MCLC: why Hollywood kowtows to China (1)

Denton, Kirk denton.2 at osu.edu
Wed Mar 13 08:57:04 EDT 2013


MCLC LIST
From: Sean Macdonald <smacdon2005 at gmail.com>
Subject: why Hollywood kowtows to China (1)
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Wow, the Brits seem to like that term "kowtow," with colonial resonances
that go back to the Macartney Mission, when Macartney refused to kowtow to
the Emperor because he was saving his curtseys for the King of England.
At least the writer got it right when he implies the kowtowing is for
tickets not just ideology.

But really, "Hollywood" (whatever the term means, it stands for so much)
has been tweaking films forever. Miriam Hansen noted that even early
Hollywood films were shot with more than one ending, a happy ending to
satisfy Americans, and a tragic ending to satisfy Russian audiences.

Times and technology has changed. Maybe future technology will offer a
fill-in-the-blanks national villain, and the audience can decide at the
beginning which stereotyped war villain they want to see on the screen?
Oh, but I think there are video games for that.

Sean

 




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