The acclaimed superhero movie may challenge the nation’s misconceptions about Africa.
Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER..L to R: Okoye (Danai Gurira), T’Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Ayo (Florence Kasumba)..Photo: Matt Kennedy..©Marvel Studios 2018
The film “Black Panther,” which premieres in Chinese cinemas today, has been hailed for its stylized and celebratory representations of Africans. While it isn’t the first major motion picture starring a black superhero, it is arguably the most earnest film in the genre to date. American movies like 1993’s “The Meteor Man,” starring Robert Townsend, and 1994’s Damon Wayans-led “Blankman,” were based in the inner-cities of the U.S. and hammed up the superhero shtick for comedy value.
But in channeling a fictional black superhero created in 1966 at the height of the American civil rights movement, the protagonist of “Black Panther” is truly unique: a person of African descent with the power, intellect, and moral compass to inspire admiration across racial divides; a person who stands as a unifying force in a fictional African country with no obvious history of colonization and blessed with abundant natural resources.
I hope that the release of “Black Panther” in China will heighten awareness of race among domestic audiences. Let me be clear: As a black American woman, I regularly experience systemic racial discrimination at home in the United States. But I often find the discrimination I encounter here in China cruder and more overt.
I moved to China in 2015 in the hope of earning good money as an English teacher and exploring more of Asia during my off-time. And it is true that my experience in Shanghai has been quite lucrative for my career since then. Yet to paraphrase the African-American poet Langston Hughes, life for most black people in China isn’t a crystal stair.
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This is original content by Sixth Tone and has been republished with permission.
