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Red China
- 165 statements
- 31 feature instances
- 31 referencing feature instances
| Red China | type |
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| Red China | label |
Red China | |
| Red China | page |
RedChina | |
| Red China | comment |
The original People's Republic of Tyranny, China played a fair few roles as the Big Bad during part of The Cold War, even after the Sino-Soviet split resulted in better relations with the US and other capitalist nations. With the end of the Cold War and collapse of the USSR in 1991, the portrayal of the People's Republic has tended to move towards that of an international Anti-Hero, of the Neutral Evil or Lawful Evil sort—although given Values Dissonance, it sometimes could qualify as either Lawful Neutral or True Neutral instead. Red China became a recurrent villain in Cold War literature; not as common as the Soviet Union, but definitely there. Using China instead of Russia allowed writers to work in some of the traditional mystique that Oriental culture seemed (to them) to have always been steeped in. It probably is no exaggeration to say that Red China was the Cold War-era successor to WWII's Imperial Japan in villain roles, in the same way that the Soviet Union was the successor to Those Wacky Nazis. The portrayal of Communist China can be roughly divided into two periods: Red and Nasty (1949 to c.1979) Fu Manchu meets Dirty Communists (or Yellow Peril meets Red Scare), to a very large extent. The Chinese are sneaky and crafty, like to brainwash people (the term was invented in China) and generally trying to subvert Western freedom. Will team up with the USSR at times. The main cause of this was The Korean War — while the Soviets were not (obviously) attacking UN forces, which included the US and the UK, the Chinese most certainly were. Red and Rich (c.1979 onward) Not so much Dirty Communists here, although you will get Renegade Chinese. China becomes a rich, well-developed country, but still prone to torture and general international shadiness, although not on pre-79 levels. Many things are still Banned in China, though usually available through bootlegged media. Why 1979, you may ask? Though China did start to open to the world in 1972 after Richard Nixon visited China, Mao Zedong had a stranglehold on power until his death in 1976, and supported the most radical politics in China. Immediately after he died, those radical elements were arrested, and Deng Xiaoping made a grab for control of the Party. The economic reforms he implemented in 1978 began to turn China from a sclerotic command economy into an economic powerhouse as foreign investment was allowed in ever-larger areas and ever-greater sections of the banking sector were freed up to invest in things that were actually profitable, as opposed to things the government thought the country 'should' have.note 'Should' have to guarantee economic self-sufficiency (which had decreased overall economic efficiency in all sectors, not least because foreign banks were not allow to invest in the country), jobs (which meant an over-emphasis on job-creation and maintenance at the expense of [job-]efficiency), and support for the military (which had taken up an unhealthily large portion of the country's GDP). Additionally, the United States formally established diplomatic relations with China that year — up to that point, the US had recognized the Guomindang government on Taiwan. Also notice that since China has lately acquired a huge potential as a consumer market for Western media, it makes almost no business sense to offend the peevish Chinese censors and/or audience by casting China or a Chinese person as the villain. Though there are exceptions to censorship in recent years.note For example, Maverick's jacket in Top Gun: Maverick reverted his censored jacket back into brandishing the flags of both Taiwan and Japan after the Chinese sponsors pulled out when they realized that the movie glorifies the US Armed Forces (specifically the Air Force and Navy), Spiderman: No Way Home was blackballed in China for not removing the shots of the Statue of Liberty, Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness was similarly not released in China due to having a newspaper kiosk with the Chinese name of The Epoch Times (an anti-CCP, Falun Gong-ran publication) being visible. Sometimes, Red China Takes Over the World. Incidentally, red is also a traditional color of China, predating Marxism. For more historical background on Red China, see the analysis page. |
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| Red China | fetched |
2024-01-29T00:16:10Z | |
| Red China | parsed |
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| Red China | processingComment |
Dropped link to AllThereInTheManual: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Red China | processingComment |
Dropped link to DirtyCommunists: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Red China | processingComment |
Dropped link to HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Red China | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Red China / int_1a12bbee | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_1a12bbee | comment |
The Mighty Thor's enemy Radioactive Man. | |
| Red China / int_1a12bbee | featureApplicability |
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| The Mighty Thor (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_1a12bbee | |
| Red China / int_2370b4d | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_2370b4d | comment |
Luxury Car shows the Values Dissonance between a father raised during the Mao era and his daughter, who sells herself for money. | |
| Red China / int_2370b4d | featureApplicability |
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| Luxury Car | hasFeature |
Red China / int_2370b4d | |
| Red China / int_2ad25f53 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_2ad25f53 | comment |
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is about two college students sent to a remote village during the Cultural Revolution. | |
| Red China / int_2ad25f53 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_2ad25f53 | featureConfidence |
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| Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress | hasFeature |
Red China / int_2ad25f53 | |
| Red China / int_2f3eb71f | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_2f3eb71f | comment |
Command & Conquer: Generals features, oddly enough, a combination of the two varieties. Chinese society is clearly of the second type, which makes sense, as the game takes place (unlike all the other Command & Conquer games) in our timeline during the 2020s, but their military, with its tactics and units, is based inaccurately on that of the first type, and is considered so hyperbolic that the game was actually Banned in China. Not that it is seen in the game but the background mentions that China's new generation leaders enacted a whole set of reforms and civil liberties. It still has the traces of authoritarianism but there is an implication that by 2020s China is a relatively free society with a militaristic bent like the United States, making it a wholly different type. |
