It annoys me that Memoirs of a Geisha was banned in China. And the reason for the ban annoys me even more.
"High-ranking officials" in the Chinese government are responsible for the ban, but news sources report that ordinary citizens agree that the movie should be banned (without having seen it, I might add). The producers' big mistake? Casting high profile Chinese actresses as "Japanese prostitutes." Apparently people's sensibilities have been hurt by the idea that actresses Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh have been reduced to being....gasp...Japanese! As this news source reports, reactions have been quite extreme:
Ahead of the ban, bloggers had heaped venom on Zhang Ziyi for accepting the role of the beautiful geisha Sayuri without considering Chinese national pride. "Sleeping with a Japanese man for money is disgusting. She humiliated all Chinese people," suggested one. Although Zhang won a Golden Globe nomination for her role in the "Memoirs', she was called a "shameful traitor" who deserved nothing better than to be "hacked to death".
"Hacked to death"?? O-kay. This is what annoys me. Politics seeping into areas where it has no business. I could accept that the Chinese are still mad at the Japanese for World War II atrocities and I can appreciate continued diplomatic strains between the countries. But art should be beyond that. Maybe I just don't get it. But I don't recall ever being offended that Sir Ben Kingsley -- an Englishman, for all intents and purposes -- got to play Gandhi, the greatest iconic figure in India's history. Sure, the British Raj was appalling and they pillaged India before leaving, but that has no bearing on Kingsley. He was a good actor who did a damn good job and made the film memorable. Period. (And Gandhi was actually a political film, given its subject).
The IPS article quotes a Chinese writer on this:
"Art should be above national politics," argues female writer Hong Ying. "Zhang Ziyi is an actor. Actors can act anybody. That is what they do. If we object to a Chinese actress acting a Japanese, it would be like saying Americans can't act English people and vice versa, or that English TV versions of Tolstoy works only with Russian actors. There wouldn't be a film or TV industry if that were the case."
I couldn't agree more. Art should transcend national boundaries. In a time of globalization when we're also getting paradoxically more nationalistic, art should be a way to bridge the widening gaps.
