Taipei, Taiwan- Hollywood has a problem with China.

The world’s second largest economy has become one of the biggest markets for big-budget Hollywood filmsbut a racist backlash against Disney’s The Little Mermaid is just the latest example of the price movie studios can pay if they offend Chinese sensibilities.

Chinese state media and netizens have condemned the casting of Halle Bailey, who is black, as Princess Ariel – echoing some Americans who have expressed anger that the Atlanta-born actress does not resemble the character to fair skin from the 1989 animated film or Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairy tale.

In an op-ed last month, The Global Times, an English-language Chinese tabloid known for its nationalist coverage, accused Disney of turning “classic tales into ‘sacrificial lambs’ for political correctness” by casting non-white actors in classic tales.

“When the beautiful stories that have accompanied the childhoods of countless children become arenas of racial strife, they lose their meaning and become devoid of romance and fantasy, replaced by arguments about skin color,” said the tabloid, insisting that such casting controversies were not motivated by racism but “lazy and irresponsible storytelling”.

The blowback – much of it overtly racist – has also happened among ordinary Chinese moviegoers online.

On social media platforms such as Sina Weibo, some users criticized Bailey’s appearance and black facial features.

Other online Chinese commentators left more positive reviews, with a poster on the film’s Mayoan site saying that Bailey’s appearance made little difference to children and represented the most essential character trait. of Princess Ariel – a brave spirit.

Although China does not have the same racial history or politics as the United States, audiences are still sensitive to how race is portrayed in Hollywood films, said Chinese-born YouTuber Yao Zhang, who follows Chinese and Taiwanese news and culture from Canada.

Traditional Chinese beauty standards emphasize pale skin and large, round eyes, Zhang said, and some viewers — and government officials — want to see Chinese values ​​reflected on screen.

“There’s no right way to see [the film in the US]Zhang told Al Jazeera. “But in China, there is 100% correct way to understand it.”

Zhang compared the backlash to the public reaction to model Lu Yan, whose small eyes and high cheekbones were deemed unattractive in China but gained fame in the West – although some Chinese bloggers have claimed that the success of Lu was a Western ploy to make China look bad by raising “ugly” women.

Amid the negative press, The Little Mermaid performed poorly at the Chinese box office, earning just $3.6 million within 10 days of its May 26 release, according to Artisan Gateway, an international film consultancy.

Live-action remakes of Disney classics typically fetch between $40 million and $85 million in China, according to the notice.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and Fast and Furious X, also released in May, have grossed around $80 million and $120 million respectively since their release.

The Little Mermaid flop is just the latest example of how difficult it is for Hollywood to navigate the world’s largest film market, which once had an insatiable appetite for American movies.

China is particularly competitive because the Chinese censors only accept a few dozen foreign films a year. Only 39 foreign films were released in May 2023, including 18 Hollywood titles. Unlike 20 years ago, Hollywood also has to compete with a thriving domestic film industry that produces its own blockbusters.

Studios also face the dilemma of accepting changes to meet the demands of Chinese censors or risk being shut out of the market.

Sony changed the 2012 remake of Red Dawn in post-production to feature a North Korean, rather than Chinese, invasion of the United States, costing the studio millions.

In 2016, a screenwriter for the Marvel action film Doctor Strange suggested that the Elder character’s background was changed from Tibetan to European to avoid upsetting China.

Spiderman: No Way Home, one of the highest-grossing films of all time, was denied a 2021 Chinese release after Marvel refused to cut the film’s “patriotic” ending set at the Statue of Liberty in New York, news site Puck reported, costing the studio an estimated $170 million to $340 million in lost sales.

The anger of Chinese moviegoers may also have ripple effects on other films or actors, which could temper Hollywood’s appetite to challenge Chinese censors.

Disney’s 1998 animated film Mulan has been delayed in China following the studio’s backing of another film, Kundun, about the Dalai Lama, said Chris Fenton, former Hollywood executive and author of Feeding the Dragon : Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business.

“They blackball everyone involved in a particular film, including the studio involved,” Fenton told Al Jazeera.

“Sometimes blackball is temporary, like with Sony after Red Dawn or Disney after Kundun. Sometimes it’s almost permanent, like with [Dalai Lama supporter] Richard Gere or maybe Brad Pitt – although we’ll never know for sure if the actors are banned or not. There’s only proof that the movies they’re involved in never get approvals.

Hollywood’s recent pullback against the trend will only work as long as the dollars and cents add up, because China is simply too huge a market to ignore, Fenton said.

“Money drives doing the right thing or the wrong thing, most of the time, but the good thing is that doing the right thing can be more profitable now,” he said.