China s Ne Zha 2 animated blockbuster fuels nationalist pride Hollywood hostility

BEIJING – As Ne Zha 2 shatters box office records, the Chinese animated film about a mythical boy with magical powers has sparked national pride and now hostility towards rival Hollywood offerings such as the latest instalment of Captain America.

Dazzling Chinese audiences with dramatic fight scenes, Ne Zha 2 has become the highest-grossing animated film of all time globally, with record-breaking sales at home helping the movie dethrone Disney’s Inside Out 2.

But the film’s success overseas remains to be seen, sparking intense debates on Chinese social media on the merits and failings of the movie. Criticism of Ne Zha 2 has often been met with heated rebuttals.

Anti-Hollywood rhetoric has also emerged this week, with some on Chinese social media expressing frustration over the alleged lack of Ne Zha 2 screenings in North America.

“It doesn’t matter if Ne Zha 2 can survive overseas, but Captain America 4 must die in China,” according to one social media post, referring to Captain America: Brave New World, which opened in China last week.

One cinema in south-west China even told a local state-backed media that it would support Ne Zha 2 by not screening the Marvel movie.

In an editorial on Feb 16, the nationalist Chinese tabloid Global Times wrote that Captain America: Brave New World was faltering in China because Chinese audiences were “losing patience with formulaic expressions reliant on special effects and drawn-out dialogue”.

In contrast, Ne Zha 2 connected with “contemporary youth values” and had “multi-character emotional resonance”, the newspaper wrote.

The Marvel movie made just 87.1 million yuan (S$16 million) during its opening week in China, according to ticketing platform Maoyan, a fraction of its US$88 million (S$117.4 million) opening weekend ticket sales in the United States.

In comparison, Ne Zha 2, which opened in China