Red China: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg|thumb]]
The original [[People's Republic of Tyranny]], China played a fair amount of roles as the [[Big Bad]] during part of The [[Cold War]]
Following the Communist Revolution of 1949, the Kuomintang gang went to Taiwan and set up a government, meaning mainland China became Communist. The prior regime were no saints themselves--[[Chiang Kai Shek]] marked his rise to power in China with a massacre of his opponents, and courted fascism; China was receiving Nazi advisors up until ''[[World War II]]'', when Germany withdrew them so as not to work against its Japanese
Therefore, Red China became a recurrent villain in [[Cold War]] literature; not as common as [[Red Scare|the Soviet Union]], but definitely there, with the addition of the traditional mystique that Asian cultures have always been steeped in. It probably is no exaggeration to say that Red China was the Cold War-era successor to WWII's [[Imperial Japan]] in villain roles, in the same way that [[Red Scare|the Soviet Union]] was the successor to [[Those Wacky Nazis]].
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** Notably averted in ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies]].'' That is, China exists as a possible enemy, but Wai Lin and Bond never really discuss or debate politics. Both China and the UK were being manipulated into war by a third party, and in the end the villain was exposed, his own forces destroyed, and everyone just went home.
* ''[[The Dark Knight]]''
* The first version of ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (novel)|The Manchurian Candidate]]''.
* The film ''Red Corner'' with Richard Gere was all over this trope (hence the film name).
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** Although which category the Chinese faction falls into is never really specified, as they seem to take a vaguely nationalistic stance, if anything. However, they support the populist and presumably Marxist [[La Résistance]] and are willing to butt heads with the West, so the first form is at least implied.
* Receive a cursory mention in ''[[World in Conflict]]'' when you are told Red China has entered the war on the same side as the Soviet Union, with the Chinese army on its way to Seattle. [[MST3K Mantra|Best not to think too hard about how the late 1980s Chinese army intended to accomplish that]].
* [[Command
** [[All There in the Manual|Not that it is seen in the game]] but the background mentions that China's new generation leaders enacted a whole set of reforms and civil liberties. It still has the traces of authoritarianism but there is an implication that by 2020s China is a relatively free society with a militaristic bent like the United States, making it a wholly different type.
=== Works set in China during the Red and Nasty period
* ''[[Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress]]'' is about two college students sent to a remote village during the Cultural Revolution.
* ''Farewell my Concubine'' by Chen Kaige features several scenes set during the Cultural Revolution.
* ''To Live'' by [[Zhang Yimou]] depicts the vicissitudes of an ordinary family from the 1930s to the 1980s.
=== Works set in China during the Red and Rich period
* ''[[China Blue]]'' is a documentary about the working conditions in China's textile industry.
* ''Last Train Home'' is a documentary about a family of migrant workers.
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[[Category:Hollywood History]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/China]]
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