China's treatment of Oscar winner Chloe Zhao shows how to lose friends and not influence people
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The Chinese media had once been filled with hearty endorsements of the Beijing-born woman, particularly after Zhao won the best director prize at the Golden Globes in February amid predictions that she was the strong favourite to grab the Oscar.
Born to an elite family - her father was a senior business executive and her stepmother is one of China's most celebrated actresses, Zhao was hailed as the dream girl who struck big on the international arena on her own and her Golden Globe success was a win for all Chinese.
Her criticism was indeed harsh but that was nearly 10 years ago and since then, she has not repeated it publicly. Interestingly, the magazine has also edited out the offending sentence from its online story.
More importantly, holding this against her seems narrow-minded and counterproductive. All the positivity her international successes have brought and projected matters much more and far outweighs the negative impact of her criticism.
Watching the live telecast of the Oscars beamed around the world, it was heartwarming and touching to see Zhao recite in her mother tongue the first six words from the Chinese Three Character Classic text, commonly known as San Zi Jing, which she translated as "people at birth are inherently good". In her acceptance speech, she went on to say that she always found goodness in the people she met and urged people to "hold on to the goodness" in themselves and in each other.
The censorship may have satisfied the nationalistic social media users who are intolerant of any criticism of China in the international media, constructive or otherwise. Those people may see Beijing's latest decision as a sign of strength and confidence but others outside China are most likely to view Beijing as being insecure and unconfident.
Furthermore, the widespread negative international reactions to the controversy should again serve as a timely reminder to the Chinese government.
Chinese leaders have tried to walk a fine line between stoking nationalism and seeking global engagement so that the nationalist sentiment would not get in the way of the country's plans to continue to open up to the outside world.
In recent years, however, the government has been seen as being too willing to encourage domestic populism for short-term political gains.
But concerns that naming and shaming those companies could adversely affect China's ability to attract foreign investment have since prompted the Chinese media to quietly tamp down their rhetoric.
So what will happen to Zhao and her film Nomadland in China?
Only recently did signs emerge to suggest an easing of tensions as state media recently reported that the NBA was expected to participate in China's first International Consumer Product Expo, scheduled to open later this month in Haikou of Hainan Island.
Let's hope Beijing's ban on Zhao and her film will be lifted more quickly.
Wang Xiangwei is a former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post. He is now based in Beijing as editorial adviser to the paper
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
