How did Disney, one of the savviest companies when it comes to operating in a China, get caught so flat footed? Our deep dive on the Mulan controversy, w/ @brooksbarnesNYT

Disney Wanted to Make a Splash in China With ‘Mulan.’ It Stumbled Instead. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/business/media/disney-mulan-china.html?smid=tw-share

The filmmakers of Mulan may not have known what was happening in Xinjiang when they chose it as one of 20 locations in China to shoot scenery, but by the time a camera crew arrived in August 2018 the mass detention camps were all over the news.

“Usually when a lot of foreigners go to Xinjiang, officials there are pretty sensitive,” one crew member told @amy_changchien. “But actually our filming process went very smoothly because the local government was very supportive and understanding at the time.”

Top studio executives had not seen the Xinjiang credits, according to three people briefed on the matter, and no one involved with the production had warned that footage from the area was perhaps not a good idea.

All that effort for what ended up being just 1 minute of footage from Xinjiang in the almost 2 hour film, and a so far only tepid reception from a Chinese audiences. Mulan currently has 4.8/10 stars on Douban & took in a humdrum $8 million on opening day (vs Lion King’s $13m)

A Disney crew filmed scenes for Mulan in Xinjiang from Aug 11-17, 2018 a film assistant told us. By then, the mass detention of Uighurs was all over the news.

NYT on Aug 10: UN Panel Confronts China Over Reports That It Holds a Million Uighurs in Camps https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/business/media/disney-mulan-china.html