Why China Has Embraced 'Green Book' Like a Blockbuster

March 8th, 2019, 08:30 pm

Why China Has Embraced 'Green Book' Like a Blockbuster

Why has #GreenBook – a period drama about race relations in the American South – resonated so strongly in China? https://t.co/CQslVWsfek pic.twitter.com/WuQ0I6CRtL
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) 7. März 2019

source

the chinese box office for Green Book is crazy good (X), but why?

- China is very interested in the Oscars

- the movie came out right after it won best picture

- Jack Ma's Alibaba Pictures helped produce it, so the movie's win is seen as a win for China:

"All of China is celebrating Green Book's Oscar win. Alibaba surpassed even Netflix and Amazon to become the first internet company to co-finance and co-produce an Oscar best picture winner. After a film with Chinese investment won this award, it feels like Chinese cinema and our national pride are not so far from the Oscars after all."

- Chinese audience is not very familiar with US race relations, which was the biggest criticism in US reviews of the movie:

"The seemingly heavy and sensitive topic is presented in a road trip setting and in a rather comedic fashion. This somehow makes it easier for it to resonate and be understood for Chinese moviegoers — they don’t need to be equipped with a lot of historic background."

Tagged: #greenbook, asian celebrities, box office

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Because people with shitty taste exist all over the planet.

I love Mahershala's outfit in that picture! Won't be watching the film though, but love him.

Mulan didn’t save all of China for this

Omg lol

Hahahaha!

Come fix it, Mulan.

nnnnn

BYE

LMAO

lmaooooo

When I read this movie did really well overseas I was very confused but now it all makes sense. It's interesting that Chinese audiences would be curious about this movie tho.

Edited at 2019-03-08 08:22 pm (UTC)

idk

I think it’s also because and wow does this get lost a lot in what passes for discourse online, but not every country views race relations as the USA does. This isn’t the case with green book and fuck that movie but most racial discourse online has an almost singular America-centric bent as that view wants to dictate and steamroll all at best to is laughably uneducated (see most south East Asian discussions of race) at worst. But all the nuances of why or how GB isn’t a great representation is lost on most of the world.

That’s what sucks a lot when you come back to the view of how film informes people about how others live and act. How for many it has become a teacher.

the post literally talks about how it's because china doesn't have the same the same view of race relations/knowledge of us race relations.

Then I’m on topic or should I simply make a dig about viggo again or?

His face looks like he fell asleep on a bunch of those little beads in a hot pack and they forever dented his skin so he grabbed a sander and some Botox and needs a shower

(no subject) -

cheeseasauras Expand

Yea, I mean I'm not paying for it, but I can totally see how it'd be a really accessible movie in Asia and Europe.

I’m part SEA and hearing their discussions on topics like race is...a fucking challenge

Totally agree.

i feel like i need to copy and paste this comment into a lot of posts here

Well, then I don't wanna hear no bullshit from studio heads about how you can't cast black actors because it won't translate to money overseas.

👏👏👏

What’s really insulting I watched this documentary one time that was talking about the exploitation films. When in the 70s there were so many black actors who actually had their own franchise. Those movies made a lot of money overseas. It was just racist bastards here who has been saying for fucking decades, and ignoring every time the truth is thrown at them, that the audiences don’t care.

This. The only good thing about Green Book’s success is that it undercuts that old chestnut.

MTE.

YUP.

Boop

Yep.

I think these types of stories have always sold.

The Chinese are really proud of their country, taking into account this post and the Zara freckles one

Add this to why we need to provide reparations

The amount of times I read 'heart-warming' in summaries of this movie, like shuuuuuuush.

now i'm getting payola teas, which actually makes me feel slightly better about green book winning any oscars; it was a matter of greed and not because anyone actually believed this movie is good.

the validation of movies like green book winning oscars means more people watching and believing the outright lies of these shitty movies especially because they have no exposure to black people or understanding of the black experience in america.

Edited at 2019-03-08 08:43 pm (UTC)

I’ve been working on that theory too. It’s like a Sopranos plot. They had the whole thing where Christopher wrote a movie. Imagine if they had thrown money behind it and that made it win some awards.

I also hate making this comparison because I just know that fat asshole who wrote Green Book pictures himself as a Tony Soprano type, when he’s really just another dumb Bergen County loser.

"i just know that fat asshole who wrote green book pictures himself as a tony soprano type, when he’s really just another dumb bergen county loser."

the accuracy!

Yep, I believe it for years. Just how the actors and directors need to do so much "awards promo". It shouldn't be a thing.

ugh. garbage movies perpetuating garbage views.

on a related note, anti-blackness in the asian community is the saddest thing. i work in elementary education and Chinese parents coming here to study often refuse ELL services because they're available in the school with a large black student population. the kids get frustrated bc they can't understand or communicate with other people, they act out, and it creates strain on the schools' support staff and resources. it's all preventable--so frustrating.

Refusing ESL is a thing?

Yes, parents can choose to opt out of services, though we highly recommend they don’t.

Yup my mother refused it for me. It was a good decision for me tho, I picked up English super quick in a regular class.

the same reason that logical-minded americans hate it

Jack Ma's Alibaba Pictures
Of course. The Chinese Jeff Bezos.

I was hanging out with some of the chinese internation students from my korean class, and my korean professor who has lived in Asia for all of her life, and it was so frustrating to talk to them about race relations. All of these women were extremely progressive, like some of them had even gone to jail protesting issues, and they thought that "there's no more racism against black people" and real racism is what happens towards asian people.

So I'm not really surprised by this at all. Regardless, it's upsetting.

i teach in korea and a few months ago a 4th grade girl wanted to talk to me about white police officers killing black people in america. it was so surprising, but if a 4th grader can know about that stuff then there's no excuse for adults to be so ignorant.

I think they know but they don't see it the same way we (meaning black people) do? Like they think because black people are born here it's not really racism or something. That was sort of the tone of the convo we had.

I feel like yes or no. It no way excuses the adults' behaviors but I do think different generations end up picking things up differently. Even in the US, for me I'm not where near as aware as some the young kids now when I was their age. And even the awareness on Black Americans, Black Koreans, etc and their issues are changing in their country so I think its a little more nuance than that. I recall Korean netizens didn't really care about the anti-blackness that occur in regards to their entertainers and because of the internet, globalization, etc, more are now shutting it down likely due to the fact some domestic news have become more global.

but isn't that to a degree because americans think they are the center of everything and that everyone should KNOW about us?

because i'm gonna be honest, idk what's going on in most countries on earth outside my own. some sure, but not all. i couldn't tell you where the corruption lies, or what their race issues are, but most people have the attitude you do that if a 4th grader gets it then everyone should.

but really, how many other countries does the average person know about? most people fixate on their own backyard.

There was a Korean drama (Miss Hammurabi) that explicitly mentioned how Black people are attacked by the police and receive no justice, so the fucked-up-ness of anti-black racism has made its way into Korean pop culture.

Edited at 2019-03-09 02:53 am (UTC)

That's a pretty common viewpoint among first-gen Asian immigrants, sadly. It's pretty telling that the split in Asian-American views on affirmative action is best explained by immigration status (e.g. first-gen versus second-gen or later), not age or gender or any of the typical demographic variables.

ETA: Oops I just realized you may be talking about a class that's actually in Korea, sorry if I read the comment wrong! But yeah that tracks with how a lot of Asians in Asia think about racism in the US too.

Edited at 2019-03-08 11:09 pm (UTC)

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Why China Has Embraced 'Green Book' Like a Blockbuster

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