#BoycottMulan — Mulan Remake from YES to MESS

A few weeks ago when Disney released the teaser trailer for the live-action remake of the Mulan movie, everyone was so excited to see Disney finally using a racially and ethnically accurate cast for a non-white plot. Fast forward to now, there’s a #BoycottMulan hashtag trending because the Mulan actress Liu Yifei decided to be a sell-out before the movie was even out. Imagine Disney‘s fury. This is why we can’t have good things. This is why aliens won’t talk to us.

A controversial post on the Chinese social media site “Weibo” sees the well-known Mainland Chinese actress reposting a statement from a Communist China-owned newspaper, and it reads in Chinese characters “I support the Hong Kong Police. You can beat me up now” with a line of English underneath saying “What a shame for Hong Kong” (meaning the Hong Kong protesters). It is not an original post — many East Asian celebrities lining their pockets with Renminbi (Chinese dollars) have been reposting the same picture with a bright red background, including actors and musicians from both Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Oh, the irony. The actress plays an iconic character who stands against oppression in its rawest form; and yet, in order to “suck up” to China, for lack of a better term, she chose to stand with the side of the oppressor with a complete disregard for the underdog. Liu Yifei supports police brutality while Hua Mulan fights for the defenseless. Fun fact, also — Liu Yifei is actually a naturalized American citizen. Must be nice. One tweet was savage in pointing out Liu‘s hypocrisy:

Oof. Looks like we’re sticking with our cartoon Mulan so we don’t vomit at the sight of a certain actress or laugh our asses at the irony of a certain live-action remake…