Position Paper 4: Wild Card

China and Hollywood: Our Entertainment for Their Dollar

I've said it several times over the course of my college career in these papers: I like movies a lot. If you're counting, I believe that's the fourth time I've mentioned this in one of your papers Professor Reppert! This time, we're going to talk about China and the effect that the country has on our entertainment.

It wasn't until 11th or 12th grade that I heard that China is a country that we shouldn't like as free, American citizens. Of course when I was in elementary school, China was just another country and North Korea was the country we were all scared of. Now that I'm essentially an adult, China's the new place to hate to I guess I can hop on the bandwagon.

Just a reminder: you probably can't read this if you're in China.

So as a film buff, I'm always trying to keep up with the box office statistics, what movies are coming out and when, the new up-and-coming director, and so on. It's an entertaining medium that has it's own fantasy sport! The news will tell you that movies are dying but don't listen to them, it's just the concession prices bringing them down.

One thing that I learned as I delved into the 'film critic society' (or the online communities where people argue all of the time, same thing really) is that China is really important to the film industry and Hollywood. This came as a bit of a surprise to me. I understood that another market for viewers is another market to make money, but is China really that important? I understood that China has the largest population of any country in the world, but is it really that important? To any question concerning China's importance, the answer was yes. I guess I had the understanding that China worked similarly to India or Korea, where most of their entertainment was self-contained and produced 'in-house'. India has Bollywood, Korea has.... Koreawood? Nonetheless, these country's interests don't really resonate with the product we produce in Hollywood, so our Western movies don't do great there unless it's something like Pacific Rim.

I knew Hollywood was corrupt, but I didn't really understand how much we cater to China. That's news you don't really hear about unless you're inside a Hollywood studio. For instance, did you know that only 34 major American films are allowed in China each year? Of course, a studio can avoid this restriction by adhering to China's film quotas, such as, "not presenting China as the villain," or, "filming on location in China," or, "using a predetermined number of Chinese actors." These are things we don't think about when we watch the movies here, because we don't know about the backroom dealings to get the film into China. "Oh that's a really cool character," you may say. The only reason that character is that character is because the film studio wanted the movie to get into China. Little did you know in the original script, that character was extremely supportive of the Tibetan independence movement but was changed to support Occupy Wall Street because of Chinese mandates.

Chinese insignia's (left) swapped for Korean ones (right) in Red Dawn (2012)

Something similar happened in the film Red Dawn (2012) wherein the main conflict comes from North Korea rather than China. The original screenplay had a Chinese army as the invading force, but a last minute change allowed the film to be shown in China.

Possibly most ridiculously, China has banned Winnie the Pooh. Yes, the happy yellow bear with the red shirt to small for his honey filled belly. Why? Because of the resemblance to their President, Xi Jinping.

Most of this comes down to China not wanting to appear as the bad guy in film media. I read somewhere this is called 'soft power'. Whereas 'hard power' is the ability for an invading force to capture an enemy, 'soft power' is the control without conflict. This comes in the form of censorship and, you guessed it, controlling popular media, such as the internet, television, and film.

Slightly off-topic, but as a person who plays online games, this may help you understand the lengths that China goes to keep it's image favorable. In online games and even some social media, simply typing certain banned phrases like, "Tiananmen Square," "Republic of China," and, "Dalai Lama" can get a Chinese internet user tracked by the Chinese government and internet shut off. There is an official list of banned phrases here. There is also an official curfew for minors, limiting them to 90 minutes of video game activity per day.

One last thing: China has a blacklist of people not allowed in the country. This list includes Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and even Brad Pitt (though he visited recently with Angelina Jolie). What I'm getting at is if you're a small-fame actor who is trying to get a push with a bigger studio, but you are blacklisted by China, you may have trouble getting a gig anywhere in Hollywood.

Nonetheless, I'm sure this will all sort itself out at some point. It always does.

Position Paper 3: Depictions of Women and Minorities

The Women in the Yellow Vests

The yellow vests movement is a movement in France that protests for economic justice and equality. The protests started after rising fuel costs and a raised cost of living sparked an online petition that argued that these costs mostly fall upon the middle and lower classes. The protests call for a raised minimum wage, lower fuel taxes, a solidarity tax on wealth, and the resignation of President Macron.

A French law requires a yellow safety vest to be in every vehicle, which is why it was chosen for the symbol of the movement as it is highly recognizable and accessible to virtually everyone. In fact, just yesterday (November 17th) was the one year anniversary of the yellow vests movement, in which a protest was held in honor of the movements birthday.

