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China Censors 'Nomadland' Director Chloe Zhao's Oscar Win (wsj.com) 76

"Nomadland" director Chloe Zhao made history on Sunday by becoming the first woman of color and first Chinese woman to win the Oscar for best director. Official media, major search engines and internet censors in her home country are making as if it didn't happen. From a report: Ms. Zhao's win, just the second time a woman has walked away with best director, unleashed a flurry of congratulatory messages on Chinese social-media sites when it was announced Monday morning Beijing time. By midafternoon, nearly all of the posts had been erased. Searches for her name on Baidu and Sogou, the country's dominant search engines, produced numerous links to news of her previous accolades but only scattered links to deleted articles about the Academy Award honor.

State broadcaster China Central Television, the official Xinhua News Agency, and Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily stayed silent on the award throughout the day. Two state media reporters told the Journal they had received orders from China's propaganda ministry not to report on her victory, despite what they described as her status as a Chinese national, because of "previous public opinion." China's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the removal of social-media posts during a regular news conference on Monday, saying it wasn't a diplomatic issue.

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China Censors 'Nomadland' Director Chloe Zhao's Oscar Win

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  • by TeddyRick ( 6515134 ) on Monday April 26, 2021 @09:25AM (#61315308)
    I know most people don't read the article but some of us do.

    When these articles get greenlit it gives companies who own paywall content a reason to come here and suggest their content which leads to more paywalled content and allows /. to act as an advertisement vehicle in an obfuscated way.
    • I know most people don't read the article but some of us do. When these articles get greenlit it gives companies who own paywall content a reason to come here and suggest their content which leads to more paywalled content and allows /. to act as an advertisement vehicle in an obfuscated way.

      At first I moderated you +1 Insightful. Then I thought about it a bit more.

      What's the difference between what you describe and if Slashdot had a review or summary of a technical documentary that was on Netflix? You learned about something potentially useful to you that if you want more of it, you have to pay.

      I get it that there's a grey area, for instance things that come off as advertisements. "Manufacturer X releases Product Y!!!" Some of that is truly interesting from a state-of-tech standpoint.

      • What's the difference between what you describe and if Slashdot had a review or summary of a technical documentary that was on Netflix?

        There is no difference. Slashdot shouldn't be posting either.

        Instead, they should feature a non-paywalled article that covers the same issue. If there isn't one, they should feature something else. There are plenty of other topics to cover.

        I should not need a subscription to RTFA.

      • There certainly is an opportunity for anyone to use slashdot as an advertising vehicle but if paywalls are encouraged to do it the amount of content we are offered but can't actually read goes up. This makes the amount of time wasted go up and will send me somewhere else.

        If we, as a community, don't greelight any content behind paywalls and only greenlight content people actually want to read the value of the site goes up. If some website has great free content, they will be here regularly. If they lever
  • by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Monday April 26, 2021 @09:26AM (#61315316) Journal

    This could be interesting. Because of "previous public opinion" WTH?

    Is it because China was pushing the "anti-Asian" narrative, and this doesn't fit the narrative?

    (China really can make information that doesn't fit the narrative disappear, making it the envy of the West's censors.)

    • There's at least one nice quality printed media had. It was very hard to erase what was printed. One step forward for progress. Two steps back for preserving history.

    • by idji ( 984038 )
      She likely said something "controversial" in the past that the Communist Party does not like.
      • She likely said something "controversial" in the past that the Communist Party does not like.

        This is exactly what happened.
        She gave an interview in 2013 [filmmakermagazine.com]

        "I get asked a lot, 'Why are you doing this?'" Zhao said at the time regarding why she tells stories. "It goes back to when I was a teenager in China, being a place where there are lies everywhere."

        "You felt like you were never going to be able to get out. A lot of info I received when I was younger was not true," she said. "And I became very rebellious toward my family and my background. I went to England suddenly and relearned my history. Studying political science in a liberal arts college was a way for me to figure out what is real. Arm yourself with information, and then challenge that, too."

        You can imagine they aren't very impressed.

    • Re:Hmm (Score:5, Informative)

      by Chris Mattern ( 191822 ) on Monday April 26, 2021 @09:42AM (#61315394)

      "Is it because China was pushing the "anti-Asian" narrative, and this doesn't fit the narrative?"

      No, it's because Zhao is on record as making anti-Communist Party statements and thus cannot be acknowledged as being in any way praiseworthy. The Chinese government made a u-turn when they realized she had made those statements.

    • I am unaware of the director's history with China, but the film is set in the American West with an American cast about characters who are nomads. Other than her being of Chinese descent, there does not seem to be any connection to China. I also did not read that it alluded to China in any social commentary angle.
      • Other than her being of Chinese descent, there does not seem to be any connection to China.

