In October 2023, Arantxa Echevarría released Chinas, a Spanish dramatic film written by herself and starring Valeria Fernández, Yeju Ji, Ella Qiu and Shiman Yang that talks about the harshness of Chinese migration in our country and the different problems faced by that this community faces when arriving in Spain.
The film was a complete success. In addition to five nominations for the Goya Awards, one nomination for the Forqué Awards and various awards, the project was very well received by the public.
However, the piece aroused great controversy because it is a story about a minority told by a Spanish woman who has nothing to do with the Asian country. After six months, activist and singer Chenta Tsai, popularly known as ‘Putochinomaricón’, has exploded on his Instagram account and given his opinion of the film.
”I have been silent for a long time (…) With the exception of the actors and actresses who did an exceptional job, this movie is a paternalistic experiment with a moral bathed in milk and cream that shows us the terror of how far people can go. white pseudo-philanthropists (in this case director) if we don’t put a stop to it,” the singer began.
”She has as a white savior what she lacks in the script. This movie is equivalent to using El Hormiguero to talk about transfeminism. It is more likely that Broncano will prepare well for an interview than that I will accept an invitation to talk about this film,’ he concluded bluntly.
The content creator has also used humor to deal with this controversy. ”Arantxa Echevarrí, here is a list of white savior movies that you could make in case you want to continue with Chinas: ‘Chinas 2 – More Chinese than ever’, ‘Chinas 3D: No hay dos chin tres’, ‘Chin4s . Fully Reloaded’, ‘Chinas 5: Chin light, chin water and full throttle”’.
In addition to publishing several memes, the activist has uploaded different videos speaking directly to the camera to explain his point of view: ”I have been accumulating this anger since I saw Carmen and Lola (..) I wanted to tear my eyes out (…) Stop white directors instrumentalizing our pain, instrumentalizing our experiences and our stories from paternalism.
The young artist has been completely honest and has freely expressed his opinion that Echevarría’s behavior over the years has revealed that she has nothing of her own to show as a director, which has sparked a great debate online.
In addition to making his point of view known, the interpreter of Shitty People or I’m Bad at Being Older has dropped that the director stole several ideas for the writer Quan Zhou’s script, known as ‘Agridulce Gazpacho’.
Said writer has published a statement on social networks saying that she totally agrees with the activist: ”I have not talked about him copying me because it seems too painful to me. The worst thing is that they have told me that it is common practice.”
The general public has shown its support for the aforementioned artists and dozens of users on the Internet have criticized the filmmaker of Basque origin for always talking about other people’s stories in her films.
To respond to all those who defend that each artist can create freely, Chenta Tsai has published a clarification: ”I am not saying that white people should not make series or films about racialized people. If it’s done well, great, what do you want me to tell you?”
