Disney has touched the hearts of many people. Inspiring children to follow their dreams and bringing a sense of joy and nostalgia to families all around. As Disney progressed, they have recreated classic Disney characters and their stories to a live-action remake that has been enjoyed by the majority. Disney was clever to add different twists to enhance the already classic tales so that it would fit with some of society’s ideas of morals. Famous examples of these riveting Disney remakes would be Maleficent, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. These movies have received a significant amount of praise, yet in the year 2020 when Disney released their newest Disney live-action of Mulan, it had gotten a considerable amount of attention that was far from positive. Although it reenacted a popular and inspiring Disney classic about a young heroine who was willing to take her father’s place in the military, there were disturbing behind-the-scenes aspects that enraged civilians around the globe.

Why is it so controversial?

Regarding some news headlines, it has come to the attention that many pro-democratic protests have sparked regarding Hong Kong’s police brutality. This is a worthy issue to fight for to emulate human rights movements. It is a shame that many people still go against it though. The well-known Chinese actress who plays Mulan, Liu Yifei, had recently tweeted about her outlook on the issue. Her stance on the Hong Kong police was that she supported their actions of brutal oppression. Her exact message was, “I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now". Her high social popularity gave that post about 80,000 likes and was shared about 70,000 times. Those who supported her were mostly from the demographic of China. However, those in Hong Kong and regions outside of China have strongly faced the actress with backlash, stating how disrespectful and dishonorable her tweet was. Critical comments were left on her social media page along with Disney’s Mulan social media accounts.

You may already find this behind-the-scenes aspect of Mulan rather unsettling; however, there are more disturbing aspects that are much more morbid. As I am sure you have already heard, since 2018, Chinese authorities have detained thousands of innocent Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other ethnic Turkic Muslims. They have been forced to suffer in concentration camps where they are compelled to be "re-educated" (essentially denounce their religion and believe in Chinese propaganda) and trained. Innocent people are undergoing harsh conditions out of spite of the Chinese autocratic powers. The connection to this has to Mulan is the fact that some scenes of the movie were filmed in Xinjiang, where the Uyghur Muslims are being detained. The worst part is that Disney has made no effort to supplement the needs of the innocent Muslims fighting for their lives right this second! They were filming amid a cultural genocide. As well, in the credits of the movie, viewers noticed Disney giving a "special thanks" to the eight government entities in Xinjiang who are operating these "reeducation" camps.

Many activists believe that watching Mulan means you are turning a blind eye to police brutality and racial injustice. This led to people calling shots on boycotting watching the movie; to stand on the position of discouraging the movie’s credibility. Mulan is about standing up for what’s right and conducting honorable actions for the greater good. However, looking at how many questionable injustices were presented in the making of the movie, it seems counterintuitive. Although Mulan’s filmmaking was a big disgrace to society, it is important to realize that we have the power to go against this intolerable film by boycotting it and spreading the word to expose China’s cruel notions.