        She is not just of "Chinese descent". She was born in, raised in, and is a citizen of the People's Republic of China.

      • She gave an interview in 2013 [filmmakermagazine.com]

        "I get asked a lot, 'Why are you doing this?'" Zhao said at the time regarding why she tells stories. "It goes back to when I was a teenager in China, being a place where there are lies everywhere."

        "You felt like you were never going to be able to get out. A lot of info I received when I was younger was not true," she said. "And I became very rebellious toward my family and my background. I went to England suddenly and relearned my history. Studying political science in a liberal arts college was a way for me to figure out what is real. Arm yourself with information, and then challenge that, too."

        It's not about the movie. Just the person.

    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      Well, what really started the ball rolling was a misquote in which an interviewer turned "America is not my country" into "America is *now* my country." This ignited fury among Chinese nationalists, and it did not abate after the misquote was fixed because then they found her anti-party statements.

    • http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww... [koreatimes.co.kr] https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/w... [koreatimes.co.kr] But never mind. They all look Chinese to you. So it's all Chinese propaganda.
  • Who cares... (Score:5, Informative)

    by drew_92123 ( 213321 ) on Monday April 26, 2021 @09:27AM (#61315324)

    ...it's China, this is SOP for them, nobody cares any more.

  • by tekram ( 8023518 ) on Monday April 26, 2021 @09:44AM (#61315404)
    'Ms. Zhao experienced a Chinese social-media assault of her own earlier this year after her win at the Golden Globes in March. Chinese social-media sentiment, initially jubilant about Ms. Zhao’s success on the world stage, turned bitter after users circulated a 2013 interview with Filmmaker magazine in which Ms. Zhao made a reference to China, calling it a place she had grown up in “where there are lies everywhere.” Ms. Zhao, who moved to the U.S. when she was in high school, referenced her childhood again in her Academy Award acceptance speech on Sunday, reciting in Mandarin the first line of a Chinese classic text that she said she and her father had memorized: “People at birth are inherently good.” Users on Chinese social-media platforms responded with a flood of excited reviews and a variety of happy-face emoticons. “I am truly happy about it because a Chinese filmmaker has left a magnificent mark on global film history. It’s worth celebrating no matter what,” wrote a user on the Quora-like Q&A site Zhihu. Hours later, that and similar posts had disappeared from the site. Users on the Twitter -like Weibo platform complained that Ms. Zhao’s accomplishments were being deleted by censors.'
  • Woman of Color? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by luis_a_espinal ( 1810296 ) on Monday April 26, 2021 @10:10AM (#61315520)

    "Nomadland" director Chloe Zhao made history on Sunday by becoming the first woman of color and first Chinese woman to win the Oscar for best director.

    As a minority/brown/latin person, I must since when is someone like Chloe Zhao a "person of color"? To me, I thought the term was used for Black/African-American people (who have suffered systemic discrimination far worse than we Latinos or Asian/Asian-Americans have suffered.)

    Maybe I'm wrong, but this reminds me of the time someone called Antonio Banderas (a European actor) a "person of color." Words need to have meaning that make them useful. Otherwise, they end up meaning anything and thus nothing.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      Anyone can identify as a Person of Color. You are not restricted by the race assigned to you at birth, you merely need to define yourself as a victim.

    • Re:Woman of Color? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Monday April 26, 2021 @10:48AM (#61315712)
      It's an idiotic term that basically means non-white. So you're either white or you're a person of color. It's inherently stupid for the reason that it essentially separates people into categories of "white" and "other" but it's even more moronic because it wants to treat both categories as a monolith as though inferences could be made about your character, history, etc. based on membership in that category. Anyone who has a mindset that puts people into buckets like this cannot hope to accomplish anything good.
      • Re:Woman of Color? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by RightSaidFred99 ( 874576 ) on Monday April 26, 2021 @01:00PM (#61316262)

        Exactly this - it's an intentionally divisive term. It's used by the same people who love to needlessly throw in "white men" in tweets about some negative characteristic of men in general because then if someone objects they can rant and rave about privilege and whatnot.

        I don't get mad at such people, I just tend to tune them out. So if they're making an otherwise reasonable point it gets lost in the noise of their petty rhetoric.

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      It is an awkward term, but an alternative has yet to enter mainstream usage, meaning that most won't know what you are talking about if you use a more fitting but obscure term. There is much of English that needs updating, such as giving it gender-neutral pronouns.

      Perhaps they could have used "minority"? That's kind of fell out of usage.

