a handful of foreign films are shown each year in China, which will soon be the world’s largest film market. American blockbusters like “Avengers: Endgame” or “Spider-Man: Far From Home” have made more revenue in China than in the United States.
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“The Chinese Communist Party is actually a major influence on whether a Hollywood movie is profitable or not – and studio executives know that,” says Pen America.
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This is why a former Disney boss, Michael Eisner, apologized to Beijing after the ban on the territory of Martin Scorsese’s film Kundun, released in 1997, which deals with the life of the Dalai Lama. , spiritual leader of Tibet in exile.
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In Hollywood, some people “voluntarily appropriate these restrictions, without being asked”, and others invite the Chinese censors on the sets, further denounces the report.
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“If you present a project that is overtly critical,” there is a fear that “you or your company will be openly blacklisted,” said one producer.
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“Hollywood’s approach of giving in to Chinese dictates creates a standard for the rest of the world,” warns Pen America, warning against “a new normal” in countries proud of their freedom of expression.
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(AFP/NXP)
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