The Danger Zone

Silly games, serious consequences [View this email in your browser]( June 8, 2022 [Mail & Guardian]( [Mail & Guardian]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( Hi there, A flag embroided onto a bomber jacket flashed on screen for a second. In the planet’s fragile geopolitical game, that’s all it needs to send an audience into rapture, earn the ire of millions and have a Hollywood blockbuster banned from one of its biggest territories. Taiwanese publication [SETN reported last week]( that an early screening of Top Gun: Maverick erupted when the country’s flag appeared in the movie. Danger Zone-singing fans of the original will remember that Tom Cruise wears a jacket that pays homage to his father and his service in the Pacific Ocean with the Blue Sky, White Sun, and a Wholly Red Earth, among other flags. It seemed as though the producers had bowed to Chinese sensors when the flag didn’t appear in a 2019 trailer but have now seemingly recouped at least some of the spunk shown by their lead protagonist. China hates the flag because it represents a country it believes does not exist. Taiwan and its people celebrate its depiction because they view it as tacit recognition of the country. Beijing has yet to confirm anything but it’s unlikely Top Gun will get much play over there — not unless a redacted version is agreed to be shared. ([Already a Chinese investor is said to have been lost]( because of the macho-American nature of the film.) Stories like these are reminders of the fine line on which our globalised world is balanced. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man, the seminal book that declared the inexorable ascent of ​​Western liberal democracy. That might be true to a large extent but we can’t truly embrace the idea when [Winnie the Pooh memes]( have the potential to incite an international incident. In the ideological war over the mountainous region, stringing together “Taiwan” and “country” in the same sentence is a big no-no. So learned John Cena, the wrestler-rapper turned movie action star. Last year, he committed the heinous crime of announcing that the upcoming flick, Fast 9, would be released in a number of “countries”, including Taiwan. In one of the [more extraordinary videos you’ll ever watch]( he begs, in fluent Mandarin, for forgiveness from the Chinese people for his indiscretion and promises no offence was intended. (In fairness to Cena, we should probably mention that he did [refuse to travel to Saudi Arabia]( for an event scheduled in the aftermath of the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey.) Why he and others have to resort to such means — which some might call degrading — is not difficult to figure out. China boasts an enormous market, one which any form of global media can’t afford to lose. Not even one of the biggest football clubs in the world. Despite being innocent of star quality, Arsenal chose to freeze out their best player, Mesut Özil, after he spoke out against the mistreatment of China’s Uighurs. Özil was also wiped clean from Chinese versions of football video games and searching his name in the country brought up whatever the censored version of a 404 error is. We’ll probably never know the behind-closed-doors discussions that sent Top Gun off in a different direction to the above examples. We can also only speculate if Maverick’s jacket would have been missing a flag had it not been for the Russia-Ukraine war that has rekindled US-China hostilities. What we do know is that the flick has shot in Taiwan over the past week, so far making it the [third-highest grossing market in the Asia-Pacific region](. Could the bigwigs ever really lose? Until next week, Luke Feltham [Subscribe now]( Enjoy The Ampersand? Share it with your friends [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( [Share]( [Share]( Copyright © 2022 Mail & Guardian Media LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive communications from the Mail & Guardian either at our website or by taking out a print subscription. Our mailing address is: Mail & Guardian Media LTD 25 Owl St BraamfonteinJohannesburg, Gauteng 2001 South Africa [Add us to your address book]( Want to change which mails you receive from Mail & Guardian? [Update your preferences]( to tell us what you do and don't want to receive, or [unsubscribe](. *If you are a paying subscriber, we recommend updating your preferences rather than unsubscribing, as you may miss important information relating to your subscription.