China Censoring Western Books, How Amazon Helped Create the Seattle Crime Wave that Forced the Tech Giant to Abandon a Downtown HQ, Not Liking the New Pixar Movie is...Racist? (The Five for 03/18/22)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
It’s Friday, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who was reportedly censored out of British books for cheap printing costs.
For at least five years, we’ve seen western movies changed at the request of Chinese Communist Party censors (which I first wrote about in 2017).
Now, western book publisher are also bowing to the CCP in order to maintain cheap rates on printing and book binding.
According to the Financial Times, two British publishers censored words in books meant for Western audiences so that they could print them at a low cost in China.
Two unnamed sources cited by the FT said references to topics deemed sensitive by China, such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, were repeatedly edited out in books published by Quarto — publisher of "This Book Is Antiracist" and "The Complete Language of Flowers" — as well as Octopus Books, which is part of literary giant Hachette.
These books, which are sold in the West, were censored after the companies' Chinese suppliers said they were unable to publish the texts in their original forms due to legal restrictions on what can be published in China, according to the FT. Limitations include compliance with a rule introduced in January 2018 that requires all maps to be approved by the state before being published, the South China Morning Post reported.
The report sparked concern that as publishers continue to look to China for cost-effective printing solutions, they'll be increasingly beholden to Chinese censorship.
Octopus, FT reported, cut out references to Taiwan in at least two books since 2020 — with an entire section on the island censored in one of them. In the same period, Quarto cut mentions of Hong Kong and dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei from two different works, according to the outlet. In one publication, "Taiwanese" was modified to "East Asian."
Observations:
A. This is gross. Full stop.
B. Sooner or later, China will invade Taiwan. One can only assume wiping the name of Taiwan from the global public record so that the CCP can claim Taiwan was “always” China.
C. Since 2018, there have been efforts to sell books on the Blockchain (basically, the back end technology of cryptocurrencies), which would get around all censorship, including major sellers like Amazon refusing to carry a title. The CCP won’t be able to defeat web3 (read this web3 explainer if you have time—but the quick version is technology moves faster than governments).
NOTE: This story was originally reported by the Financial Times…but, paywall…so Business Insider, who has reliable reporting, was used as a source.
[two]
According to NBC News, CinemaBlend managing director Sean O’Connell wrote a review of Pixar’s new film Turning Red, which has been pulled:
“I recognized the humor in the film, but connected with none of it. By rooting ‘Turning Red’ very specifically in the Asian community of Toronto, the film legitimately feels like it was made for [director] Domee Shi’s friends and immediate family members,” O’Connell wrote in the since-pulled review. “Which is fine — but also, a tad limiting in its scope.”
O’Connell doubled down on his opinion of the film in a since-deleted tweet that accompanied his review. The post read: “Some Pixar films are made for universal audiences. ‘Turning Red’ is not. The target audience for this one feels very specific and very narrow. If you are in it, this might work very well for you. I am not in it. This was exhausting.”
Let’s pause right there.
Sure, movie reviews can be racist.
And I didn’t read this movie review, which has been pulled down.
So all I can do is react to the pull quote (highlighted above), and run it through the lens of my own upbringing.
Let’s say my cousins and I made a movie about growing up half Laotian (from Laos, in case you don’t know that word) in rural Pike County, IL. And the movie made reference to deer egg rolls (which is almost certainly a Pike-County-exclusive) with no setup or explanation, and then the characters laughed hysterically. Would the audience laugh?
Later, a character makes reference to the old Keifer place and the characters laughed again.
Would that be worth mentioning in a movie review?
My vote is yes.
Anyway, the editor who wrote the review groveled, and wasn’t forgiven by the woke mob.
CinemaBlend announced Tuesday that the review was pulled from its website. CinemaBlend Editor-In-Chief Mack Rawden issued the following statement: “We failed to properly edit this review, and it never should have gone up. We have unpublished it and assigned to someone else. We have also added new levels of editorial oversight. Thank you to everyone who spoke up.”
O’Connell also issued the following apology on Twitter: “I’m genuinely sorry for my ‘Turning Red’ review. Thank you to everyone who has reached out with criticism, no matter how harsh. It is clear that I didn’t engage nearly enough with the movie, nor did I explain my point of view well, at all. I really appreciate your feedback.”
Despite pulling the review, backlash against O’Connell and CinemaBlend continued. As Entertainment Weekly digital editor Yolanda Machado fired back on Twitter, “This [review] was written by your managing director, not some junior writer. As an editor, there is no amount of editing that would have erased the racism. What are you doing to make sure he is held accountable and this doesn’t happen again?”
Yet another example of the fact that in the Woke Religion, there is no redemption.
Turning Red is on Disney+ if you want to check it out and judge for yourself. I’m not much of a Pixar fan and have limited screen time available, so I'll be sitting this one out, although my daughter did watch it last weekend with her cousins.
[three]
Amazon is temporarily relocating employees from the company’s downtown Seattle office after an uptick of violent crime rocked the area.
Roughly 1,800 employees are assigned to the office space on Third Avenue and Pine Street in the heart of the city, but many of the employees are still working remotely, Amazon said in a statement to KOMO News.
