https://medium.com/@nettlefish/beyond-authenticity-the-spectre-of-han-hegemony-c1e3b5fc1b98

@jeannette_ng is worth following.

«This dichotomy between Chinese civilisation and the barbarians that besiege them is a cornerstone of the Chinese telling of history. It informs modern Han hegemony in the same way a white supremacist draws glory from Western Civilisation and the Roman Empire. As tropes, these things linger in our stories, even if we don’t intend them to retain those meanings.

….

Overly fixating on the fact that Mulan was made by white people obfuscates all the ways it is peddling China’s own toxic nationalist myths. That Mulan fights to defend what is now Xinjiang, filmed in Xinjiang, from Islamic-coded invaders who have been invited in by a conquered colonial subject is not a neutral story. Whether or not the half dozen white scribes of the film intended it or not, they have written something that fits very neatly in with current propaganda.

….

There is no single, unified “Chinese”-ness and to imply there is only one Acceptable Cultural Narrative for All Chinese People is itself part of the problem.»