{"id":12490,"date":"2020-08-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/nieuws\/hollywood-censorship-of-tibet-blasted-in-pen-america-report\/"},"modified":"2020-08-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T22:00:00","slug":"hollywood-censorship-of-tibet-blasted-in-pen-america-report","status":"publish","type":"nieuws","link":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/en\/news\/hollywood-censorship-of-tibet-blasted-in-pen-america-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood censorship of Tibet blasted in PEN America report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hollywood studios that once spotlighted the Tibetan cause now censor their movies to appease the Chinese government, PEN America says in a new report<\/a> raising alarms about China\u2019s domination of the film industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Chinese Communist Party, in fact, holds major sway over whether a Hollywood movie will be profitable or not\u2014and studio executives know it,\u201d the organization warns in its hard-hitting report, \u201cMade in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe result is a system in which Beijing bureaucrats can demand changes to Hollywood movies\u2014or expect Hollywood insiders to anticipate and make these changes, unprompted\u2014without any significant hue or cry over such censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1997<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t always used to be that way. As PEN America\u2014which promotes freedom of expression and represents more than 7,000 writers and supporters nationwide\u2014says in its report, Hollywood made several films in the past that directly confronted China\u2019s abysmal human rights<\/a> record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1997, major studios released two films that depicted China\u2019s invasion and bloody conquest of Tibet: \u201cSeven Years in Tibet,\u201d starring Brad Pitt, and \u201cKundun,\u201d directed by Martin Scorsese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beijing quickly retaliated. It banned the companies that produced those films from doing business in China for the next five years, sending Hollywood a chilling message about the cost of criticizing China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the very next year, Disney CEO Michael Eisner traveled to Beijing to apologize for \u201cKundun\u201d\u2014and to negotiate a new Disney theme park in Shanghai. \u201cThe bad news is that the film was made; the good news is that nobody watched it,\u201d Eisner told Chinese leaders. \u201cHere I want to apologize, and in the future we should prevent this sort of thing, which insults our friends, from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 20 years later, \u201cKundun\u201d\u2014based on a script by the late International Campaign for Tibet Board Member Melissa Mathison\u2014remains a black sheep in the Disney stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a story about PEN America\u2019s report, The Hollywood Reporter says<\/a> the film is not available on Disney\u2019s new streaming service, Disney+, \u201cand the studio did not respond when asked if it plans to add it to the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-water mark recedes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeven Years\u201d director Jean Jacques Annaud has also backed away from his movie about Tibet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009, when he attempted to work on a Chinese-French joint film production, he published a letter on the Chinese social media platform Weibo claiming he \u201cnever participated in any Tibet-related organization or association \u2026 never supported Tibetan independence, and never had any private contact with the Dalai Lama<\/a>, and moreover, becoming friends with him is out of the question.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annaud\u2019s letter, no longer accessible to the public, contrasts with his comments in a 2015 Los Angeles Times article, in which he claimed<\/a> no one asked him to apologize for or denounce \u201cSeven Years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As PEN America says in its report, movies like \u201cSeven Years\u201d and \u201cKundun\u201d are hard to imagine in the Hollywood of today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeveral Hollywood professionals,\u201d the report says, \u201cmade reference to 1997 as a sort of high-water mark for Hollywood studios\u2019 willingness to make films that engaged in direct, high-profile criticism of Beijing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoctor Strange\u201d makes Tibetans disappear<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to 2016, and Hollywood had not only turned its back on Tibetans but was actively erasing them from movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That year, Marvel Studios\u2019 \u201cDoctor Strange\u201d remade the character of the Ancient One, who was Tibetan in the comic books, into a Celt played by Scottish actress Tilda Swinton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with accusations of \u201cwhitewashing,\u201d the movie\u2019s screenwriter, C. Robert Cargill, defended the change by saying: \u201cIf you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that [the character is] Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people \u2026 and risk the Chinese government going, \u2018Hey, you know one of the biggest film-watching countries in the world? We\u2019re not going to show your movie because you decided to get political.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cargill\u2019s statement \u201creflects that of a screenwriter taking the Chinese government\u2019s attitude toward Tibet into account when determining how his story should be told,\u201d PEN America says in its report. \u201cIn fact, the sentiment within Cargill\u2019s answer is almost irrational in its deference to Beijing, questioning whether Tibet even exists as a specific place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization adds:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cargill\u2019s reference to the risks of getting \u201cpolitical\u201d is also notable. Is it more political to hew to a story as written with a Tibetan character, or to write that element out of existence? Both are political acts, yet in Cargill\u2019s mind Beijing\u2019s taboos evidently rule the day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hollywood censorship reaches billions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

PEN America notes that Beijing\u2019s censorship of Hollywood is part of the Chinese government\u2019s success in compelling foreign companies to comply with China\u2019s propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, Mercedes-Benz apologized<\/a> after quoting the Dalai Lama in an Instagram post, claiming it was an \u201cextremely erroneous message.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That same year, Marriott apologized<\/a> for listing Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as separate from China on its website. An American employee of Marriott working in the United States also lost his job after \u201cliking\u201d a pro-Tibet tweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But from Hollywood, the reach of Beijing\u2019s censorship spreads all across the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Films are \u201cperhaps the world\u2019s most influential artistic and cultural medium,\u201d PEN America notes. \u201cStories shape the way people think, and the stories told by Hollywood reach billions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization warns about what the future will hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the Chinese box office market continues to outpace America\u2019s, and as the relationship between Hollywood and Beijing becomes even more lopsided, the pressures on Hollywood studios to accede to [Chinese Communist Party] censorship will only increase,\u201d PEN America\u2019s report says. \u201cThe phenomenon of self-censorship will presumably only worsen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is why it is so important to have this conversation now, before acquiescence to Beijing\u2019s censorship becomes even further normalized for Hollywood filmmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Gere testifies in Congress<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, all the way across the country in Washington, DC, lawmakers from both parties are having that conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 30, 2020, International Campaign for Tibet Chairman Richard Gere testified at a Senate subcommittee hearing on how Chinese censorship hurts US interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gere, who is also a social activist and philanthropist in addition to being an actor, said that, \u201cWhile I can\u2019t say that my speaking out for human rights in China has directly affected my career, I\u2018m probably an unusual case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that the combination of Chinese censorship, coupled with American film studios\u2019 desire to access China\u2019s market, can lead to self-censorship and to avoiding social issues that great American films once addressed,\u201d Gere said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gere added: \u201cImagine Marty Scorsese\u2019s \u2018Kundun,\u2019 about the life of the Dalai Lama, or my own film \u2018Red Corner,\u2019 which is highly critical of the Chinese legal system. Imagine them being made today. It wouldn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illustrative of China\u2019s weakness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

During his testimony, Gere described how Chinese directors and actresses told him they couldn\u2019t work with him because it wouldn\u2019t ruin their careers and hurt their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked by a senator about China pressuring Hollywood studios, Gere said, \u201cIt\u2019s very illustrative of their weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the way that they\u2019re hypersensitive about the Dalai Lama, the kindest, most generous man on the planet, who\u2019s consumed and saturated with love and compassion and forgiveness. The mere mention of his name makes them crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tenzing Barshee, a Tibetan American activist and president of the Capital Area Tibetan Association, also warned that Hollywood\u2019s deference to China will hurt it with the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, Barshee said: \u201cIf Hollywood is siding with the money, sooner or later they will be on the wrong side and lose money because the general public will stop watching [all] movies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n