Marvel announced in the San Diego Comic-Con that they have cast Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu as Shang Chi, the kung-fu master hero of Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Unfortunately, the Chinese are not too happy about this and they responded negatively to the announcement.
“The plotline of Shang-Chi is about belittling Chinese people while praising Americans,” wrote one user... on the social media platform. Another called it “horrible” that the movie will include “a symbol of foreign discrimination against Asians.”
In the comics, Shang-Chi’s father was a super-villain called Fu Manchu, who spends most of his time plotting evil schemes of world domination. In the movie version, Hong Kong actor Tony Leung will play a villain known as the Mandarin. Fans are speculating that the film’s antagonist is likely a substitute for Fu Manchu—long seen as a “yellow peril” symbol historically linked to racist beliefs of Asian peoples and cultures being a threat to the West.
Fu was first created by British author Sax Rohmer in the early 1900s. With stereotypical physical features and an outfit mimicking those worn by officials from China’s Qing Dynasty, Fu was licensed to Marvel and featured as the evil father of Shang-Chi in comics including The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu in the 1970s.
Despite Marvel’s move to replace Fu in the movie with the Mandarin, a classic villain in Iron Man who also has Chinese origins, China’s internet users don’t appear to be convinced by the difference between the two.
More details on Quartzy.
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(Image Credit: OpenClipart-Vectors/ Pixabay)
Bottom line, a character best left in the 70s.