A subsidiary of the yellow vest movement, which will be the focus of this paper, is the women in the yellow vests movement.

Women have been involved in the yellow vests movement since the movement first began in late 2018. Women are more greatly affected by poverty in France than their male counterparts, in part because many women, who often serve as the head of the household, must take time off for unpaid maternity leave. Compared to similar protests, women have found a larger role in this particular movement, due to specific effect on women in lower economic classes or location.

Priscillia Ludosky was one of the first people involved in the yellow vest movement after starting an online petition that outlined the basic requests of the movement. Jacline Mouraud was also one of the first people involved in the movement after posting a video about the taxes in France.

The women in the yellow vests movement has been divided into multiple 'Acts' that have been characterized by major events involving the political movement.

Act I saw the organization of local marches specifically for women involved in the movement. Act II saw continued involvement of women, but a protest that blocked a road led to violence against specifically women of color, which became another point of emphasis for the treatment of women in the yellow vest movement. During a protest in Act III, an 80 year old woman who was not involved in the protests was killed after being hit with a tear gas canister. The previous two weeks, two more people had died as a result of the protests which involved over 100,000 people. During this time, research was published that said poor working women in France grew by 2% over the previous two years. During Act IV, President Macron made a comment about the yellow vest movement, specifically about the women, which gained national attention. Act VI was characterized by a female Holocaust survivor being harassed on the Paris metro.. Act VII saw the first of the yellow vest women's march taking place on January 6th.

After reading about this movement for the first time, I drew heavy comparisons to the #MeToo movement, which is also ongoing around the world, but specifically in the United States. This gender specific movement has also been characterized by major events (which could be sorted into Acts) that have lead to the progression of the voice of the movement. The phrase 'Me Too' was first coined in 2006, but the movement didn't officially begin until 2017 when Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual assault by Ashley Judd.

I'm aware of how women involved in the #MeToo movement are treated here. They're often not believed or called liars who only want to tear down masculinity, or something like that. I won't really share my thoughts on the movement, because that's not important. What's important is how the people respond to these protests, and they're often not very kind. Similar to the 'Black Lives Matter' movement, there is always some controversy that comes with a rally or protest. How does this stack up against the women in yellow vests?

Surprisingly, not too much controversy comes from these protests, at least not from the protesting side. The movement actually led to the creation of two political parties, something we could use more of here in the U.S. After reading some news articles on the movements, they refer to the movement as whole, and not as often as a women specific movement. It's almost like the movement as a whole has a subsidiary in the women's movement, which is not a bad thing, especially if everyone gets what they want.

The women's movement isn't really talked down upon, though there was some controversy when President Macron refused to respond to the platform of the movement. In fact, it seems to be agreed upon that the movement was a success, even if it's still relatively new.

I wonder if it will make it's way here?

Position Paper 2: Digital Access

No one from Eritrea will see this paper.

Like I start most papers, I'm going to give you a little background on how I decided on what country to select for this paper.

So there I was, in the dead of night, playing MLB The Show 19, the latest installment in the PlayStation exclusive baseball series from Sony San Diego when I remembered I had to write this paper. "But what country will I pick," I mumbled, reading the syllabus. "I know, I'll pick somewhere boring, and random!" And thus, I once again used a random country generator and was given Eritrea, a country on the eastern border of Africa, just across the Red Sea from Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Little did I know that Eritrea has one of the most interesting digital access stories to tell of all the countries in the world.

"Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa, with its capital at Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeastern and eastern parts of Eritrea have an extensive coastline along the Red Sea. The nation has a total area of approximately 117,600 km² (45,406 sq mi), and includes the Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands. The name Eritrea is based on the Greek name for the Red Sea, which was first adopted for Italian Eritrea in 1890."

So, the interesting thing about internet access in Eritrea is that the internet is under complete control of the government. Here are some fun statistics about Eritrean internet access.

• As few as 6% of Eritreans have a mobile phone and about 1% go online (source).
• Customers must pay at least $46 to get an active mobile subscription. Then, voice credits cost $3.65.
• Eritreans fulfilling compulsory national service cannot own a mobile phone.
• Dial-up home access costs $200 per month.
• There are 100 Internet cafes in the country – most have fewer than 10 computers.
• An hour of Internet cafe access costs $1.34 (or about 7 loaves of bread in Eritrian Nafkas).

