Post by politicidal on Dec 5, 2020 17:34:16 GMT
Is Paul W. S. Anderson trying outdo Michael Bay or something?
TEXT:
It’s worth breaking down exactly what it is about those ten seconds of “Monster Hunter” that has set off such a firestorm — if only to get a glimpse of how unforeseeably difficult it can be in this political climate to create global content that works in China, now the world’s largest film market, and abroad.
Early in the day on Friday, a short clip of the offending passage seemingly shot in a cinema by cellphone circulated on Chinese social media. It appears to have sparked outrage due to the subtitles and an unspoken, inferred subtext that would likely have been lost to those who know only Chinese or English, but not both.
In the scene, a white male character and an Asian character played by Jin are driving together at high speed. “What?” says the former. “Look at my knees!” shouts Jin. “What kind of knees are these?” asks his companion. “Chi-nese!” jokes Jin, punning on the word’s last syllable.
Though some might view this as camaraderie and banter over a bad pun, Chinese viewers were incensed after the exchange was interpreted as a reference to an old, racist schoolyard rhyme insulting Asians. “Chi-nese, Jap-a-nese, dir-ty knees, look at these,” it apparently sing-songs, accompanied by knee slaps and slant-eyed gestures.
This interpretation was subtly propelled forward by the Chinese subtitles. To localize the joke, translators made the dialogue a reference to a Chinese colloquialism about how men must have dignity and not kneel down easily. “Men have gold under their knees, and only kneel to the heavens and their mother,” the saying goes in rough translation, implying that any time a man kneels, it should be an occasion precious as gold.
The inference of a connection to the racist rhyme from the words “knees” and “Chinese” combined with the subtitles’ phrasing about kneeling down appears to have made many patriotic young viewers believe that the moment in English must be an obvious insult. Worse, many feel that the translation — which swaps in references to “gold” and makes no mention of “Chinese” — was a deliberate cover up of the offense.
By afternoon, the hashtag “Monster Hunter Insults China” had taken off on Weibo. Viewer rating apps quickly filled up with angry rhetoric.
“Who’s under your knees? Chinese people? Sorry, garbage movie. Let’s boycott it!” wrote one of the most liked comments on the Maoyan ticketing and review platform. Another chimed: “If you’re a Chinese person, you understand that you shouldn’t go see this, right?” The film currently has a lowish 7.8 out of 10 rating on Maoyan and a dismal 4.9 out of 10 on review site Douban.
Even the ruling party’s Communist Youth League took the unusual step of slamming the film on its official Weibo account Friday evening, pouring gas on the already burning flames of patriotic outrage with a post calling out American racism and hypocrisy.
“What kind of knees are these?” it wrote above a hashtag of the movie’s title, accompanied by a photo of a giant policeman’s knees crashing down on the tiny heads of upward-looking passerby, overlaid with the words “Floyds, can you breathe?”
variety.com/2020/film/news/monster-hunter-china-censorship-1234847031/
TEXT:
It’s worth breaking down exactly what it is about those ten seconds of “Monster Hunter” that has set off such a firestorm — if only to get a glimpse of how unforeseeably difficult it can be in this political climate to create global content that works in China, now the world’s largest film market, and abroad.
Early in the day on Friday, a short clip of the offending passage seemingly shot in a cinema by cellphone circulated on Chinese social media. It appears to have sparked outrage due to the subtitles and an unspoken, inferred subtext that would likely have been lost to those who know only Chinese or English, but not both.
In the scene, a white male character and an Asian character played by Jin are driving together at high speed. “What?” says the former. “Look at my knees!” shouts Jin. “What kind of knees are these?” asks his companion. “Chi-nese!” jokes Jin, punning on the word’s last syllable.
Though some might view this as camaraderie and banter over a bad pun, Chinese viewers were incensed after the exchange was interpreted as a reference to an old, racist schoolyard rhyme insulting Asians. “Chi-nese, Jap-a-nese, dir-ty knees, look at these,” it apparently sing-songs, accompanied by knee slaps and slant-eyed gestures.
This interpretation was subtly propelled forward by the Chinese subtitles. To localize the joke, translators made the dialogue a reference to a Chinese colloquialism about how men must have dignity and not kneel down easily. “Men have gold under their knees, and only kneel to the heavens and their mother,” the saying goes in rough translation, implying that any time a man kneels, it should be an occasion precious as gold.
The inference of a connection to the racist rhyme from the words “knees” and “Chinese” combined with the subtitles’ phrasing about kneeling down appears to have made many patriotic young viewers believe that the moment in English must be an obvious insult. Worse, many feel that the translation — which swaps in references to “gold” and makes no mention of “Chinese” — was a deliberate cover up of the offense.
By afternoon, the hashtag “Monster Hunter Insults China” had taken off on Weibo. Viewer rating apps quickly filled up with angry rhetoric.
“Who’s under your knees? Chinese people? Sorry, garbage movie. Let’s boycott it!” wrote one of the most liked comments on the Maoyan ticketing and review platform. Another chimed: “If you’re a Chinese person, you understand that you shouldn’t go see this, right?” The film currently has a lowish 7.8 out of 10 rating on Maoyan and a dismal 4.9 out of 10 on review site Douban.
Even the ruling party’s Communist Youth League took the unusual step of slamming the film on its official Weibo account Friday evening, pouring gas on the already burning flames of patriotic outrage with a post calling out American racism and hypocrisy.
“What kind of knees are these?” it wrote above a hashtag of the movie’s title, accompanied by a photo of a giant policeman’s knees crashing down on the tiny heads of upward-looking passerby, overlaid with the words “Floyds, can you breathe?”
variety.com/2020/film/news/monster-hunter-china-censorship-1234847031/
