Golden Rooster Awards 2021 nominations: patriotic movies dominate China’s top film awards
- Some Chinese internet users have complained that the proliferation of patriotic films has damaged the credibility of the Golden Roosters
- Island Keeper; My People, My Homeland; The Pioneer; Chinese Doctors; and Cliff Walkers were all nominated for best picture
The belated release of the nomination list for this year’s Golden Rooster Awards, the most prominent film awards in China, has incurred the wrath and bemusement of some Chinese internet users, who complained that the preponderance of patriotic films among the nominees has damaged the credibility of the awards.
The Golden Rooster Awards are set to be held from December 28 to 30 in Xiamen, in Fujian province. The awards are co-organised by China Film Association and China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
Island Keeper is a biopic about the patriotic guard of Kai Shan Island, an important location in the Yellow Sea in Jiangsu province. Another biopic film, The Pioneer, is about Li Dazhao, one of the founders of China’s Communist Party.
Hong Kong director Andrew Lau Wai-keung’s Chinese Doctors pays tribute to the Wuhan medical staff who fought the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2019. My People, My Homeland recounts China’s battle against poverty. Cliff Walkers revolves around heroic Communist Party secret service agents in the 1930s who infiltrate the Nationalist Party apparatus.
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Of the five best actor nominees, four starred in movies released to celebrate the party anniversary. They are Yu Hewei and Zhang Yi from Cliff Walkers, Liu Ye from Island Keeper, and Guo Xiaodong from My Father Jiao Yulu, which was launched by Hubei provincial publicity officials and extols the life of late Communist Party official Jiao Yulu from Shandong province.
In response to the nominations, a user on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, said the list of nominees shows China’s movie industry is regressing greatly.
“Both the big and small screens in China are not willing to focus their lens on the most underprivileged in the society. [Chinese director] Jia Zhangke has been criticised for always showing the seedy side [of China], but those make up the blood and flesh of China.”
Another user said: “How can the Golden Rooster Awards [have the temerity] to compare itself to the Oscars? The level of political correctness adopted by the Oscars [over the past few years] can never compare to that of the Golden Rooster Awards.”
The Golden Rooster Awards have been embroiled in much political controversy over the past few years.
In 2019, it was announced that the Golden Rooster Awards would be held annually, instead of every two years, and that, instead of rotating the event between different major cities in China, Xiamen – just across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan – would become the permanent location for its prize-giving ceremony.
The prize-giving ceremonies for the Golden Rooster and Golden Horse Awards also took place on the same day in 2019.
