The Chinese “system” entails differences in funding, approval and filmmaking techniques, which become apparent the more you compare Chinese films to America ones.
The differences in approach between filmmakers in each country are startling, and not just because of the culture. With The Great Wall, we see that tendency taken down a strange but undeniably interesting cul-de-sac: tasking legendary Chinese director Zhang Yimou with creating a Hollywood-style blockbuster. That’s one of the reasons why The Martian includes an odd China-based subplot, for example, or why the last Transformers movie set its finale in China. Written by: Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro and Tony GilroyĪs anyone who’s paid even the slightest attention to the movie industry knows, China has become a vital marketplace for the industry. Starring: Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau, Pedro Pascal and Lu Han So if you’re upset that Matt Damon is the star of The Great Wall, your issue isn’t that William is a whitewashed Asian character, Damon is playing an Asian character, or that an Asian actor should have been cast instead of Damon - it’s that you want The Great Wall to have a different story that would necessitate an Asian lead character.Andy Lau, Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, The Great Wall, Tian Jing, Willem Dafoe, Willem Dafore, Zhang Yomou Yes, a movie could be made with an Asian main character about the Great Wall being a barrier against invading monsters, but that would require a different script and characters. For this story, changing William into an Asian character would make little sense, as would casting an Asian actor to play European William. In fact, it’s integral to the story that William and Tovar are foreigners in search of gunpowder and fortune who know nothing of the Great Wall, the Nameless Order, or their true purpose. Is Damon being the star of The Great Wall a case of whitewashing? As Zhang has attested, William was always written as a European character, not a Chinese one that was changed to accommodate Damon’s whiteness. In other words, it’s William who has to learn to be more Chinese.
William doesn’t teach the Chinese how to be better Chinese - it’s William who must redeem himself by risking his life to serve the greater good, which is a popular theme in both Chinese culture and entertainment. In contrast, the Chinese soldiers and officers of the Nameless Order are portrayed as brave, disciplined, honorable, skilled, and willing to die in order to save not just China, but all of humanity, even if the rest of the world never knows of their sacrifice. William and Tovar are in awe of the Wall, the size and sophistication of the Nameless Order, and the many innovative techniques and weapons the Order uses to fight the Taoties, including the gunpowder William and Tovar regard as a type of magic that “turns air into fire.” All three men describe themselves as honorless thieves and soldiers-for-hire who only care about money and saving their own lives.
Other than William’s bravery and skill as a warrior, the film’s three white characters are often portrayed as being less advanced - whether morally, culturally, or technologically - than the Chinese. When Damon was announced as the star of The Great Wall, Wu was one of Hollywood’s earliest and loudest critics of his casting, claiming that it was part of “the repeatedly implied racist notion that white people are superior to POC and that POC need salvation from our own color via white strength.” She also called out the makers of The Great Wall and the film industry as a whole for their lack of courage and “lame” excuses for not trying harder to diversify their films and the stories they tell.
As an Asian American who grew up yearning to see anyone like myself, my family, or my Asian American friends in TV shows and movies, this is obviously a subject very close to my heart, and I’m glad Wu is out there calling attention to it. On the other hand, I’m also a big fan of Constance Wu, the breakout star of Fresh Off the Boat, a vocal progressive, and an outspoken critic of Hollywood’s lack of diversity and its continuing history of under-/mis-representation of non-white stories and characters.