Once again, Hollywood has been accused of racism. Not a day seems to go by without there being some kind of faux-controversy within the movie industry, with the more recent high-profile cases including the ridiculous #OscarsSoWhite fiasco and Scarlett Johansson being cast as an android in an adaptation of the popular anime Ghost in the Shell. Matt Damon leading the line in Zhang Yimou's The Great Wall, which also stars Andy Lau, Jing Tian, and Willem Dafoe, falls into the same category.
"But what is a white guy doing in a Chinese movie?! WHITEWASHING!!!" You might mumble. You might yell it from the rooftops. You might even scream about it on social media (you probably will). But if you are of sound mind, you could even step back and consider just why the Jason Bourne star was chosen instead of a Chinese actor, and similarly why it's not even remotely racist. The reasons include, but are not limited to, these four main points:
It's Chinese-made
The film is directed by Zhang Yimou, known for the Oscar-nominated Ju Dou and helming the Opening and Closing ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and is largely backed by the Chinese production companies Le Vision Pictures and China Film Group. The Great Wall is also the most expensive film shot entirely in China, with the $135 million budget eclipsing that of the previous holder, Zhang's Flowers of War, which starred Christian Bale.
If a film shot in China, backed by China, and directed by a Chinese man, want to have a white guy as their lead, then that's what happens. If they wanted to keep it to an all-Chinese cast, then that's what they would've done. Which segues nicely onto the next point...
China loves Hollywood
It's no secret that Chinese moviegoers love a good dose of foreign cinema. Of the top 50 highest-grossing films in China, 24 have been produced by an American company or companies, and none date further back than 2009's smash-hit Avatar. Other films on the list include Furious 7, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Warcraft and Jurassic World. That is not to say that domestic films don't do well there, as the top two films on said list are currently The Mermaid and Monster Hunt.
Casting Damon is an exceptionally clever move as it allows the filmmakers to tap into both audiences, with viewers seeing a Western star they are familiar with but also seeing their home country on screen without the use of a foreign sound stage.
Damon isn't playing someone Chinese
Similar to Tom Cruise's role in The Last Samurai, the filmmakers didn't decide to write the character with a Chinese actor in mind then cast Damon; they wrote the role with him, or someone else of such ethnicity, in mind. They're not going to add horrible prosthetics to the Good Will Hunting actor's face and make his skin slightly darker (as that would look outlandishly stupid), nor are they going to change Damon in post-production to make him look more Chinese.
The outrage would be understandable if Damon was playing a man named Wang Wei and spoke with that classic accent designed to mock how the Chinese say English words (you know the one). But I'm willing to stake that none of that will happen as it would probably spell the end of many careers.
IT'S A FANTASY MOVIE BASED ON A BOOK!!!
It's not real! It's not a historical movie! It's not meant to be accurate about how the Great Wall was built. The film contains monsters and such like, hence the tagline "What were they trying to keep out?" It's also based on The Great Wall of China, a short story by Czech author Franz Kafka, which, according to comicbook.com, it 'examines the enclosure and protection of Europe by a complex and growing system of walls, fences, and systems of exclusion.' Wikipedia also mentions the book is 'an allegory to European isolationism and exclusion, in spite of taking place in China during the Song Dynasty.'
