Last night’s Winter Olympic Opening ceremonies in China where not as disturbing as the 2008 Opening ceremonies. The collectivist ethos and violent scariness of that show gave many of us nightmares (including Eric Cartman from South Park).
By comparison, China in 2022 is glamorous- it’s the glamour of evil
Some people I talked to think the difference between the two shows is that the Chinese know the damage COVID caused to all the other countries of the world (represented as SNOWFLAKES!). Other countries are going to be ticked off at China if they don’t watch it. If they don’t put their best face on now, they’re going to come across as the villains! Perhaps that’s also the reason they let a member of their Uyghur minority group carry the torch at the end too.
Speaking of villains, an incredible story about how China got a movie script changed several years ago was published today in the WSJ, and is sure to be of interest to the POMOCON movie aficionados such Titus. Erich Schwartzel, the author, has a new book coming out on the subject, RED CARPET: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy. In 2008 after the last Chinese Olympics, writers and producers in Hollywood very seriously considered remaking Red Dawn, substituting the People’s Republic of China for the Soviets.
Hollywood, of course, succumbed to Chinese outcry against the movie because they worship the almighty dollar:
…something had changed in the two-plus years between the moment Mr. Passmore was told to cast China as the villain and when the movie was ready for release. Work on the script had started in the summer of 2008, and filming wrapped in late 2009 -- days before "Avatar" would gross more than $200 million in Chinese theaters and awaken Hollywood to the nation's economic potential. The trend line was clear: Box office was rising in China just as it was stagnating in America.
By the time editing finished in mid-2010, no Hollywood executive would touch a movie that turned their most important new customer into the villain. If MGM itself released the movie, even just in the U.S., China could retaliate by refusing to show the studio's more lucrative James Bond movies in its market.
What’s even more disconcerting in this article than what we learn about glamorous Hollywood (which we already knew was pretty evil) is what we learn from the U.S. military:
Mr. Ellsworth had a friend with connections at the Pentagon, so he went to Washington for inspiration. After turning over his cellphone to prevent foreign surveillance of the meeting, Mr. Ellsworth outlined his new "Red Dawn": China attacks Taiwan, forcing a U.S. response. China dumps U.S. debt unannounced, sending the U.S. economy into a tailspin. Chinese paratroopers land on suburban lawns and Chinese generals take over city squares.
Mr. Ellsworth says he felt insecure describing this Hollywood fantasy of Chinese war games to real-world military personnel. But his schlocky scenario was met with the silence of recognition.
"No one ever said, 'That's ridiculous. That would never happen,'" he said.
Some patriotic American needs to recut the Red Dawn remake and be honest about who the real villains are these days.
I look forward to this new movie you're describing in the last sentence called HR-T-Mobile-CDC-Spotify-fb-Alphabet-NFL-NIH-CNBC-Hershey's-Proctor&Gamble-Amazon-NYT-JPMorganChase-BofA-Nike-NBA-Disney-AirBnB-Mircosoft-GoFundMe-etc. Dawn.