{"id":196102,"date":"2016-08-19T19:13:01","date_gmt":"2016-08-20T02:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=196102"},"modified":"2021-09-14T20:25:12","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T03:25:12","slug":"arrival-poster-stirs-political-reaction-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2016\/08\/arrival-poster-stirs-political-reaction-hong-kong\/","title":{"rendered":"Alien Invasion Movie Poster Stirs Anger in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"
A poster for the upcoming science fiction film Arrival\u00a0has garnered angry criticism online after Hong Kong netizens took offense at the sight of\u00a0Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl Tower<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0superimposed over an image of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour skyline. Alan Wong at The New York Times reports:<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are they here?\u201d asks a tag line on a poster for the forthcoming Hollywood science-fiction movie \u201cArrival,\u201d an apparent reference to the visitors aboard a mysterious spaceship hovering above\u00a0Hong Kong\u2019s harbor.<\/p>\n Yet it was another alien object in the poster that captured the most attention: an iconic Shanghai building sticking out from what is supposed to be the north side of Hong Kong Island. In the hours after the poster went up on the film\u2019s promotional Facebook page on Tuesday, hundreds took to the comment section to protest the film with the hashtag #hongkongisnotchina.<\/p>\n \u201cWHY ARE THEY HERE?\u201d asked a Facebook commenter named Chung Ho Dic, using all caps.<\/p>\n By Friday afternoon, the poster had been removed from the page. And statements posted on the film\u2019s official Twitter and Facebook pages blamed a \u201cthird-party vendor\u201d for making an error in the poster. A new poster was put up featuring the same Shanghai Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower, this time in its rightful city, though that did not appear to appease all Hong Kong commenters, whose disgruntled statements kept pouring in. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Movie poster puts a Shanghai tower in Hong Kong. What could possibly go wrong? https:\/\/t.co\/T7Lw8WfOfA<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/5JgW38RBIC<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Alan Wong (@alanwongw) August 18, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Arrival put the Pearl Tower back to its rightful place, but that hasn’t appeased all HKers https:\/\/t.co\/SdxFWjX24e<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/PrnIYeQHRi<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Alan Wong (@alanwongw) August 19, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n An error was made in an “Arrival” poster by a 3rd party vendor. It’s been corrected and we are disappointed we didn’t catch the error.<\/p>\n \u2014 Arrival Movie (@arrivalmovie) August 18, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Despite the poster’s correction, some Hong Kong netizens remained angry<\/strong><\/a>. From\u00a0Catherine Lai at Hong Kong Free Press:<\/p>\n Even after the correction, one\u00a0commenter said: \u201cNo excuses! You guys really did make a big mistake. Hong Kong is always different from China. This is totally unacceptable for real Hong Kong people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are they (the Chinese colonist) here?\u201d said another, playing on the movie\u2019s tagline \u201cWhy are they here?\u201d<\/p>\n Some speculated that the third party vendor had an agenda, while others tried to explain to the US studio and people abroad\u00a0why Hong Kong and China are different.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 it was like calling a Northern-Irish as British, or a Catalan as Spanish,\u201d said one comment. \u201cIt\u2019s worse in this case as we\u2019re talking about the Commie just across the fine border. You can\u2019t imagine how much harm the Commie have done to Hong Kong so far.\u201d<\/p>\n Troubled by the Chinese government\u2019s increasing influence over the city, the\u00a0localist movement has gained momentum in recent years. Localists emphasise Hong Kong\u2019s separate identity and oppose the \u201cmainlandisation\u201d of the city. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n From Vivienne Chow at Variety<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n […] Local politicians also took advantage of the designer\u2019s insensitiveness and used it for their campaigns ahead of the city\u2019s September Legislative Council election.<\/p>\n Horace Chin Wan-kan, dubbed \u2018Godfather of localism,\u2019 who is running in the election, commented: \u201cThe movie adaptation of the sci-fi novel \u2018Arrival\u2019, which obtained the Nebula Award, [has] decent director Denis Villeneuve and actors Amy Adams [and] Jeremy Renner. However, everything is ruined by this improper poster.\u201d [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Arrival’s misstep is the latest case of foreign companies offending the political sensibilities of Hong Kong residents. Lanc\u00f4me’s retail stores in Hong Kong were forced to shut down in June amid protests<\/a> after the cosmetics company cancelled a promotional concert featuring pro-democracy singer Denise Ho, a decision that was itself allegedly made in response to mainland criticisms of Ho’s politics. Nor is this the first time that Hollywood, ever keener to woo China<\/a>, has stumbled over political sensitivities around the nation’s periphery<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A poster for the upcoming science fiction film Arrival\u00a0has garnered angry criticism online after Hong Kong netizens took offense at the sight of\u00a0Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl Tower\u00a0superimposed over an image of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour skyline. Alan Wong at The New York Times reports: \u201cWhy are they here?\u201d asks a tag line on a poster for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1088,"featured_media":196108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,35,14744,14745,14746,100,5],"tags":[15130,17004,1667,1550,7842,85],"class_list":["post-196102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-hong-kong","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","tag-foreign-films","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-politics","tag-movies","tag-photoshop","tag-shanghai","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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