{"id":66162,"date":"2020-09-10T02:28:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T02:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=66162"},"modified":"2020-09-10T02:28:25","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T02:28:25","slug":"disneys-mulan-partially-filmed-xinjiang-leading-fresh-boycott-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=66162","title":{"rendered":"Disney’s Mulan was partially filmed in Xinjiang, leading to fresh boycott calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disney is facing fresh calls to boycott its live-action remake of\u00a0Mulan\u00a0after it emerged that some scenes were filmed in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, the site of widely documented human rights abuses against the Uighur and other Muslim minorities.<\/p>\n

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The revelation is the second controversy to hit the film, due to be released in Chinese cinemas on September 11, which tells the story of Hua Mulan, a filial young woman who disguises herself as a man to take her father\u2019s place in the imperial army and defend the emperor.<\/p>\n

Social media users in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand had already targeted the movie with a #BoycottMulan hashtag\u00a0after Liu Yifei, the main star, reportedly posted a message on Chinese platform Weibo in support of the Hong Kong police during the months-long pro-democracy protests.<\/p>\n

This week a new wave of outrage erupted after the first viewers of the film on Disney\u2019s streaming platform spotted that the end credits thanked multiple government entities in the Xinjiang region.<\/p>\n

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They included several propaganda departments that have denied human rights abuses and the Turpan Municipal Bureau of Public Security, which was sanctioned by the US Commerce Department last year for its role in\u00a0operating what China describes as \u201creeducation\u201d camps.<\/p>\n

The decision to film and cooperate with Chinese state bodies in such a contentious region has been described as a scandal by academics and human rights activists. Disney has so far not offered a response, but has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sufficiently astonishing that it bears repeating: Disney has thanked four propaganda departments and a public security bureau in Xinjiang, a region in northwest China that is the site of one of the world\u2019s worst human rights abuses happening today,\u201d wrote Isaac Stone Fish, an Asia Society senior fellow in the Washington Post.<\/p>\n

Joshua Wong, one of Hong Kong\u2019s most prolific pro-democracy activists has accused Disney of \u201ckowtowing\u201d to Beijing.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt just keeps getting worse! Now, when you watch\u00a0#Mulan,\u00a0not only are you turning a blind eye to police brutality and racial injustice (due to what the lead actors stand for), you’re also potentially complicit in the mass incarceration of Muslim Uyghurs,\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n

China has been\u00a0criticised globally for its treatment of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, where it is estimated that\u00a0more than a million Uighurs have been detained in internment camps\u00a0which human rights groups say they are\u00a0subjected to torture and abuse.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year,\u00a0accusations of a state-sponsored forced sterilisation campaign to lower birthrates among Uighur women\u00a0was described by experts as \u201cdemographic genocide\u201d and prompted calls for an independent United Nations investigation.<\/p>\n

China has repeatedly denied any abuses are taking place. Responding to the controversy about the film, a foreign ministry spokesman restated Beijing\u2019s denial of the existence of re-education camps, calling the facilities vocational and educational institutions and accusing anti-China forces of smearing its Xinjiang policy.<\/p>\n

However, China\u2019s denials have not curbed growing international scrutiny of the government\u2019s actions in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, more than 130 UK politicians wrote to Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese Ambassador to London, to condemn China’s treatment of the Uighurs and accuse Beijing of \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d.<\/p>\n

“The Chinese Government’s actions must be stated for what they are: a systematic and calculated program of ethnic cleansing against the Uighur people,” the cross-party members of the House of Commons and House of Lords wrote in signed joint letter.<\/p>\n

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