China Censored Chloe Zhao's Historic Oscar Wins & This May Be The Reason Why
Chloe Zhao made Oscar history over the weekend when she won the Best Director award, as well as Best Picture, at the 2021 Oscars.
However, it seems that China, where Chloe was born, has remained silent over her big wins.
According to The New York Times, the Chinese government actually blacked out and censored any social media posts or news articles in the country which recognized her wins.
Click inside to see why Chloe Zhao was censored in China…
The censorship stems from a 2013 interview that Chloe gave where she discussed growing up in China before attending high school in England.
“I get asked a lot, ‘Why are you doing this?’” she shared in the article at the time, about telling the stories that she tells. “It goes back to when I was a teenager in China, being a place where there are lies everywhere.”
She added, “You felt like you were never going to be able to get out. A lot of info I received when I was younger was not true, and I became very rebellious toward my family and my background. I went to England suddenly and relearned my history. Studying political science in a liberal arts college was a way for me to figure out what is real. Arm yourself with information, and then challenge that, too.”
While China may have censored her win across social media, many fans worked around it, using clever homonyms to celebrate still.
Fans had also blurred out Chloe‘s name and the title of the film, wrote it backward, turned images on their sides and added slashes and exclamation marks between Chinese, characters to avoid censorship.