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Amazing China
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = Amazing China
| image = File:Movie Poster of Amazing China.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| native_name =
| director = Wei Tie
| producer =
| writer =
| screenplay =
| story =
| based_on = Amazing China (2017 series)
| starring = Xi Jinping
| narrator =
| music =
| cinematography =
| editing =
| production_companies =
| distributor = Alibaba Pictures
| released =
| runtime = 90 minutes
| country = China
| language = Standard Mandarin Chinese
| budget =
| gross =
}}
'Amazing China' is a 2018 Chinese propaganda documentary film that depicts Chinese advancements in science, technology, and industry, and poverty reduction during Xi Jinping's tenure as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (paramount leader of China).
Name
The Chinese title of the film is "" ( roughly translates to "Amazing, My Country"), and derives from the online slang expression "", meaning "bravo, my brother", often used by several official social media accounts of state organizations like the Communist Youth League of China.
Content
The content of the film is from a six-episode shown in 2017 (Chinese title: ), which includes the construction of the China Railway High-speed, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope.
Huajian Group, a Chinese shoe making company hiring thousands of workers in Ethiopia, was portrayed in the film as a model of "introducing China's experience of prosperity to Africa." According to a report of the Associated Press, however, the company's Ethiopian workers complained about low wages, the lack of safety equipment, forced labor and not being permitted to form a trade union.
The documentary ends with a song performed by pop singer Sun Nan.
Production
The film was co-produced by China Central Television and China Film Co., Ltd, both state-owned enterprises, and directed by Wei Tie.
Release
The film was released in Mainland China on March 2, 2018, distributed by Alibaba Pictures. It was reported by 'South China Morning Post' that some state companies and government-affiliated organizations required employees to watch the film. On 19 April 2018, the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party issued a memo requesting that Chinese websites and cinemas stop showing the film.
The film was screened in a theater in Macao from May 9 to May 14, 2018.
Reception
Douban, the leading film review website in China, disabled the commenting and rating functions on the film's page, instead showing a "media rating" of 8.5/10 and reviews written by state media including 'Xinhua' and the 'People's Daily.' In 2018, the Cyberspace Administration of China requested the Chinese branch of its owner, Amazon, for the film to be removed from IMDb because of the bad reviews. Shortly after the request, some negative reviews disappeared. Amazon denied that it removed the bad reviews at the request of the Chinese government.
Internationally, it is widely considered to be a propaganda film, and an effort by the Chinese Communist Party to increase its soft power. The film also is believed to be a significant step towards a personality cult of Xi Jinping by some observers. While 'Amazing China' does demonstrate a new level of sophistication in state propaganda, along with other self-congratulatory representations of China's growth "betrays an unshakeable anxiety about the continuing legitimacy of CCP rule."
References
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