Captain America set to keep Mandarin translation

Captain America has officially touched down in China amidst opposition to the film and Disney films in general. The Captain America series will continue both Disney’s and Disney’s Marvel dominance in the Chinese territory. It is the fourth release by Disney in China this year, following the blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Zootopia, and The Jungle Book which coincidently are three of the four highest grossing imported films this year earning over $100 million so far in China alone. The financial translation equals ka-ching!

Even though there is a huge dominance from Disney and a big demand for their films in China when it comes to ‘imported’ movies, there is also an opposition from parts of the Chinese population. A Chinese military newspaper was quoted that America were using “invisible propaganda” within their films which prompted a People’s Liberation Army academy professor to state “Hollywood has long been an effective propaganda machine for the U.S. by using blockbuster films to promote U.S. values and global strategy,” then going on to say “In a world of cruel reality, it is always a wolf that eats a sheep instead of the other way round. Such a fundamental concept that even a child could understand was easily turned around by Hollywood.”

These comments are not just from a few people, the Chinese authorities do not agree with Western values and have been making efforts to clamp down on them in films, television, the internet and textbooks whilst even going as far as releasing guidelines to protect the national identity. Although there are a lot of Chinese people on social media platforms such as WeChat and Weibo who have ridiculed the newspaper as “overthinking” the whole issue.

Although there is a Chinese backlash to ‘American ways’ surprisingly Disney actually have decided to keep the direct Mandarin translation of Captain America instead of having it changed for political reasons, a move which had been taken in other countries such as South Korea and Russia.

Captain America had been rebranded in Russia and South Korea to a rather less American glorifying “First Avenger” in an attempt at the localisation of the film to audiences who, let’s just say might not be the biggest fans of the USA, although the name still fits as it is often referred to as The Avengers 2.5.