*all currency listed in USD*

On May 15th, the Eritrean government shut down all social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat in preparation for protests on their Independence Day. This was rumored to have been to prevent messaging between possible activists. All internet access is blocked on mobile phones to begin with, so this made it very difficult for basic communication across the country (AfricaNews).

This is not the first time the government has limited the public's access, as they did it the year before in 2018, for similar reasons. That was also the last time a protest took place in the country, which was dispersed by gunfire.

There aren't many news sources that can be found on the Eritrean internet, but the primary news provider is government owned Eri-TV, which uploads all of their broadcasts on YouTube. Take what you will from that, but I wouldn't be inclined to believe everything that they say.

According to the World Factbook, there are about 506,000 subscriptions to mobile cellular, or about 9 subscription for every 100 inhabitants. All broadcast media is government controlled with private ownership being prohibited. There is one state owned television station and state owned radio stations which operate two networks. However, subscriptions and dishes to international broadcast media are permitted. Only about 70,000 people use the internet in Eritrea, or 1.2%.

According to the Press Freedom Index, only North Korea has less press freedom as Eritrea ranks 178th out of 179. You can find more on press freedom in Eritrea here. 

There is one news source coming from Eritrea that is not state owned, and it is the Eritrean Press. The owner, who is unknown but goes by the name 'J' recently did an interview with the BBC, which you can find here. He claims if anyone knew his name, he would be dead. The page has a large following, with lots of interaction among social media users.

I doubt anyone from Eritrea will read this paper but if you do, we're rooting for you!

Position Paper 1: News and Information

New Zealand: Where Nothing Happens.

I was unsure of which country to pick when preparing for this paper. I kept away from non-English speaking countries as I didn't want to rely on Google Translate to get me through the webpages. I was talking about the upcoming Breaking Bad movie with my friend Peter when it hit me; "Peter is from New Zealand.... New Zealand!" So here I am, writing about The New Zealand Herald website.

The New Zealand Herald is the largest circulating newspaper in New Zealand, peaking at around 200,000 copies daily in 2006 and slowly declining to about 117,000 copies daily in 2017. The Herald is owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, a multimedia business incorporating multiple newspapers, radio stations, and websites across New Zealand and Australia.

 

The first edition of the New Zealand Herald was published in 1863.

At first glance, the website for The Herald is similar to most every-other major newspaper website: a lot of stories listed on one page, a lot of categories listed on one side, and a premium membership option. I will not be buying the premium membership as I'm not quite sure as to what it gives access to. It says, "premium access to NZ news," but I can already access all of the stories with no apparent limit after clicking around. The prices don't seem that bad though, only $2.50 a week or $200 for a year of news. The Herald also offers premium rugby coverage thorough the website for $40 for 12 weeks, which adds up to about $200 for a year of rugby coverage.

Examining the front page further, I noticed that every story is about New Zealand. There are no world-news stories on the front page of the website, and the page is divided into three sections: top stories, South Island news, and North Island news.

A Google search for, "New Zealand news," will yield you very little of anything not from New Zealand. There are a few articles by The Guardian and CBS News, but everything else is a news source from New Zealand. Besides, you can find the stories The Guardian is covering in The Herald anyway.

Stepping away from the website, I checked New Zealand for it's Press Freedom Index rating, and was not surprised to find it in 7th place, making it one of the safest and open places for reporting in the world. Just for comparisons sake, the United States ranks 48th in the world for press freedom.

I managed to track down the New Zealand Herald official Twitter account, which is very active and tweets 4-5 times per hour. There are multiple 'spinoff' accounts of the New Zealand Herald account, including New Zealand Herald Lifestyle, New Zealand Herald Travel, and New Zealand Herald Business.

The Herald also has a Facebook page, which is updated frequently alongside the Twitter account. There other social media includes Instagram, YouTube, and Google Plus (which is no longer available for brand accounts).

A news talk show can also be found on The Herald website, which you can listen to here through iHeartRadio. When I tuned in to the show at 2:30am (7:30 in New Zealand), they were discussing Rugby teams, especially one in particular that apparently needs a major culture change.

After reading a couple of articles on the website, The Herald is very similar to everything else I've ever gotten my news from, and there are no major differences from what I can tell other than some jargon that I can't decipher every now and again. 

The website is a weak-point of The Herald however, as it's very crowded (like most news sites) and difficult to navigate at times. The paywall is also a downside, even though I can't figure out what it's blocking exactly. Check out The Herald for yourself!