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Foreign Nationality Actors In ‘The Founding Of A Republic’

by on Thursday, September 17, 2009 20 comments

the-founding-of-a-republic-china-movie

Early last month, we showed some previews and translated some Chinese netizen reactions to the new movie 建国大业 (jian guo da ye, The Founding of A  Republic) in the post: “Jian Guo Da Ye” Movie Celebrates PRC 60th Anniversary. Here are some more translated comments, including some thoughts from famous Chinese blogger Han Han:

more-gvo-125x125From Global Voices:

“China: The Founding of a Republic”

As a celebration of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October, the all-star epic “The Founding of a Republic” will be screened tomorrow, on 17 September. The film has stirred a heated discussion on the Internet – not for the film itself, but for the nationalities of the stars.

Some news reports in August said that among the 172 famous actors/actresses and directors involved in the film, 21 hold foreign nationalities.

Well-known mainland writer Han Han (韩寒) discussed this on his blog (8/12):

…my personal opinion is that if a country can cause so many actors to change their nationality, this country has to bear certain responsibilities…

It is their personal choice to change their nationality. This is like divorce: perhaps their affection for the country has somehow disappeared, or perhaps they come across something better. We can criticize them from a certain moral stand, but there is nothing wrong with their personal character.

For normal Chinese citizens, that is, for those who cannot afford to eat well, to live well, to entertain, to make good connections, to bear children, to fall sick or to die, the key point is that they cannot afford to emigrate. Therefore, seeing all these actors fleeing the country, it is natural for them to be envious.

This blog entry has generated a staggering amount of replies. Some are very critical about it:

徐然:

If they are foreigners, why don’t they develop their career overseas but in China instead?

Totiliy:

The list only concerns artists. If we include scientists etc etc, the results may be more surprising. Wonder if businessmen like to be foreigners, I guess they would like to if they have the ability.

新浪网友:

The fact that foreigners can participate in this film shows that the administrators do not have basic principles and dignity. As a result, China is being looked down upon by others.

There are also a variety of alternative, sometimes mocking, views:

新浪网友:

Foreign stars participating in a Chinese movie, especially “The Founding of a Republic”, have came a long way to make this film for us, we, Chinese, should thank them for their hard work.

妮娜:

… Don’t be too extreme. Having a foreign nationality is not betraying our country. They are returning to make films for China, to represent China in international film festivals. They are contributing to China…

飞翔:

We do not have the right to criticize others. Each person has its own choice. Having a foreign nationality does not mean that they do not love the Chinese race.

reposted from: Global Voices

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20 Comments

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  1. gth793y
    Friday, September 18, 2009 at 12:11 am

    Am I the first?

    Reply
  2. Magnus
    Friday, September 18, 2009 at 1:08 am

    I wonder if this is a record number of celebrities in one movie. The only possible movie that could be made like this in the West, where so many stars would donate their time to participate in, would be about some garbage like GLOBAL WARMING or something. Perhaps this movie will be as worth watching as a global warming movie.

    Reply
  3. Berry Charles
    Friday, September 18, 2009 at 10:44 am

    “The fact that foreigners can participate in this film shows that the administrators do not have basic principles and dignity. As a result, China is being looked down upon by others.”

    Weird, why would anyone “look down” on China just because the entire cast of a movie isn’t all Chinese? That’s ridiculous! Nobody cares about that, there are thousands upon thousands of movies with people from all over the world working with each other. This is a good thing!

    Reply
    • FYIADragoon
      Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 12:37 am

      Yeah, but most countries don’t make movies as ridiculously nationalistic as the ones the PRC pumps out. No one gives American WWII movies the level of respect people have given the PRC’s nationalistic shit.

      Reply
    • Gaz
      Monday, January 11, 2010 at 4:47 pm

      You’re talking about Chinese here, give them the slightest thing to have “hurt nationalistic feelings” about and they will start telling you how its a massive conspiracy by the entire world against their poor ill-treated peaceful and harmonious motherland.

      Reply
  4. Alan
    Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    The Chinese have the victim mentality which is perhaps even worse than present day young people born in Israel, who still get taught and told the horrors of the holocaust. Difference is Germany apologized to Israel and things are over.

    Why do Chinese like to dance with their pain so much? If it wasnt the japanese in WW2, it would still be the brits and french from the qing dynasty, and before that the mongolians….gawds////

    Reply
    • be honest
      Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 6:00 am

      yes，u r right.however，the real difference is Germany apologized to Israel but Japanese did nothing except distorted the truth.

      Reply
      • ralphrepo
        Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 1:17 pm

        Yes, the Japanese remain cads for not coming to terms with their militaristic history. But if one were to tally up how many Chinese were killed by the Japanese versus how many Chinese were killed by other Chinese, the numbers will surprise you. Frankly, Chinese need to recognize that sometimes we ourselves can be our own worst enemies.

