Disney has finally responded to the controversy over Uighur Muslims and other Muslim minorities have been and continue to be forcibly detained in internment camps by the Chinese government.
Disney's president of film production, Sean Bailey, defended the decision to film in that area, saying that those scenes "comprised 78 seconds" of the final film. Bailey's statement came as a response to a letter of critique from Iain Duncan Smith, a member of the UK Parliament. Check out Bailey's letter in its entirety below, and Smith's response.
Although the effort to make Mulan more authentic sounds well-intentioned in practice, the all-Asian cast in order to actually lend more credence to the authenticity they claimed to embrace. It's unfortunate that the highly-anticipated live-action Mulan adaptation was marred by delays and countless controversies. While the film didn't have to be a re-creation of the animated film, it could've been more authentic to the original Chinese ballad in a far more respectful way overall that didn't hinge on ignoring human rights violations. Hopefully, Disney will learn from the backlash moving forward.
Source: Iain Duncan Smith
