An elephant’s memoirs

CHINA’S DECISION TO BLOCK the release of the film “Memoirs of a Geisha” has nothing to do with the film’s political content, which is nil. Nor is it related to the fact that Hollywood has mangled a story about a rarefied Asian icon from a bygone era, the geisha. Beijing’s reasons for censorship are even more distasteful: racial prejudice and cultural competition between China and Japan.

It’s hard for a government to articulate such sentiments, so China’s censors have not tried. Instead, they have not given any reason for preventing the film’s release, originally scheduled for next week.

When “Memoirs” came out in the U.S. in December, it met with mostly tepid reviews. Although rich in spectacle, the intricate drama set in the teahouses of prewar Japan did not catch fire as the movie’s producers had hoped. In Asia, however, the firestorm began as soon as pirated DVDs hit the streets, days after the U.S. release. Viewers in Japan were upset that the three female leads in an all-Japanese story went to Chinese stars: Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh.

That might have been a moment of pride in China, where any victory over Japan is ordinarily savored. But the reaction was anger. The word “geisha,” which in Japan means a skilled performer, complete with elaborate hairdo, kimono and whiteface makeup, is often mistranslated in China and elsewhere to mean high-class prostitute. In one scene, Zhang, who is the most popular actress in China, has her kimono ripped off by a Japanese man. That provoked an outcry, and China’s call-in radio shows and websites were besieged by vitriolic criticism of Zhang, who was called a traitor, a whore and an indignity to her nation. China’s censors apparently feel the same way.

It is not about sex. These days, pornographic DVDs are available on virtually every commercial street in China. Nor is it about controlling access to a film, because pirated movies far outstrip legal sales in China.

What lurks behind the outrage is China’s feeling of cultural superiority over Japan, and its reluctance to allow any public acknowledgement of China’s vulnerability to Japan. Many Chinese are still angry that they were so easily overrun by Japan during World War II, and that they have been so dramatically outpaced by Japan in the years since. Even a mediocre movie can stir up those feelings.