Hollywood appeal

As I rode a bus through Beijing with a newly formed acquaintance, an uncomfortable silence fell between us after we ran through the typical introductory questions. Quickly, I pulled out my most trustworthy conversation starter, one I knew would bring us onto common ground even though we had grown up in different countries thousands of miles apart: “What movies do you like to watch?” We soon bonded over a shared love for BBC’s Sherlock.

Sunny Hollywood produces America’s most influential export: stories that can change minds in countries like China for better or for worse. Although the Chinese government bans movies it deems inappropriate or politically sensitive, most young people don’t go to the movie theater anyway—they stream pirated films online. The internet is harder to censor, and there Chinese youth can view all the crass, promiscuous, and violent films the West has to offer, as well as films promoting Christian virtues and worldview.

For example, many Chinese Christians enjoyed Martin Scorsese’s 2016 film Silence, which depicts the persecution of Jesuit missionaries and local believers in 17th-century Japan. The movie never made it onto the big screen in China because of its religious theme, yet Chinese Christians passed around downloaded copies of the movie to watch and discuss with friends.

Grace Guo and Jonny Fan, two members of Early Rain Reformed Church in Chengdu, said they found the film touching and thought-provoking, as it questioned how a Christian should respond in the face of intense persecution: Japan’s more than 200 years of persecution of Christians was greater than anything experienced in China. Captured missionaries had to choose between publicly renouncing their faith or watching as Japanese guards tortured and killed local believers. “It’s complicated,” Fan said of the missionaries’ predicament. “It’s hard to find an easy answer.”

Liam Neeson and Yoshi Oida in Silence Paramount Pictures

Early Rain Pastor Wang Yi wrote in an online review that the trials, suffering, and failings of the Catholic missionaries reveal the human need for salvation by grace alone. “If absolute grace doesn’t exist, then no one would be saved,” Wang wrote. “If absolute grace exists, then that grace will not come through our success, but through our losses.”

Sophia He, a college student in Chengdu, also liked the film but found it quite heavy. She typically prefers movies about education like Mona Lisa Smile, Dead Poets Society, or the French film The Chorus. “Western movies can help provide a jumping-off point for reflection,” He said, “and if you continue reading about the topic and reflecting about it, it gives you a wider range of thinking.”

She also watches faith-based films like Courageous and Amish Grace, a TV movie about an Amish mother forgiving the man who shot and killed her daughter. He’s friend and schoolmate, Joy Chen, said she watched God’s Not Dead and could relate to the main character, a college student debating his professor on the existence of God. “I feel like China doesn’t have these types of movies dealing with real life experiences, like others questioning our beliefs and attacking us,” Chen said. “And even if they did, they wouldn’t be allowed in the theaters.”

Wei Wang of Beijing used to be a cinephile, but after professing Christ she now spends her time reading Chinese translations of books by John Piper, Richard Pratt, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. She recognizes Hollywood’s influence on her previous life and on those around her: Romantic comedies, focusing on self-satisfaction rather than sacrifice, gave her a skewed idea of what love and marriage look like. Superhero movies like the popular Marvel series relay the message that people need only rely on themselves to succeed. “Men in China have trouble believing in Christ because they think they can just do everything themselves,” Wang said. “It’s hard to evangelize to my guy friends because they all think they don’t need God. And I think that’s because of the influence of superhero movies.”

Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright in House of Cards. David Giesbrecht/Netflix

Chinese millennials also love watching TV shows such as the political drama House of Cards, the aforementioned Sherlock, and, surprisingly, the raunchy sitcom 2 Broke Girls. The recently canceled 2 Broke Girls was the most-searched American TV series on the Chinese search engine Baidu in 2016, with its fourth season viewed more than 100 million times on the Chinese video site tv.sohu.com. The show, which The Washington Post gave the dubious honor of “the filthiest show on network television,” relies on a stock of racist and sexual jokes. Its popularity in China likely stems from its depiction of the “self-made woman,” according to Foreign Policy, as the show’s two characters work hard for low pay in order to attain their dream of opening their own cupcake shop.

Wang believes non-Christian Chinese millennials want to emulate what they see coming from the United States because of the country’s prosperity. “Because of China’s history, we are unable to discern good from bad, and we get sucked into all of it,” she said. “Non-Christians have even less discernment and it’s easy to lose your way. It’s like McDonald’s: It tastes good but has no nutrients. Yet people still crave it.”