Joshua Wong’s call for boycott of ‘Mulan’ gets backlash on Chinese social media

A call from Hong Kong separatist Joshua Wong to boycott the Disney film Mulan starring Chinese-American actor Liu Yifei faced a strong backlash online on Sunday, with many netizens saying it provided one more reason for them to watch the movie.

Hong Kong separatists have been inciting the public to

“boycott Mulan” since last year after Liu made comments supporting Hong Kong police on Chinese Twitter-like social media Sina Weibo.

In his tweet on Friday, Wong tried to stir up the public to boycott the movie on the premise of “human rights” and “freedom,” saying, “Disney kowtows to Beijing and because Liu openly and proudly endorse police brutality in Hong Kong, I urge everyone who believes in human rights to #BoycottMulan.”

The so-called boycott, however, seems to have incited a sense of patriotism on Chinese social media, as many netizens said they decided to buy a ticket for Mulan to counter Hong Kong separatists.

“The purpose of these separatists is not to resist the movie at all, but to use the name of ‘Mulan’ to promote so-called democracy and freedom and to discredit China!” said a net user.

Shi Wenxue, a Beijing-based film critic, told the Global Times on Sunday that if the Hong Kong separatists generated very strong resistance online, it would inevitably boost the sense of patriotism among Chinese audiences and add momentum for the box office.

The movie was released in the US on Friday and will be officially released on the Chinese mainland on September 11.

The movie was given a score of 79 on Rotten Tomatoes and good reviews were widely seen on the internet.

“The ‘boycott’ was only a small part of people trying to politicize the movie,” Shi said.

Shi said that the quality of the movie itself will be the final say as to its popularity.