Nomadland Censored in China Following Nationalist Backlash to Chloe Zhao

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Chloé Zhao's latest film Nomadland has been censored online in China due to the director's past comments about the country. Zhao recently won the Golden Globe for Best Director, becoming the first Asian woman filmmaker to take home the coveted prize. Many in China celebrated this historic win, but others were not so enthused about the win or the director.

Nomadland secured an April 23, 2021 release in China from the National Arthouse Alliance of Cinemas, or the NAAC, and the Best Director win for Zhao was met with pride from various official Chinese state websites. Yet many Chinese nationalists questioned Zhao's citizenship. Even though she is the step-daughter of the veteran Chinese character-actor Song Dandan and Zhao herself was born in Beijing, she received most of her education in the United Kingdom and the United States. She identifies the United States as her home and doesn't even have a Chinese passport. Zhao had been critical of the Chinese government, and in a 2013 interview with the magazine Filmmaker, she said China was like"being in a place where there are lies everywhere."

According to Variety, Nomadland is receiving censorship from the Chinese government due to Zhao's past comments. Mentions of Nomadland on Weibo, the popular social media site, are blocked, saying the topic violates China's "laws, regulations, and policy." While the film is still set for theatrical release in China, any mention that references to the film's upcoming release have been removed from various government-sponsored sites.

The backlash comes unexpectedly as the plot of Nomadland has nothing to do with China, but the move now is not about the subject matter of the film but the politics behind the scenes. This isn't the first time the Chinese government has cracked down on an American film, and it's not even one of the more extreme cases. Christopher Robin was blocked from being released in China for political reasons as the character of Winnie the Pooh became a symbol of resistance groups against Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The government cracked down, removing all images of Winnie the Pooh on social media.

While Nomadland wasn't expected to be a big box-office hit in China due to its specifically American subject matter, it does become an issue with Zhao's next big feature film, Marvel Studios Eternals. Marvel Studios' movies have done very well at the Chinese box office; Avengers: Endgame is the sixth highest-grossing film at the Chinese box-office and the highest-grossing film from the United States in China. Shang Chi and the Legend of the Tens Rings will feature a prominently Asian cast with Chinese-born Simu Liu in the title role. Eternals currently has a November 5, 2021 release date in other parts of the world but no set date in China. More than likely Eternals will play in China, but how Marvel Studios chooses to market the film will most likely change with more focus put on the all-star cast than the fact that the director is the first Asian woman to win Best Director at the Golden Globes and a potential Oscar nominee.