‘The Great Wall’ might not be so whitewashed after all

Since the Academy Awards earlier this year, movie-goers have been using Twitter and other social media outlets to complain about the increased trend of whitewashed movies. On July 28, Chinese director Zhang Yimou appeared to rub salt in the wound by releasing a trailer starring Matt Damon, a white actor, as the savior of China in his upcoming movie, “The Great Wall.” Once again, Twitter became the public’s platform to voice disapproval of Damon’s casting in the film, which releases on Feb. 17.

“Our heroes don’t look like Matt Damon. They look like Malala, Ghandi, Mandela. Your big sister when she stood up to those bullies that one time,” said Constance Wu, star actress of ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat” on a twitter rant. “We don’t need salvation. We like our color and our culture and our own strengths and our own stories.”

Although Damon is indeed a white actor cast in a movie set in China, the case of whitewashing in “The Great Wall” is perhaps a little more complicated than the typical, culturally appropriative movie.

Judging from the movie’s trailer, it’s undeniable that Damon plays an integral character, but what most people don’t realize is that Damon isn’t robbing an Asian actor of a role.

“Our film is not about the construction of the Great Wall. Matt Damon is not playing a role that was originally conceived for a Chinese actor,” Yimou told Entertainment Weekly. “The arrival of his character in our story is an important plot point. There are five major heroes in our story and he is one of them — the other four are all Chinese.”

Damon’s character is supposed to be Caucasian  —  and “The Great Wall” shouldn’t be blindly labeled as a “whitewashed” movie. In Hollywood, it’s movies like “Ghost In The Shell,” in which white actors and actresses like Scarlett Johansson are cast for roles intended for Asians, that should called out for their cultural misappropriation.

Furthermore, Yimou’s decision to choose Damon is more likely to be about money than purposeful whitewashing. By casting Damon, Yimou not only captivates the Chinese market with the majority of the actors being mostly Chinese celebrities, but also the U.S. market with an American actor who can attract even more movie-goers. Because the movie targets both American and Chinese consumers, future partnerships between Hollywood and Chinese production companies will be improved.

“In many ways ‘The Great Wall’ is the opposite of what is being suggested,” Yimou said. “For the first time, a film deeply rooted in Chinese culture, with one of the largest Chinese casts ever assembled, is being made at tentpole scale for a world audience. I believe that is a trend that should be embraced by our industry.”

Although the public has every reason to be angered at movies that do whitewash and marginalize Asian voices, “The Great Wall” isn’t one of them.