    • Re:Woman of Color? (Score:4, Informative)

      by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Monday April 26, 2021 @11:02AM (#61315774)

      "Nomadland" director Chloe Zhao made history on Sunday by becoming the first woman of color and first Chinese woman to win the Oscar for best director.

      As a minority/brown/latin person, I must since when is someone like Chloe Zhao a "person of color"? To me, I thought the term was used for Black/African-American people (who have suffered systemic discrimination far worse than we Latinos or Asian/Asian-Americans have suffered.)

      Maybe I'm wrong, but this reminds me of the time someone called Antonio Banderas (a European actor) a "person of color." Words need to have meaning that make them useful. Otherwise, they end up meaning anything and thus nothing.

      Let's face it. PoC means "visibly non-white person". As in, someone who's subject to discrimination based on their skin.

      Spanish, Turkish, Greek... "swarthy" individuals are on the list. Sure, they may not get it as bad as other groups, and some of them may "pass" sometimes. But people of Chinese descent absolutely qualify, being non-caucasian.

      • I don't think you can recognize Spanish/Turk/Greek on look alone. They're of europid phenotype. Same applies to Arabs, Berbers and Egyptians.
      • Let's face it. PoC means "visibly non-white person". As in, someone who's subject to discrimination based on their skin.

        PoC are the new Aryans, and white people, especially white men are the new Jews. This is where Leftism takes you...

        • Found the neo-Nazi. "White men are the new Jews"? Seriously? Plenty of REAL Jews still being attacked and terrorized by men who are white.
          • Found the neo-Nazi. "White men are the new Jews"? Seriously? Plenty of REAL Jews still being attacked and terrorized by men who are white.

            Found the logical fallacy...Two of them in fact...

        • Is this a parody account? You're brilliantly flirting with the "can't tell if trolling..." line.
    • White is a color too (technically all frequencies) except for some reason these retards want to ignore that fact.

      > Otherwise, they end up meaning anything and thus nothing.

      Person of Color is a meaningless, bullshit, hijacked, political phrase. The fact that we have to draw attention to a person's color instead of their character is why this is complete bullshit.

    • As a minority/brown/latin person, I must since when is someone like Chloe Zhao a "person of color"? To me, I thought the term was used for Black/African-American people (who have suffered systemic discrimination far worse than we Latinos or Asian/Asian-Americans have suffered.)

      First, let's be clear: recognising someone else as a lesser-privileged person takes nothing away from the negative experiences and/or circumstances you, your ancestors/progeny, or peers have or are experiencing. The recognition is inclusive, not exclusive.

      Second, with people of Asian heritage/descent/visible characteristics being actively and consistently physically and otherwise attacked right now, I don't think anyone can claim that Asian people are not part of an oppressed/disadvantaged class.

      Third, if y

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by llamahunter ( 830343 )

      who have suffered systemic discrimination far worse than we Latinos or Asian/Asian-Americans have suffered.

      Asian-Americans have faced a LOT of discrimination for a long time. Los Angeles Chinese Massacre of 1871? Page Exclusion act of 1875? Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882? Executive Order 9066 of 1942 (Japanese-American citizen internment)? Attacks on Asian-Americans in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19?

      There's no need to play 'oppression olympics' here. Just be happy that an Asian-American immigrant has been recognized as a leader in her field.

      Aside: I will grant you that treating Hispanic people from Spain as 'p

    • The term means non-white.
      Asians are also often referred to as yellow.

    • by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
      It's a discriminatory term used by prejudice people. People of colour are 'different' and we must acknowledge this difference. Welcome to the US propaganda machine. On a side note, ever notice how latinos don't matter in the US? 13 yr old latino gets killed empty hands in the air and it's a blip on MSM. 16yr old black girl attacking people with a knife gets killed and there's paid protests and riots.
    • Kudos to loyal CCP troll luis_a_espinal for derailing the conversation focused on Chinese censorship! Pretty sure he/she just won him/herself enough social credits to take a trip back home to the provinces to visit mama and baba.
  • The film is about Americans on the edge of homelessness living a nomadic lifestyle in their vans. Tremendous propaganda value, yet you want to hold onto old grudges about the film maker? You need to have the grudge department communicate with the propaganda department.
    • It's a good strategy: spread the rumor your movie is anti-China , then before you know it you're nominated for an Oscar and China blocks you.

  • Goes without saying that Donald Trump should send her a tweet with congratulations.
  • Film Academy gets woke and specifically changes its policy to target minorities, then for some reason its a surprise many more minorities win awards.
    The real historic moment here is that the Academy Awards is no longer about merit and more about virtue signalling.

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