#BoycottMulan

Submission 10,572

Part of a series on Mulan (2020 Film). [View Related Entries]

Overview

#BoycottMulan, also known as Boycott Mulan, refers to a hashtag used to catalog the public outrage surrounding Mulan star Liu Yifei's support for the Hong Kong police during the 2019 Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Bill Protests.

Background

On August 14th, 2019, Liu Yifei, the Chinese-born star of the 2020 live-action remake of the Disney animated film Mulan, posted her support on the Chinese social media website Weibo.^[1] She wrote, "I support Hong Kong's police, you can beat me up now. What a shame for Hong Kong." In two days, the post received more than 81,000 likes, 72,000 shares and 10,000 comments (shown below).

Developments

Online Reaction

Shortly after Yifei's post, people reacted to her sentiments, using the hashtag #BoycottMulan. The earliest known usage of the #BoycottMulan on Twitter was posted by user @isaacng1997. They tweeted,^[2] "@DisneysMulan Liu Yifei disturbingly supports #HongKongPolice brutality (UN and leaders of the world have spoken out against HK Police) in her Weibo post. Is #Disney also supporting #HongKong police brutality and the humanitarianism crisis happening in Hong Kong? #BoycottMulan" (shown below, left).

Others soon joined the discussion. Twitter user @sdnorton tweeted,^[3] "Disney’s Mulan actress, Liu Yifei, supports police brutality and oppression in Hong Kong. Liu is a naturalized American citizen. it must be nice. meanwhile, she pisses on people fighting for democracy. retweet please. HK doesn’t get enough support. #BoycottMulan @Disney." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 15,000 likes and 13,000 retweets (shown below, center).

The hashtag could also be found on Instagram. Instagram^[4] user @chinauncensored posted about the controversy with the hashtag. The post received more than 850 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the controversy, including The Hollywood Reporter,^[5] CNN,^[6] Teen Vogue,^[7] Newsweek,^[8] New York Post,^[9] IndieWire,^[10] NBC,^[11] Complex,^[12] CBS,^[13] Business Insider^[14] and more.