Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings made history on September 3, 2021 as the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to feature an Asian lead. Just days later, it became the new record holder of highest grossing film during Labor Day weekend, and the highest grossing overall during the COVID-19 pandemic, having earned $71.4 million at the box office. Shang-Chi is an adaptation of a Marvel Comics storyline with dated origins that has been brought back to life with the goal of strengthening positive representation of Asian Americans in cinema. The success of a title with a majority POC cast is not an unusual occurrence for Disney’s films in the MCU, with Black Panther garnering strong critical praise and setting multiple box office records itself in 2018. The recurrence of this success with Shang-Chi has led many viewers to talk about the value of diversity in media, how it affects its audience, and how it can be improved upon.
From the get-go, fans were excited to see an Asian star entering the realm of super heroes. Though not the first feature film to focus on an Asian or Asian-American lead, Shang-Chi is the first of its kind in a world as expansive and influential as the MCU. “People grow up idolizing superheroes on the big screen, and now we have one who looks like us,” said Joanne Trinh, an Asian-American Boston resident. She recalled that she felt “overjoyed to be watching Shang-Chi in theaters” and that it felt like watching many of the Chinese-produced films she grew up with. Such films were noted by the director, Destin Daniel Cretton, as being an inspiration for many scenes of the film, along with Asian video games and even anime.
With the excitement however also came some frustration in how Shang-Chi was presented before its release. “When Black Widow was about to come out, I would see an ad for it everytime I opened Instagram and everywhere in public,” explained Kaia Chau, an Asian-American resident of Philadelphia, “but I was only aware of it [Shang-Chi] because I had been following Simu Liu.” Liu, who stars as the leading role of Shang-Chi, was incredibly active in the promotion of the film, often posting on Twitter, Instagram, and even taking questions through Reddit. Yet, despite what felt like a lack of widespread advertising, Chau noted that “people really showed up for it [the film]”.
Unfortunately, while Asian-Americans can and have enjoyed this film, moviegoers in mainland China will not have the same opportunity. Following it’s U.S. release, Shang-Chi was not approved for release in China, the suspected reason being the racist origins of the original comic book characters.
The character Shang-Chi made his comic debut in 1973 in Special Marvel Edition #15 during the time period known as the Bronze Age of comic books. He was originally the unknown son of Sax Rohmer’s villain Fu Manchu, who is now widely known as a racist Chinese caricature. After losing the rights to the Manchu character, Marvel changed the name of Shang-Chi’s father to Zheng Zu. The movie takes it one step further to break away from its origins and sets him as another character entirely. “I hope they [the audience] sees the love we put into this,” Director Destin Daniel Cretton said during an interview with io9.
To make the film feel more authentically Asian-American, Cretton said that the cast and crew pulled from their real life experiences. Great care was taken into even the smallest details, from the points in the movie when Mandarin should be spoken to what food should be seen on someone’s dinner table. “It was fun because we were sharing our own shared experience,” said Cretton. Though it is not a perfect piece of representation according to Cretton himself, the hard work and love that went into the production has not gone unnoticed by viewers.
“Maybe 30%-40% was spoken in Mandarin, it was amazing to see, and to notice cultural items I see everyday and what that means to people,” said Aden Makris, an Asian-American resident of Boston.
As Simu Liu said of the film and its team on Twitter, “We are the underdog; the underestimated. We are the ceiling-breakers. We are the celebration of culture and joy that will persevere after an embattled year.”
