Asian Twitter decided to thank Matt Damon for being their white savior
Matt Damon’s white savior film The Great Wall is out today. These are some premiere photos from this week which I didn’t get around to posting earlier. The Great Wall was filmed in China, with a primarily Chinese cast and crew, and it was financed by Chinese backers. It could have been interesting from a this-is-how-the-sausage-gets-made perspective, because Hollywood is eager to sell to China and everyone wants more East-West cooperation and financing in filmmaking. Unfortunately, The Great Wall is facing some difficulties here in America because oh right, it’s another film about a white guy saving non-white people. Matt Damon is the lead of a film in which he “saves” China from monsters. He saves China by building a wall.
Constance Wu had a lot to say about this last year, and whenever Matt has been asked about the white-savior issue in interviews, he sounds utterly tone-deaf. He purposefully conflated the “white savior” issue with the conversation about “whitewashing,” and called both “fake news clickbait.” Because I guess he loves Trumpisms. New York Mag actually did a compilation of all the times Matty D completely bungled the larger conversation about white-saviorism – go here to read. So is it any wonder that Asian Twitter – it’s like Black Twitter, only Asian – decided to create their own hashtag to “thank” Matt Damon for saving them? Asian Twitter went IN. It was glorious.
Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson are my favorite Asian couple. #ThankYouMattDamon
— Andrew Nguyen (@andrewnguyening) February 16, 2017
Forget Mulan, Matt Damon is the only one who could save China #thankyoumattdamon
— Lily Luo (@LilyLuo930) February 16, 2017
Matt Damon taught me how to use chopsticks. #thankyoumattdamon
— Jenny Yang 👲👲👲 (@jennyyangtv) February 16, 2017
Casting choices were tough but we've found our star for the Frederick Douglas Biopic #ThankYouMattDamon
— Victor Steele (@BlackHannibal) February 16, 2017
Diversity is what the charming white guy tells you it is. #ThankYouMattDamon
— Shawn Taylor (@reallovepunk) February 16, 2017
I'm glad everyone has caught on to this ludicrous film where a white guy saves all of China. Oh yeah, and builds a wall 💁 #ThankYouMattDamon
— Candace Howze (@CandaceHowze) February 17, 2017
Putting the Asian in Caucasian #ThankYouMattDamon
— Paul Tanner (@Paul_Tanner_) February 17, 2017
You've saved us so many times. #ThankYouMattDamon pic.twitter.com/3Jo1ZBSGAV
— SJPaul (@JeakPaul) February 16, 2017
#thankyoumattdamon for explaining what diversity is in hollywood pic.twitter.com/wTb7znyYV4
— bushy brows (@Pantoran) February 16, 2017
#ThankYouMattDamon for having the courage to play a controversial white guy rescuing Asians in their own land. Love, Tom Cruise pic.twitter.com/U0X2FziKGd
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) February 16, 2017
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
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