China has snubbed Marvel's latest superhero movie, despite efforts to placate Beijing's censors by erasing the controversial Fu Manchu character from the script.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings features an Asian-led cast, Mandarin dialogue and was lauded by American critics for its 'sensitive' handling of Chinese culture and hailed as a 'breakthrough' for Marvel.
But the Communist Party's censors are yet to approve it because of its links to the 'racist archetype' villain and are set to ban the movie following its $90 million take over Labor Day weekend in the US.
The Disney-owned studio produced the film as part of ongoing efforts to break the Chinese market, but has once again fallen short. It follows last year's flopped release of Mulan.
Shang-Chi has already drawn the ire of Chinese critics due to its links to Fu Manchu, the supervillain created by English pulp fiction novelist Sax Rohmer, who described him as the embodiment of 'all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race.'
The mustachioed criminal mastermind was portrayed by white Britons such as Boris Karloff, Peter Sellers and Christopher Lee and is considered the archetype of Western anti-Chinese sentiment.
Marvel's latest superhero film has been snubbed by China despite efforts to placate Beijing's censors by erasing the controversial Fu Manchu character and replace him with Simu Liu as Shang-Chi (pictured)
English actor Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu in the 1965 thriller, The Face of Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu does not appear in the new movie but in the Marvel universe he is Shang-Chi's father, owing to the US comic franchise buying the rights to Rohmer's character in the 1970s.
But many Chinese believe that the new film cannot disassociate itself with this legacy.
Shi Wenxue, a film critic in Beijing, told state mouthpiece the Global Times: 'Fu Manchu is a treacherous representation of the 'yellow peril' stereotype. Chinese audiences cannot accept a prejudiced character.'
Marvel replaced Fu Manchu with a new character, Xu Wenwu, played by Hong Kong star Tony Leung, though the move has done little to sway Beijing's censors.
Tony Leung playing Wenwu in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Wenwu has replaced the controversial Fu Manchu character but Beijing is still considering whether to ban the film
Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Pictures, last month told a Chinese critic that Fu Manchu 'is very offensive' and added that Wenwu 'cannot even be called [a] villain.'
Screenwriter Dave Callaham told Inverse, 'We knew we wanted to change that stuff,' adding that the filmmakers had a 'physical list' of things 'we were looking to destroy.'
However, the choice of Chinese-Canadian Liu Semu for the lead role angered some Chinese critics who viewed him as 'not Chinese enough.' Semu was born in China but moved to Canada aged five.
Others claimed that the 32-year-old had the stereotypical looks of what Westerners associated with Chinese people.
In the last decade, US studios have increasingly focused their attention on the Chinese market - worth $9 billion last year.
Disney, which owns Marvel, came under fire last year with its live action version of Mulan which was partially shot in Xinjiang province, notorious for its Uyghur detention camps.
The studio even altered the screenplay to placate Chinese censors. But despite a plot based on Chinese folklore and a largely Chinese cast, it was rejected by Chinese critics and flopped at the box office.
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