“We have seen so many American superheroes, and we need a Chinese hero on the screen. “He really captures this new nationalist sentiment,” said Xiaoning Lu, a Chinese film expert with the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. While much of China’s entertainment industry is struggling to meet the young generation’s craving for excitement while toeing the Communist Party line, Wu has found a way to do both by positioning himself as an embodiment of a China that is increasingly assertive, confident, and influential-just like how white male heroes have been portrayed in Hollywood blockbusters. At a recent event, Jackie Chan joked that Wu’s four recent films had raked in as much revenue as the kung fu legend himself made over the past decades. Out of the five top-grossing films in the history of Chinese cinema, three starred Wu. #WuJingdefeatsWuJing trended on social media. At home, the three-hour long war epic in November surpassed Wu’s own Wolf Warrior II to become China’s highest-grossing film ever. Globally, its nearly $900 million box office revenues dwarfed those of Dune, No Time to Die, and Shang-Chi. Fed on frozen potatoes but possessing extraordinary determination, strategy, and a will to sacrifice for their country, the Chinese soldiers were able to defeat the American troops, who were equipped with advanced jets, tanks, coffee, and Thanksgiving turkey. In the latest blockbuster The Battle at Lake Changjin, so far the world’s top grossing film of 2021, Wu’s character fought brutal battles with the U.S.-led United Nations troops in the 1950-53 Korean War. His characters had fearlessly protected the Chinese borderland from a foreign drug lord, embarked on a one-man mission to rescue Chinese nationals from unrest in Africa, and, in China’s first sci-fi epic Wandering Earth, helped save humankind from annihilation. Disappointed by a shortage of macho figures in Chinese cinema, Wu decided to be that man himself.
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