In a country ruled by party dictatorship, the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party is dependent on faith in the party’s leadership. To achieve that, the party does something that it probably does better than any other government in the world – brainwashing. That’s because the folks in the propaganda department understand the insecurities of the Chinese people better than anyone else.
The 2015 movie Warrior Wolf 1 made a star out of actor Wu Jing who supposedly wrote and directed the movie which boasts a powerful PLA and an elite force named “Warrior Wolf” battling a drug cartel operating near the border. Released at a time of moribund stock market performance, the movie earned almost USD 90 million – a small success. Wu Jing played the hero who goes by the name of Leng Feng, a rebellious Rambo-like character who broke the rules but got the job done.
2 years later in 2017, the sequel for Warrior Wolf was released. This time, the enemy was the Western world. Leng Feng (Wu Jing) the Chinese Rambo settled down to a peaceful life in Africa after being released from prison for killing a bully who mocked his patriotism. Reminds me of 水浒传 . Trouble soon came knocking as civil war broke out in that unnamed African country. The rebels/mercenaries won and the Chinese army could not evacuate the Chinese expats because there was no approval from the UN. Leng Feng (Wu Jing) became a one-man army battling a Western-sponsored rebel army. He killed its leader, avenging his girlfriend’s death. He then rescued the refugees and hostages, bringing them safely to the UN camp. The most memorable part of the movie was his statement at the end “Don’t give up if you run into danger abroad. Please remember, a strong motherland will always have your back!’
The misleading words even appeared on the image of a Chinese passport. 无论你在海外遇到了怎样的危险，请你记住，你的背后有一个强大的祖国！It may all be fake, but the formula worked. Warrior Wolf 2 grossed USD 874 million. It was the second highest grossing film in China after Star Wars. Many Chinese people who had never seen or owned a passport believed that those words were really there. Many Chinese nationals naively believed that if they were stranded overseas because of wars or natural disasters, they would be promptly rescued. Wu Jing became an idol in China. Patriotism and nationalism fuelled by hatred went off the charts. Wu Jing himself likened Chinese patriotism to a piece of wood that has been dried to its core. All it needs is a spark from him. Indeed, for the first time in recent history, there was a chance that Chinese nationals could finally hold their heads on the international stage.
In one scene in Warrior Wolf 2, Leng Feng (Wu Jing) was fighting with the leader of the mercenaries played by American actor Frank Grillo. In the fight scene, Leng Feng (Wu Jing) was losing at one point. Grillo said: “People like you will always be weaker than people like me.”
It got subtitled as “Your inferior race will always be weaklings.” Wu Jing literally put racist words into Grillo’s mouth and the audience cheered when the tables were turned and Leng Feng defeated the leader of the mercenaries. The audience were fooled by words which were never there, but the effect on them with the final outcome of the fight was highly satisfying. Frank Grillo clarified that he would never have agreed to Wu Jing’s subtitles even if he were portraying a racist. Wu Jing’s dirty little trick is an example of the dirty trick 树上开花 – creating an illusion to trick the target.
Few people in China were aware that Wu Jing had used a dirty trick on them to stoke toxic nationalism and hatred for the West. Chinese media styled him into an idol. In the fictional boxing arena, Rocky the American defeated the Soviet Union, but Americans did not see Sylvester Stallone as a national hero. It was just a movie. In the minds the less mature Chinese audience, coupled with Wu Jing’s frequent appearance on TV, the public saw him as a real national hero and a role model for patriotism. His next movie Wandering Earth or 流浪地球 also did very well. Wu Jing had effectively been styled into a model for Chinese patriots. However, in TV interviews that followed his phenomenal success in Warrior Wolf 2, Wu Jing came across as boastful and chauvinistic. Appearing on TV with his wife, he made it obvious that he doesn’t treat her as an equal. He also used an iphone and wore Adidas while encouraging everyone to use Huawei and the most insulting part, his son holds an American passport while he holds a HongKong passport.
As Chinese people are suffering the worst economic crisis in a generation, the people saw through Wu Jing’s lies and hypocrisy. With his passport secret out, the authorities no longer sees any value promoting or defending him. His latest film was a big flop.
Wu Jing’s meteoric rise followed some illogical, inexplicable pattern on Chinese social media, also seen in the case of Singapore’s former goalkeeper Hassan. Like Hassan who was crowned 门神, Wu Jing was an idol in 2017. Unlike Wu Jing, Hassan did not milk for publicity but like Wu Jing, Hassan is destined to fade into obscurity. I predicted this when everyone was still glorifying a mediocre player as 门神.