Activists Denounce Film Deal in China
The New York Times, 31 October 2011
By ANDREW JACOBS and DAVID BARBOZA
BEIJING — The Hollywood producers of a slapstick comedy that began shooting last week in a city in China’s eastern Shandong Province describe their feature about a young man facing a birthday, “21 and Over,” as an “epic misadventure of debauchery and mayhem.”
As it happens, scores of Chinese human rights activists who in recent weeks have been descending on the very same city, Linyi, describe a different kind of misadventure and mayhem in their thwarted efforts to visit Chen Guangcheng, an embattled lawyer who is under house arrest there.
With few exceptions, outsiders who have made the trip to Linyi have been violently assaulted, robbed, detained and then sent on their way by the guards who keep Mr. Chen, who is blind, and his wife imprisoned in their farmhouse. Those same guards, at the behest of local Communist Party officials, have occasionally beaten the couple, most recently in July as one of their children looked on, according to a report released last week by the group China Aid.
Once hailed by the official media for his work defending peasants and the disabled, Mr. Chen has been under so-called soft detention since September 2010, when he completed a 51-month prison sentence related to his legal campaign against family planning officials in Linyi.
Local party leaders, confronted by foreign reporters who themselves have been roughed up and repelled by thugs, offer Orwellian retorts, denying that Mr. Chen is under house arrest and insisting that outsiders are free to visit him.
The decisions by the Hollywood concern, Relativity Media, to shoot in Linyi and to enter into a business arrangement with its Communist Party chief have created an unexpected headache for the studio, which is facing boycott calls from Chinese rights activists. “After what the local government did to Chen Guangcheng and to so many other people, it’s outrageous that an American company would do business with them,” said He Peirong, a friend of the detained couple who can recount, in fine detail, the assaults she has endured during five unsuccessful visits this year. “We hope the company can put social responsibility ahead of corporate profits.”
For American companies eager to catch a ride on China’s soaring economy, the case highlights the potential perils of doing business with a government whose occasionally heavy-handed approach to critics can create public relations challenges.
Relativity Media, whose past successes include “Salt,” “The Social Network” and “A Serious Man,” brokered a deal to gain entry into the Chinese film market, the world’s fastest growing — and to cut some of the red tape often associated with shooting and distributing foreign films in China. Although most of “21 and Over” was shot in Seattle, it manages to work in a scene in Linyi that involves the young protagonist, who has been forced into a night of carousing by two friends on his 21st birthday — which also happens to be the night before a critical interview for medical school.
One of the Hollywood company’s two Chinese partners is the state-backed Huaxia Distribution Company.
In a statement, Relativity Media said it was proud of its partnership but insisted it was unaware of Mr. Chen’s situation or the case that originally landed him in trouble — a class-action lawsuit against officials accused of forcing thousands of Linyi women to have abortions and sterilizations.
“From its founding, Relativity Media has been a consistent and outspoken supporter of human rights and we would never knowingly do anything to undermine this commitment,” the company said in a statement on Sunday.
Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong, said he did not fault the company for its decision to shoot in Linyi although he said executives might have done well to Google the place and its political leadership before so avidly promoting the partnership. “They have to be aware of their relationship with notorious abusers,” he said. “They failed to do their due diligence.”
Shi Da contributed research.