''Amazing China'' () is a 2018 Chinese
propaganda documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
that depicts Chinese advancements in science, technology, and industry, and poverty reduction during
Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...
's tenure as the
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party
The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party () is the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has been the paramount leader ...
(
paramount leader of
China).
Name
The Chinese title of the film is "" ( roughly translates to "Amazing, My Country"), and derives from the online slang expression "", meaning "bravo, my brother", often used by several official social media accounts of state organizations like the
Communist Youth League of China.
Content
The content of the film is from a six-episode shown in 2017 (Chinese title: ),
which includes the construction of the
China Railway High-speed, the
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Hong may refer to:
Places
*Høng, a town in Denmark
*Hong Kong, a city and a special administrative region in China
*Hong, Nigeria
*Hong River in China and Vietnam
*Lake Hong in China
Surnames
*Hong (Chinese name)
*Hong (Korean name)
Organiz ...
and the
Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST; ), nicknamed Tianyan (, lit. "Sky's/Heaven's Eye"), is a radio telescope located in the Dawodang depression (), a natural basin in Pingtang County, Guizhou, southwest China. FAST ...
.
Huajian Group, a Chinese shoe making company hiring thousands of workers in
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, was portrayed in the film as a model of "introducing China's experience of prosperity to
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
." According to a report of the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
, however, the company's Ethiopian workers complained about low wages, the lack of safety equipment,
forced labor
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
and not being permitted to form a
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
.
The documentary ends with a song performed by pop singer
Sun Nan.
Production
The film was co-produced by
China Central Television and
China Film Co., Ltd, both state-owned enterprises, and directed by Wei Tie.
Release
The film was released in
Mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
on March 2, 2018, distributed by
Alibaba Pictures
Alibaba Pictures Group is a Chinese film company under the Alibaba Group. The film company was formerly ChinaVision Media, of which Alibaba Group bought a majority stake in late 2014. It subsequently was renamed from ChinaVision to Alibaba Pictur ...
.
It was reported by ''
South China Morning Post'' that some state companies and government-affiliated organizations required employees to watch the film. On 19 April 2018, the
Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party issued a memo requesting that Chinese websites and cinemas stop showing the film.
The film was screened in a theater in
Macao
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a po ...
from May 9 to May 14, 2018.
Reception
Douban, the leading film review website in China, disabled the commenting and rating functions on the film's page, instead showing a "media rating" of 8.5/10 and reviews written by state media including ''
Xinhua
Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...
'' and the ''
People's Daily.''
In 2018, the
Cyberspace Administration of China
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC; ) is the central internet regulator, censor, oversight, and control agency for the People's Republic of China. The office also holds the administrative title of the party's Office of the Central C ...
requested the Chinese branch of its owner, Amazon, for the film to be removed from IMDb because of the bad reviews. Shortly after the request, some negative reviews disappeared. Amazon denied that it removed the bad reviews at the request of the Chinese government.
Internationally, it is widely considered to be a
propaganda film
A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...
, and an effort by the
Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
to increase its
soft power.
The film also is believed to be a significant step towards a
personality cult of Xi Jinping by some observers.
While ''Amazing China'' does demonstrate a new level of sophistication in state propaganda, along with other self-congratulatory representations of China's growth "betrays an unshakeable anxiety about the continuing legitimacy of CCP rule."
References
External links
*
''Amazing China'' on YouTube
{{Xi_Jinping
2018 films
Chinese propaganda films
Chinese documentary films
2010s Mandarin-language films