Deadpool & Wolverine is dominating the box office in North America and Europe but although the superhero film is on general release in China, it has failed to top the charts. In the top spot for the past few weeks has been Zhua Wa Wa, a dark comedy that has become one of the biggest Chinese films of the year and one of the hottest talking points.
Released internationally this week under the title Successor and opening in Ireland on Friday, the film’s Chinese box office made it the third-biggest in the world last week, according to Comscore. But although it has echoes of The Truman Show and the HBO series Succession, Zhua Wa Wa reflects very specifically Chinese concerns and attitudes.
It portrays a wealthy couple whose first son has disappointed them with his lack of ambition and who are determined that their second son, Ma Jiye, should become a fit person to take over their business. Worried that a luxury lifestyle would encourage their son to lose his drive, they decide that he should grow up in the same impoverished circumstances as his father.
They move into a rundown courtyard home in the father’s home village and live what appears to be a simple, rural life. But the boy is actually growing up in a kind of reality show, which his parents orchestrate from a control room hidden underground.
[ Shocking killing sparks debate about China’s ‘left behind’ childrenOpens in new window ]
Although they want their son to have a modest upbringing, they also want him to get the best possible education so that he will do well enough in the national matriculation examination, the gaokao, to win a place at a good university. So the neighbours, shopkeepers and tradespeople are actually a team of highly qualified teachers who are charged with guiding the boy’s every choice in the direction of his parents’ choosing.
The parents are played by Shen Teng and Ma Li, two of China’s biggest comedy stars, and much of the humour is in their elaborate efforts to deceive their son and the close shaves as their deception is almost exposed. But while the film has been well-received, some critics said they felt uncomfortable watching it.
“The punch line in this movie is based on dishonesty and manipulating children, which goes beyond the boundaries of humour that some people can accept,” wrote the critic in the Paper, a Shanghai-based digital daily.
“The arrangement by the couple is a full-scale invasion of personal freedom and privacy, depriving Ma Jiye of his ability to think and make decisions independently as an individual and denying him his dignity as a human being. This emotional manipulation and moral kidnapping exploits Ma Jiye’s compassion, responsibility and guilt to make him unwittingly embrace certain values and lifestyles. Losing the opportunity to make his own choices and understand the real world also makes all his pleasures or pains seem cheap and ridiculous.”
Others thought the film reflected a broader phenomenon in Chinese society as parents try to fulfil their unrealised dreams through their children by pressuring them to do well at school. Ma Jiye’s parents are just an extreme version of the tiger parents who supervise every hour of their children’s lives, filling after-school hours with study, extra tuition and improving hobbies.
“The fundamental problem with the ‘Chinese way of child rearing’ is that this hard-hitting model not only blinds the child to his natural instincts, but also plunges him into an endless abyss of pain,” wrote another reviewer.
“Love should be guidance, not control; education, should be stimulating, not indoctrination. In the process of educating children, we should try to foster children’s autonomy and creativity, and encourage them to pursue their dreams and interests bravely.”
Competition among parents to give their children an educational edge fuelled a huge industry in after-school tuition that put poorer children at a disadvantage. In 2021, the government banned paid tuition for core curriculum subjects such as Chinese, Maths and English, encouraging children to go outdoors and exercise instead.
Many parents welcomed the ban, saying it relieved the financial pressure of having to keep up with other parents in paying for grinds. But a new survey conducted by the China Institute for Educational Finance Research at Peking University found that the spending gap on education between wealthy families and others has widened since the restrictions were introduced.
The study compared participation rates and family expenditure on extracurricular activities offered by schools and private tutoring services between 2017, before the government clampdown started, and 2023. The overall proportion of primary and secondary school pupils receiving tutoring services fell from 36.1 per cent in 2017 to 13.5 per cent in 2023.
But while spending and participation in middle and upper-middle income groups fell significantly, participation by families in the top 20 per cent income range actually went up. Although the 2021 ban drove private tutoring underground, the wealthiest families had the money and resources to find tutors and pay them more than before.