“Given recent incidents near 3rd (Ave) and Pine (St), we’re providing employees currently at that location with alternative office space elsewhere,” an Amazon spokesman said in an emailed statement to the outlet.
“We are hopeful that conditions will improve and that we will be able to bring employees back to this location when it is safe to do so.”
Recent violent crimes in the area include the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy on March 2. The shooter is still at large as of Monday, cops said.
In 2020, Amazon donated $10 million to organizations promoting “justice and equity.”
Some of those organizations are well established and legitimate. Others, like BLM, pushed for Seattle to defund the police department, which strongly correlates to downtown Seattle being too dangerous for Amazon to have an office in.
Ironically, Amazon recently kicked Black Lives Matter off the Amazon Smile platform due to the failure to disclose how donors’ money was being spent.
While BLM can be easily removed from Amazon’s charity arm, the effects of promoting less policing, resulting in an uptick in crime, can’t just be “switched off” in the same manner.
[four]
Instagram is rolling out parental controls. According to the company’s official blog, parents will be able to:
View how much time their teens spend on Instagram and set time limits.
Be notified when their teen shares they’ve reported someone.
View and receive updates on what accounts their teens follow and the accounts that follow their teens.
The Washington Post had an excellent writeup on the damages Instagram does to many teens…so, rather than pushing the platform as a tool for adulthood, Instagram is happy to get kids to just use the platform with a parental eye on it.
Would we accept the same thing from alcohol companies that only gave booze to jr. high kids on Friday nights, but not the rest of the week?
What about gun companies that sold loaded AR-15’s to minors?
Cool, or nah?
Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) knows full well the damage their products are doing to teens, and seem to be hiding behind the 1980’s cigarette company line “we’re just trying to convince existing smokers to switch brands, not hook teens on nicotine.”
No.
In 15 years, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Facebook and Instagram the same way we see the pharma companies that convinced doctors to push highly addictive opioids in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.
[five]
If your dream is to stream Game of Thrones back-to-back with one of the 9,345 house flipper shows currently in production…within the same app, you’re in luck!
The parent company of Discovery+ is buying Warner Brothers (which owns HBO/HBO Max) and plans to combine two streaming platforms into a single service.
Some are calling this tea a “Netflix killer,” but the data is that most Americans don’t tend to cancel streaming subscriptions….so if you have both HBO Max & Discovery+, at least you’ll be paying less now?
The true story of an American journalist covering crime in Tokyo in general (and the infamous Yakuza mob in particular) is coming to HBO Max in April, and it looks…pretty dang good.
This is definitely dark, neo-noir tale that’s based on a true story (so the people who die in the show…really died), which may not be your cup of tea.
Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars, Baby Driver) and Ken Wanatabe (Inception, The Last Samurai) lead a mostly Japanese cast. Trailer here.
The first trailer for the next Marvel TV show dropped this week. I can only speak for myself, but Ms. Marvel looks like the most boring outing in the MCU entry in years.
The plot revolves around a teenager who’s obsessed with Captain Marvel from The Avengers, and gets powers or something to be come like her idol…blah blah high school bullying…blah blah…we’ve seen this before.
The fact that the trailer uses music so close to the score from Stranger Things that it’s borderline copyright infringement doesn’t help, nor does the fact that this show will open against Stranger Things season 5 come summer. So if you’ve only got time for one misfit-teens-take-on-supernatural-elements…pick the one on Netflix.
Trailer here.
This outlet doesn’t do much reporting on children’s entertainment, but Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is the exception. Based on a 2011 YouTube video written and voiced by Jenny Slate (best known for her over-the-top character in Parks & Rec), Marcel was an internet phenomenon of the early Obama years…and that was that.
Now, the stop motion seashell (with shoes on) is back for a full feature film, the first kids movie from indie powerhouse A24 (Ex-Machina, Ladybird, The Lighthouse, Eighth Grade).
Reviews are starting to pop up, despite the movie not having an official release date…but it’s allegedly coming out this year.
If the hype is to be believed, Bad Vegan is the next great true crime series. The Netflix original follows a restaurateur who steals from investors and employees alike, and goes on the run. Ironically, the swindler was caught in real life by ordering a Dominoes pizza in Tennessee. Oops. First trailer.
MUSIC NEWS: One of the oldest and most famed record shops in the country, Ernest Tubb Record Shop, will be closing this spring. Founded by the shop’s namesake (a Grand Ole’ Opry legend), the shop has been a staple of downtown Nashville for 52 years (and a favorite of mine when I’m in Nashville) due to the developer kicking the record shop out.
Real Estate investor JessLee Jones said in 2020 after acquiring the building “Ernest Tubb Record Shops will be here for another 52 years, if it’s up to me.”
Yeah, he lied about that one. If you’re going through. If you happen to be traveling through Nashville this spring, catch a piece of music history before it’s gone. Stop in and get yourself a record.
NEW MUSIC: Two picks this week.
The first is that pioneering indie rockers Arcade Fire are back with a pair of new singles!And last, but not least, Chicago Celtic Punk band Flatfoot 56 has a new single that will keep the St. Patrick’s Day vibes going all weekend. The music video is great, if you get a chance to watch it.
Until the next one,
-sth