ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
July 7, 2014
‘Transformers’ tries for
delicate U.S.-China balance
By Louise Watt
The Associated Press
EIJING — Dazzling special
effects, Optimus Prime ... and
Beijing. The latest “Transfor-
mers” movie has all three, mixing
Texas-based action with scenes in
China’s capital and a heavy dose of
Hong Kong in an attempt to straddle
the world’s two biggest movie-going
audiences.
The fourth installment of the
Michael Bay-directed franchise has
gone all-out to woo China’s audience
with Chinese locations, talent, and
even a reality television show.
Transformers: Age of Extinction
illustrates the delicate balancing
game of Hollywood studios trying to
work out what the Chinese market
wants while simultaneously catering
to Americans.
If such films aren’t handled
properly, they risk alienating both
audiences, said Michael Keane, an
expert on China’s creative industries
at the Queensland University of
Technology in Brisbane, Australia. In
China, the core movie-going group of
19-to-25-year-olds already like wes-
tern films, he said.
“They would like ‘Transformers,’
and as soon as you start stuffing in
Chinese elements, they can see
through it, and you may shoot
yourself in the foot by doing it,” Keane
said.
Western studios are adding
Chinese elements to increase their
appeal in China, where films earned
$3.6 billion in ticket sales last year.
Skyfall was partly set in Shanghai
and Macau. Chinese actress Fan
Bingbing played one of the mutant
superheroes in X-Men: Day of Future
Past, which has earned $114 million
in China — almost a quarter of the
movie’s total international box office.
But the sprinkling of Chinese
elements in Transformers: Age of
Extinction, which opened in China
and North America last month, has
gone further than many recent
Hollywood movies.
More than a half-hour of its action
takes place in Hong Kong and the
crew filmed in three other Chinese
cities. Chinese star Li Bingbing has a
fairly major role and boy band singer-
turned-actor Han Geng has a one-
liner. A reality TV show was held a
year before the movie’s debut to
B
TAKING AIM AT TERRORISM. In this photo posted on Insta-
gram and released by Ai Weiwei, Ai holds and aims his leg as a rifle in
Beijing. Photos he posted to Instagram with people holding their legs that
sparked an internet meme was a reference to power being overused in
the name of fighting terrorism, according to Ai. (AP Photo/Ai Weiwei)
Kicking heat: Chinese artist
prompts leg-gun meme
BEIJING (AP) — Days after sparking an internet meme
with photos of people brandishing their legs as guns,
Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei said his original
posting on Instagram was a statement about the overuse
of power in fighting terrorism.
China is in the midst of an anti-terror campaign
prompted by several high-profile attacks on civilians over
the past year blamed on Muslim militants from the
country’s far western Xinjiang region. Scores of people
have been arrested in Xinjiang, security on subways in
cities throughout the country has been tightened, and
many local police are now carrying guns for the first time.
“People from all over the world have been experiencing
panic because of terrorist attacks such as 9/11 and
problems such as the existence of weapons,” Ai said in an
interview.
“Power is being overused in the name of
counterterrorism,” he said.
Last month, the artist began posting photos of himself,
ballet dancers, and others on Instagram in poses
interpreted as legs being held as guns.
Within days, they spawned hundreds of imitators on the
photo-sharing website, including poses in bedrooms, on
sidewalks, and up a tree, featuring individuals, groups,
children, and even Kermit the frog. But there was no
consensus on what the images were meant to say.
Ai said a caption reading “Beijing anti-terrorism
series,” which accompanied one of his originals, was a
reference to anti-terror campaigns that are a “ubiquitous
phenomenon,” not just in China.
“Power is being used in the name of protecting you,” Ai
said. “But what they are actually doing is something
which deserves a lot of discussion. And what is terrorism
doing to you? It is hurting lives? Or is it putting a huge
burden on everybody?”
Ai cautioned against over-interpreting the slew of
online leg-gun photos, which he said were unexpected and
coming from “all social strata.”
“The internet is flowing. You come up with something
basic, and everybody will find it easy to express
themselves based on that,” he said.
CHINA CONNECTION. Chinese fans wait to see movie stars during the premiere of Trans-
formers: Age of Extinction at a theatre in Beijing, China. Dazzling special effects, Optimus Prime ...
and Beijing. The latest “Transformers” movie has all three, mixing Texas-based action with scenes
in China’s capital and a heavy dose of Hong Kong in an attempt to straddle the world’s two biggest
movie-going audiences. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)
ties, at least a third of their main
choose four people to play roles.
