Is Hollywood's kow-towing to China all in vain? Beijing set to BAN new Asian-hero Marvel movie because of its links to 'racist archetype' villain Fu Manchu
China has snubbed Marvel's latest superhero movie, despite efforts to placate Beijing's censors by erasing the controversial Fu Manchu character from the script.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings features an Asian-led cast, Mandarin dialogue and was lauded by American critics for its 'sensitive' handling of Chinese culture and hailed as a 'breakthrough' for Marvel.
But the Communist Party's censors are yet to approve it because of its links to the 'racist archetype' villain and are set to ban the movie following its $90 million take over Labor Day weekend in the US.
Hollywood has often kow-towed to Communist Party demands, altering scripts and writing out characters in an effort to avoid angering Beijing, but with little success.
Disney, which owns Marvel, has struggled to break the Chinese market, despite making changes to the films in line with Beijing and last year's Mulan release flopped despite several screenplay edits made to placate China.
Now Shang-Chi has already drawn the ire of Chinese critics due to its links to Fu Manchu, the supervillain created by English pulp fiction novelist Sax Rohmer, who described him as the embodiment of 'all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race.'
The mustachioed criminal mastermind was portrayed by white Britons such as Boris Karloff, Peter Sellers and Christopher Lee and is considered the archetype of Western anti-Chinese sentiment.
Marvel's latest superhero film has been snubbed by China despite efforts to placate Beijing's censors by erasing the controversial Fu Manchu character and replace him with Simu Liu as Shang-Chi (pictured)
English actor Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu in the 1965 thriller, The Face of Fu Manchu
Christopher Lee and Tsai Chin in 'The Face of Fu Manchu', 1965 (left); and Peter Sellers and Helen Mirren in The Fiendish Plot Of Dr Fu Manchu, 1980
Fu Manchu does not appear in the new movie but in the Marvel universe he is Shang-Chi's father, owing to the US comic franchise buying the rights to Rohmer's character in the 1970s.
But many Chinese believe that the new film cannot disassociate itself with this legacy.
Shi Wenxue, a film critic in Beijing, told state mouthpiece the Global Times: 'Fu Manchu is a treacherous representation of the 'yellow peril' stereotype. Chinese audiences cannot accept a prejudiced character.'
Marvel replaced Fu Manchu with a new character, Xu Wenwu, played by Hong Kong star Tony Leung, though the move has done little to sway Beijing's censors.
Tony Leung playing Wenwu in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Wenwu has replaced the controversial Fu Manchu character but Beijing is still considering whether to ban the film
Screenwriter Dave Callaham told Inverse, 'We knew we wanted to change that stuff,' adding that the filmmakers had a 'physical list' of things 'we were looking to destroy.'
However, the choice of Chinese-Canadian Liu Semu for the lead role angered some Chinese critics who viewed him as 'not Chinese enough.' Semu was born in China but moved to Canada aged five.
Others claimed that the 32-year-old had the stereotypical looks of what Westerners associated with Chinese people.
Boris Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu, 1930, (left) and Peter Sellers in The Fiendish Plot Of Dr Fu Manchu, 1980
In the last decade, US studios have increasingly focused their attention on the Chinese market - worth $9 billion last year.
Disney, which owns Marvel, came under fire last year with its live action version of Mulan which was partially shot in Xinjiang province, notorious for its Uyghur detention camps.
The studio even altered the screenplay to placate Chinese censors. But despite a plot based on Chinese folklore and a largely Chinese cast, it was rejected by Chinese critics and flopped at the box office.
'Face like Satan and with all the cruel cunning of the Eastern race': Fu Manchu the archetypal supervillain rooted in 'yellow fever' hysteria of the early 19th century
English novelist Sax Rohmer said he asked a Ouija board how he would make his fortune and it spelled out: 'Chinaman.'
Rohmer had never been to China and thus relied upon early 19th century cliches of the 'yellow fever' hysteria which cast the Chinese as a malevolent, expansionist foe which threatened white Western hegemony.
In 1913, his first novel in the series was published, The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu.
So reads the character's first introduction to the reader:
'Imagine a person, tall, lean, and feline, high shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes … Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present … Imagine that awful being, and you have a picture of Dr. Fu Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man.'
Christopher Lee in The Brides of Fu Manchu - 1966
Sellers as Fu Manchu in the 1965 thriller The Face of Fu Manchu directed by Don Sharp
Fu Manchu became a pulp fiction, penny dreadful hit and, although Rohmer would kill the character off on several occasions, he was always pressured into bringing him back to life.
In total there were 13 Fu Manchu novels by Rohmer and the character inspired multiple spin-offs on stage, screen, in radio serials and comic books.
The mustachioed criminal mastermind was portrayed by white Britons such as Boris Karloff, Peter Sellers and Christopher Lee.
He influenced James Bond villain Dr No and Flash Gordon's Ming the Merciless.
By the mid-20th century the character was so entrenched in popular culture that Marvel writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin were inspired to create Shang-Chi in 1972.
Rohmer's creation influenced Ming the Merciless in the 1980 film, Flash Gordon
Boris Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu, 1930
Fu Manchu was Sang-Chi's evil father in the long-running comic book, Master of Kung Fu, which ran from 1973 to 1983.
He was portrayed in a manner mostly consistent with Rohmer's novels: a brilliant and calculating master villain who aspires to rule the world.
From 1983 onwards, Shang-Chi - introduced as the son of Fu Manchu by Marvel - had his own comic book series.
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