The movie is like Chinese food in the US. Sadly, the many Chinese elements in the movie are likely to misguide these overseas audiences and might give them wrong impressions of Chinese culture, similar to the problems seen in Mulan. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings finally launched on Disney's streaming platform over two months after its cinema release in North America, meaning the film is sure to reach a broader audience around the world.

The film tries its best to distance the character played by Leung from Fu by having Wenwu explain to his son that he is not 'The Mandarin' and that the name was used by someone pretending to be him.ĭespite this, the movie is still based on the original comic and the image of the character in the comic looks nearly the same as the traditional image of Fu in the West that stands as an insult to Chinese people, so the explanation in the movie only serves to further highlight Marvel's guilty conscience and cannot erase the memories of the controversial character's origins from Chinese audiences' minds, even those who are fans of Marvel. This connection sparked controversy in 2019 when Marvel first announced the project. The Mandarin's origins are associated with an early-20th century novel featuring Fu Manchu, a representative of the 'Yellow Peril' in the West. The character is played by actor Tony Leung from Hong Kong. That character is Shang-Chi's father, who was called The Mandarin in the original comic, while the movie producers gave him a new name 'Xu Wenwu.' But no amount of kung fu can save a movie containing Western stereotypes about Chinese culture and a character originating from a racist background when it was originally created for the comics.

Shang-Chi is full of Chinese cultural elements, the most highlighted part is that lead character Xu Shang-Chi, played by Canadian actor Simu Liu, saves people through Chinese martial arts, or kung fu. It seems it must be the only right move that Disney made: Asian superhero movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was not released in the Chinese mainland yet, because even if mainland audiences had been given the opportunity to see it in cinemas, it very likely would have received the same reception as Disney's Mulan, a 2020 work aimed at Chinese audiences that met its Waterloo in the country.

Simu Liu and Jayden Zhang, who respectively play the older and younger versions of Shang-Chi in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, attend the premiere of the film.

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