        Reply
  5. Teacher in China
    Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 8:22 am

    I saw this movie, and actually it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I especially liked the portrayal of Chiang Kai Shek (sp?), who I imagined would be portrayed as some mustachio-twirling, ultra-evil villian; he turned out to be surprisingly subtle and well-played. They did a good job showing the tragedy of the Nationalists situation too, especially showing the wife going all the way to the US to beg for more money just to get turned down. Not sure if the average Chinese person would feel the same, but I felt it was meant to be tragic.
    A couple of the scenes with Mao and “the guys” were pretty over the top with hero worship, but again not as bad as I thought it would be. Instead of showing Mao as a god-like figure, it really tried to show him as a man; a man who worked with other equally great men to achieve the founding of China. That surprised me, in a good way.
    Anyways, nationalistic? Sure, but it would have to be, given what it’s about. Bad movie? No, not really.

    Reply
  6. no
    Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    These comments are funny. Foreigners will always be foreigners they will never understand chinese people. This is not too nationalistic, if not enough compared to american movies. Chinese are very nationalistic by nature. The overseas chinese are more since they deal with more discrimination by the western socio political society

    Reply
  7. David
    Monday, September 28, 2009 at 10:20 pm

    These comments are funny. Foreigners will always be foreigners they will never understand chinese people. This is not too nationalistic, if not enough compared to american movies. Chinese are very nationalistic by nature. The overseas chinese are more since they deal with more discrimination by the western socio political society

    what are foreigners, white, black, european, Chinese have 2 kinds of people. Chinese and foreigners but they dont even know what a Chinese person is except someone who looks like them. “Discrimination” ? I live and work in China and have done so for 6 years. I am still a laowai even though I speak chinese and live and work in the local community. I cannot get help for anything because there is no service to help foreigners. I look forward to seeing this movie but perhaps chinese people will accept us as much as they want to be accepted and stop asking such things as ” Where are you come from”. are you America?. I guess all foreigners (laowai’s) only come from Americs. I’m a bloody KIWI

    Reply
  8. Morry
    Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 6:35 pm

    The original blog was on the changing nationalities of the Chinese born actors, so I’d like to bring it back on course.

    My son is born in Shanghai, his mother is Chinese, but I am a foreigner. Even though he was born here and has a Chinese mother, he is now ineligible for even a permanent residence (PR) for China, and must piggy-back my own visa all because we decided to get him a foreign passport (ie. for ease of travel). The PRC appears to have the attitude of ‘if you’re not with us. I am sure that these actors consider themselves Chinese to the day they die and it’s unfortunate that the PRC government bureaus don’t reciprocate that loyalty.

    Reply
  9. Jordan
    Monday, November 23, 2009 at 5:21 pm

    Has it dawn on the Chinese people yet that when someone (a Chinese) change their nationality to a foreign one is because they don’t like their government, and not so much for any other reason?

    It amazes me that the majority of Chinese people just can’t separate government from nation.

    Reply
    • Chinese of foreign nationality
      Monday, November 30, 2009 at 5:44 am

      As a Chinese person who moved with his family to Canada in 1999, I disagree with your comments. It is apparent that you have been indoctrinated with the idea that every Chinese who lives in the west are defectors who hates the Chicoms. We didn’t immigrate to Canada because we feel we were suppressed by an oppressive regime, we came here because there are less competition and a slower pace to life than a crowded rapidly-developing China. The changing of nationality was a matter of practicality.

      Overseas Chinese are often way more patriotic than you realize. The support for the torch relay and Olympics, the massive amount of donations for the Sichuan earthquake, and the protests against the Falun Gong in Flushing all attest to that. As a person in the overseas Chinese community, I can also dispel the insulting allegations that these activities are incited by CPC spies abroad. Much like in Sun Yat-sen’s days, Overseas Chinese patriotism is grass-root.

      The claim that you can separate Chinese people/nation from the ZF/CPC also bugs me. Do you think we Chinese are so complacent to allow a force so incompetent and corrupt as the CPC of common western perception to exist? The Late Qing dynasty was inept, it was overthrown, the KMT was inept, it was overthrown, history has not yet repeated itself with the CPC, maybe the Chinese people, for all of the CPC’s transgressions, still thinks they are doing a decent job? And how can you separate the party from the Chinese people? The party constitutes what… 70 million members, that is about 5%-6% of the entire PRC population, so 1 out of every 20 Chinese is a despicable thug, how is that not an insult to the nation and its people?

      Reply
  10. laowai
    Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 10:30 pm

    Only people who feel inferior pick up little things to make a fuss about. Stop belittling yourselves.

    Reply
  11. Lin
    Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 6:05 am

    Yeah this shouldn’t be a huge deal
    i mean if their heart is for their mother country then because they hold foriegn passports should not make them any less patriotic.

    Reply
  12. Voidness
    Friday, March 26, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    That can be true, how could a capitalism country be better off than a communisn one.

    Reply
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