The significance of Wolf Warrior 2, the 2017 Chinese blockbuster film

[secondstrike]

Wolf Warrior 2 is a Chinese action film starring martial arts star, Wu Jing. The film hearkens back to a simpler time: the 80’s, when villains were simple-minded and plots didn’t contort your mind into a pretzel like Nolan’s Inception.

It was also an era when action relied more on skill instead of green screen gimmicks.

Aside from being enjoyable, the film may be a watershed moment for Chinese soft power and escaping the yoke of western cultural imperialism [also known as white worship and Asian self hate].

Unlike the steaming pile of sycophantic Chinese joint venture films of the past decade, Wolf Warrior reverses the formula that Hollywood swears up and down is “what the people want”. According to Hollywood, “the people want” to see a white guy save hapless Asians and get the Asian girl with a backdrop of emasculated and forgettable Chinese coolies. BTW, that is a

total
inversion
of
reality

In this film,

● the “white savior” is replaced with attractive and charismatic elite Chinese PLA [People’s Liberation Army] soldier. He saves the day.

● The Asian damsel in distress is replaced by some white passing hapa girl named Celina Jade. I’ll return to this in a later piece.

● Africans are humanized

The result?

This film is one of the top performing films in Chinese cinematic history. The implications are enormous.

● Investors will wish to replicate the success here. Expect more films following the same formula: an Asian, not white, hero.

● A likely shift in the mindset of Chinese and Asian audiences. They already showed their will increasingly on the geopolitical. Now, it is time to spread it culturally.

I find the situation to be amusing. Whatever whining Anglo-American hypocrites come up with will sound absolutely ridiculous.

● First, they can no longer push their lie about “what people want”. The market has spoken and they overwhelmingly favor Chinese stars over worthless joint ventures that white worship.
● Second, any attacks on the film being jingoist xenophobic propaganda will expose their own hypocrisy.
● Three, the signal to investors is global. Chinese investors will not be alone trying to capture this market. Other media companies that want Chinese yuan will likely follow similar strategies.
● Fourth, and perhaps the most hilarious. Any charges of Chinese colonialism/racism in Africa is debunked both in spirit and action. That is true on and off the theater screen. According to reputable opinion surveys, Africans view China as a trustworthy partner who helps them develop. That is a far cry from the so-called “civilized West”, who to this day, continues to rape them economically

Did you know many African countries continue to pay colonial tax to France since their independence till today!
http://siliconafrica.com/france-colonial-tax/

As one user wrote [I paraphrase]

This is a watershed moment. The world just saw a 30 million dollar budget film gross over 600 million dollars in sales. Now, everyone will to copy this. Expect more Chinese heroes saving the world.

 

I hope Chinese soft power planners understand that the world is sick of seeing white imperialists telling their victims how “wonderful” they really are. They may not be enamored with “China saves the world” type films yet but it is a welcomed change.

Go watch it if you haven’t. Vote with your wallets!