In one scene, a billboard stretches creative talent must be Chinese, 30
across most of the screen, advertising percent of its film budget must come
a Chinese liquor. In another product from China, some production must
placement, Stanley Tucci’s character take place in China, and the film
takes a break on a roof and drinks must include a certain amount of
undefined Chinese elements.
from a carton of Chinese milk.
Officially designated co-produc-
Online film critic Zheng Kunjie
said the number of Chinese elements tions benefit both sides. For Holly-
in the film was “unprecedented” in a wood, they earn an automatic
Hollywood import. The familiar exemption from China’s quota on
scenes and brands make the foreign movies and allow a larger
Transformers movie more realistic to share of the country’s box office.
filmmaking
industry,
a Chinese audience than one that China’s
employs a western stereotype of “a meanwhile, is keen to acquire more
classically beautiful China” like in skills and technological know-how.
Last year, there were 49 official
Skyfall, she said. While these will
make Chinese moviegoers amused co-productions in China, the majority
and interested in the film, the of which were with Hong Kong and
Chinese elements don’t affect the Taiwanese companies, according to
leading entertainment consultancy
development of the story, she said.
Florian Fettweis of Beijing-based EntGroup. China counts productions
media consultancy CMM-I said too in the self-governing island of Taiwan
many Chinese elements could dilute as being Chinese.
There were three China-U.S. co-
the appeal to U.S. moviegoers.
Western movies that have con- productions, including Cloud Atlas.
A flurry of recent cooperation
tained a more China-specific narra-
tive have tended to fare badly at the agreements between Hollywood
box office, such as last year’s direc- studios and Chinese players suggests
torial debut by Keanu Reeves, Man of more co-productions are on the way.
In April, Paramount and state-
Tai Chi, set in Beijing and centering
owned China Film Group signed a
around Chinese martial arts.
Unlike the latest Transformers deal to co-produce fantasy-action
movie, Man of Tai Chi had official co- movie Marco Polo based on the 14th-
production status in China. To be century European explorer who trav-
classed as such by Chinese authori-
Continued on page 7
China dog-eaters dodge activists with early feast
BEIJING (AP) — Residents in a southern Chinese city
that has come under fire for an annual summer solstice
festival in which thousands of dogs are slaughtered for
food held their feasts early to avoid attention.
In mid-June, some residents of Yulin started gathering
and eating dog meat and lychees to celebrate the longest
day of the year, ahead of the actual solstice, state media
reported. The residents wanted to avoid protests by
animal-rights activists.
In recent years, the festival was targeted by activists
who have drummed up public awareness of the event with
posts on social media and online petitions, and descended
on the city to protest outside slaughterhouses or markets
where the dogs are sold.
The public uproar reflects the increasing affluence of
ordinary Chinese, who keep pets, travel overseas, and are
changing attitudes about traditions they may not have
questioned before.
Photos on state media showed groups of Yulin city
residents tucking into plates of meat and vegetables
around dining tables strewn with lychees. Other photos,
which circulated widely on Chinese microblogs, were of
skinned, cooked dogs hanging from hooks at street stalls
or piled on tables.
Under the Yulin tradition, eating dog and lychee and
drinking liquor on the solstice is supposed to make people
stay healthy during winter. It is unclear if the supposed
health benefits diminish if the feast occurs before the
actual solstice.
Animal-rights activists say the event is a public health
risk because the dogs undergo no quarantine to ensure
they are free of disease, and that they are strays grabbed
off streets around the country, as well as allegedly stolen
from pet owners. The dogs are often poisoned with toxic
chemicals that could be harmful to humans, they say.
Deng Yidan, an activist with Animals Asia, said the
FURTIVE FEASTING. A dog waits to be sold for meat at a market
in Yulin, in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Resi-
dents in the southern Chinese city that has come under fire for an annual
summer solstice festival in which thousands of dogs are slaughtered for
food, held their feasts early to avoid attention. (AP Photo/Humane Society
International, File)
public backlash hurts the image of Yulin and China.
“Negative coverage is growing — dog theft, criminal
activities, food hygiene issues, and rabies fears — not to
mention the division in society between those for and
against the festival — together these have brought
significantly more negative publicity to Yulin than
economic benefits,” Deng said in a statement.
The Yulin government has sought to distance itself from
the feasting, saying it is not officially endorsed. State
media reports say the government told restaurants to
remove references to dog meat from their menus and
signboards — though it did not bar the sale and
consumption of the meat, which is not illegal in China.
The government has denied the formal existence of such
a festival, saying it is a culinary habit practiced only by
some businesses and people.
Public pressure stopped another dog meat festival in
eastern Zhejiang province, which was cancelled in 2011
despite dating back hundreds of years.