Why Are People Boycotting ‘Mulan?’

“Mulan,” the controversial Walt Disney Co. film about a girl who fights as a man to save her father and country, took in a lackluster $23.2 million during its debut in Chinese theaters.

The film, a remake of Disney’s 1998 animated hit, once seemed like a sure thing, particularly in China, where the story is based on a centuries-old folk ballad. The $200 million production has an all-Asian cast and a female director. But the film was quickly plagued by controversy.

Liu Yifei, the Chinese-American actress who plays the title character, stated her support for the Hong Kong police over pro-democracy protesters last year, prompting a #BoycottMulan movement on Twitter.com.

Critics have also decried Disney for filming in Xinjiang, a region where as many as 1 million of the Muslim-minority Uighurs are housed in what the government calls “voluntary reeducation centers.”

Walt Disney Co. Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said the company’s decision to shoot some scenes of “Mulan” in a controversial region of China has “generated a lot of issues for us.”

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