But most state media has responded to Zhao’s victory with silence.

Comments Zhao made about China in 2013—calling it “a place where there are lies everywhere”—surfaced on Chinese social media shortly after the Golden Globes aired in early March. State media and state censors quickly turned against her, restricting discussion of Nomadland’s accolades—now including the Oscars win—online. Authorities canceled the film’s April 23 theatrical release in China.

But the cold shoulder might not last forever. China is eager to promote itself as a cultural powerhouse, even if only through its widespread diaspora. And Zhao’s first big-budget blockbuster—Marvel’s The Eternals—due for release later this year, means the director and Disney, which owns the Marvel franchise, have an incentive to smooth things over with Beijing.

A reluctant hero

As Zhao’s Nomadland cleaned up early in the awards circuit, state media and Chinese netizens piled on praise. The nationalist Global Times called Zhao the “pride of China”—shortly before she fell from grace.

Following Zhao’s Oscars victory, the Global Times was the only state media outlet to comment on her success, casting Zhao as an unwitting ambassador for Sino-U.S. relations.

“In an era when the China-U.S. confrontation is intensifying, [Zhao] can play a mediating role in the two societies and avoid being a friction point,” the tabloid wrote in an editorial published late Monday.

Still, China’s reluctance to acknowledge—or lay claim to—Zhao’s Oscar win has baffled industry observers. China is ordinarily eager to boost its soft power and has previously leveraged the value of its domestic box office market to eke concessions out of Hollywood studios.

In 2013, for example, Disney partnered with China’s DMG Entertainment to produce Iron Man 3. The tie-up resulted in a special version of the film, released only in China, that featured an additional scene in which Chinese doctors save Iron Man’s life.

Other partnerships between Hollywood studios and Chinese censors have been even more overt, such as Disney’s 2020 release of Mulan, which thanked eight Chinese government entities in its end credits—although the film ultimately flopped in China.

“It’s China’s loss for not harvesting the accidental soft power of Chloé Zhao’s Oscar nod,” says Zhu Ying, professor of cinema studies at the City University of New York and Hong Kong Baptist University.  

“But it’s Chloé Zhao’s gain for being disowned by China, which might give her more freedom to pursue her unique creative vision that is outside the mainstream of both Chinese and Hollywood cinemas,” Zhu says. But Zhao has moved mainstream, lending her directing chops to one of Hollywood’s most successful action franchises.

The Eternals

In 2018, Zhao approached Disney with a pitch to direct the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s upcoming ensemble film, The Eternals—due for release in November this year. The blockbuster title, with a budget of $200 million, is the first major production for Zhao and the jumping-off point for the MCU’s next film franchise, which follows The Avengers.

China was consistently the second-largest box office market for The Avengers franchise. The final installment in the franchise, Avengers: Endgame, grossed $858 million in North American theaters and $629 million in China in 2019.

The importance of China’s box office became even more pronounced during the pandemic, as Chinese theaters opened while U.S. ones remained closed. In 2020, China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s highest earning cinema market in 2020, despite revenue dropping from $9.1 billion to $2.8 billion because of the pandemic.

Beijing’s chilly response to Zhao’s Oscar victory has industry observers concerned that The Eternal’s China release could be in jeopardy. But Kenny Ng, an associate professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University’s Academy of Film, thinks Beijing will likely try to tap Zhao for movie projects of its own.

“The PRC will surely want an ethnic Chinese Oscar winner to make a major big-budget coproduction,” Ng says.

For now, at least, the rift between Zhao and Beijing seems to be easing.

During her acceptance speech at the Oscars, Zhao quoted in Mandarin from a classic Chinese text that she said continues to inspire her worldview.

Zhao’s negative comments that turned state media against her have also disappeared from the New York–based Filmmaker’s article where they first appeared. Even the Global Times demonstrated some restraint in its editorial on Zhao’s Oscar win, glossing over the comments that had turned censors against her.

 “[Zhao] cannot escape her special label,” the Global Times wrote, enigmatically referring to Zhao’s identity as a Chinese American Oscar winner. “She should actively use it.”