Disney’s Mulan Sparks More Backlash Due To Its Ending Credits

Disney’s Mulan remake is getting a lot of attention, but much of the conversation about the live-action film is actually about how problematic the project is. As would-be viewers are boycotting Mulan because of its lead’s previously expressed pro-police stance, a new controversy around the movie is swirling, linked to a concerning dedication in its end credits.

If you were one of the Disney fans who logged into their Disney+ accounts to purchase and stream Mulan, you might have caught the end credits. In its long list of people and departments who worked on the film in some capacity, Disney included a message of thanks to the CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee. Xinjiang is an area in China marked by a large population of Uighur Muslims — an ethnic minority who are reportedly being oppressed by the Chinese government.

More than a million Uighur people are said to be currently detained in what are being described as internment camps in Xinjiang, where CNN reports they are "subjected to torture, cruel and inhumane treatment such as physical, and sexual abuse, forced labor, and death." Government officials in the area initially denied that the camps existed, but they are now claiming that the spaces are being used as voluntary training centres and are a means of preventing religious extremism and terrorism.

The discovery that Disney knowingly filmed Mulan in such a controversial region and willingly worked with the officials allegedly responsible for such grave human rights violations is sending many people into a rage, further fueling the #BoycottMulan movement.

“It just keeps getting worse!" tweeted Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong upon learning of Mulan's connection to Xinjiang. "Now, when you watch #Mulan, not only are you turning a blind eye to police brutality and racial injustice (due to what the lead actors stand for), you're also potentially complicit in the mass incarceration of Muslim Uyghurs."

The region has also become a source of American interest, with the Trump administration placing sanctions on Xinjiang because of its treatment of the Uighur community. In October, the President placed the police bureau of Turpan (a city in eastern Xinjiang with a large Uighur population) and other local police organizations on a blacklist banning U.S. companies from selling products to them.

Disney's controversial collaboration with Xinjiang officials is just the latest drama fueling the global movement to boycott the Mulan remake; people are also opting out of streaming the movie on Disney+ because of comments made by its star Liu Yifei in favor of the Hong Kong police. There is also concern that Mulan might be an attempt to push assimilation and Chinese nationalism onto ethnic minorities living in the country. In addition to the Xinjiang internment camps, ethnic Mongolian communities in China's Inner Mongolia have also been struggling under a new education policy that would force students to learn Chinese instead of their local Mongolian language.

Thanks to the many sociopolitical controversies brewing from Mulan, Disney may very well find that the streaming numbers might be lower than expected for a movie that was so highly anticipated. As important as the film is — the remake attempts to right the ahistorical and cultural inaccuracies of the 1998 animated original — the drama circulating around Mulan's release threatens to eclipse its purpose.

Refinery29 has reached out to Disney for comment.