Chloe Zhao Creates History At Oscars, But Chinese Social Media Censors Her Achievement

China censors Chloe Zhao: The Twitter-like social media platform in China, Weibo has censored Chloe Zhao, who on Monday morning created history at the Oscars for her movie Nomadland.

Zhao became the first woman of colour to win the Oscar for Best Director for a film. She’s also the second woman ever to win the Oscar after The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow.

Weibo initially praised Zhao on Monday morning for her contribution to the film, but all the recent posts about her victory were removed within hours. A hashtag relating to Zhao’s win was soon replaced with the words: “according to relevant laws and regulations and policies, the page is not found”.

Her film also took home the Best Picture award, however, the success met with silence by Chinese media since last month after social media users criticised her for an old interview in which she called out her country of birth. Beijing-born Zhao was accused of “smearing China” and on Monday within hours of her win at the Oscars, social media posts have been censored. Chinese cinemas have already pulled off her film's scheduled release.

"This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold on to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do that. And this is for you, you inspire me to keep going." - Chloé Zhao, the 2nd woman—and 1st of color—to win Best Director at the #Oscars. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/6PLOyVnNlJ

— E! News (@enews) April 26, 2021

This year's Academy ceremony was not telecasted in China, but many people saw 39-year-old Zhao’s acceptance speech via clips shared on social media, adding comments of congratulations. "Chloe Zhao becomes the first Asian diaspora/Chinese female filmmaker to win the best director Oscar in history," wrote an entertainment blogger but it was later deleted. An angry user criticised China's public opinion control as outrageous. “She is the pride of Chinese and even all Asian people,” said one commenter on Weibo. “The four words of: Oscar, Chinese, female, and director, are finally connected in this moment, forming a very proud sentence,” said another.

Zhao, who was born in China and lived in Beijing until she was 14, accepted the best director award saying she had been “thinking a lot lately about how I keep going when things get hard”.  Zhao is the stepdaughter of famous actor Song Dandan. She even recited a classic poem from her country and translated it to English: “people at birth are inherently good”.

Zhao will be directing Marvel’s The Eternals next.