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Red China / int_2f3eb71f | |
| Red China / int_304d4028 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_304d4028 | comment |
In one of their adventures, Spirou & Fantasio sneak into China to free an American scientist who was held prisoner in a secret facility. However, the Chinese aren't depicted as outright villains, even though they definitely are the antagonists. | |
| Red China / int_304d4028 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_304d4028 | featureConfidence |
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| Spirou & Fantasio (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_304d4028 | |
| Red China / int_31a48e8e | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_31a48e8e | comment |
The Outer Limits (1963): The episode "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" is basically a more overtly science fiction reworking of The Manchurian Candidate, replacing the brainwashing with a serum that makes human flesh pliable. | |
| Red China / int_31a48e8e | featureApplicability |
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| The Outer Limits (1963) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_31a48e8e | |
| Red China / int_33b5c210 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_33b5c210 | comment |
Farewell My Concubine by Chen Kaige features several scenes set during the Cultural Revolution. | |
| Red China / int_33b5c210 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_33b5c210 | featureConfidence |
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| Farewell My Concubine | hasFeature |
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| Red China / int_457b671e | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_457b671e | comment |
24 has Jack Bauer attack the Chinese Consulate in Season Four, where the Consul is shot in the crossfire. At the end of Season Five, Jack is kidnapped by Chinese agents and put on a slow boat to China. He is returned at the beginning of Season Six. | |
| Red China / int_457b671e | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_457b671e | featureConfidence |
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| 24 | hasFeature |
Red China / int_457b671e | |
| Red China / int_46d48eba | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_46d48eba | comment |
The titular antagonist of the James Bond novel Colonel Sun is a master Torture Technician in the People's Liberation Army. | |
| Red China / int_46d48eba | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_46d48eba | featureConfidence |
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| James Bond | hasFeature |
Red China / int_46d48eba | |
| Red China / int_47122b1c | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_47122b1c | comment |
Cold Winter have the hero's sidekick, Kim, who had a past with Red China. As revealed in a flashback circa 1989, the Chinese secret service tries forcing Kim to join their ranks after her brother was arrested for partaking in the 1989 Tiananmen riots; Kim instead kills the recruiter and escapes to the west. | |
| Red China / int_47122b1c | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_47122b1c | featureConfidence |
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| Cold Winter (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_47122b1c | |
| Red China / int_561ec21f | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_561ec21f | comment |
Dreams of Joy, the sequel to Shanghai Girls, takes place during the Great Leap Forward and is about a Chinese-American girl who goes to China to meet her long-lost father. | |
| Red China / int_561ec21f | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_561ec21f | featureConfidence |
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| Shanghai Girls | hasFeature |
Red China / int_561ec21f | |
| Red China / int_59e65a05 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_59e65a05 | comment |
The Manchurian Candidate (and its 1962 film adaptation) revolves around a Red Chinese plot to install a communist puppet president in the White House via a brainwashed assassin. | |
| Red China / int_59e65a05 | featureApplicability |
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| The Manchurian Candidate | hasFeature |
Red China / int_59e65a05 | |
| Red China / int_5ada53ed | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_5ada53ed | comment |
James Bond: Goldfinger is of the first type. The Chicoms are clearly bankrolling Goldfinger's plan to break into Fort Knox, having also provided the nuclear bomb he's planning to detonate. In You Only Live Twice, Blofeld is implied to be working for Red China. In The Man with the Golden Gun, China is implied to be the Greater-Scope Villain to the main villains... in fact the evil lair is located in Red Chinese waters. Tomorrow Never Dies is probably the only Bond film thus far which uses the Red and Rich version of the trope. To be sure, China exists as a possible enemy, but agent Wai Lin and Bond never really discuss or debate politics, and they do collaborate to uncover the evil plan of the week. Both China and the UK were being manipulated into war by a third party, and in the end the villain was exposed, his own forces destroyed, and everyone just went home. |
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| Red China / int_5ada53ed | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_5ada53ed | featureConfidence |
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| James Bond | hasFeature |
Red China / int_5ada53ed | |
| Red China / int_5ee88417 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_5ee88417 | comment |
China Blue is a documentary about the working conditions in China's textile industry. | |
| Red China / int_5ee88417 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_5ee88417 | featureConfidence |
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| ChinaBlue | hasFeature |
Red China / int_5ee88417 | |
| Red China / int_64dbb72f | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_64dbb72f | comment |
In The Man with the Golden Gun, China is implied to be the Greater-Scope Villain to the main villains... in fact the evil lair is located in Red Chinese waters. | |
| Red China / int_64dbb72f | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_64dbb72f | featureConfidence |
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| The Man with the Golden Gun | hasFeature |
Red China / int_64dbb72f | |
| Red China / int_6a4bddd6 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_6a4bddd6 | comment |
The original founding story of Iron Man. Modern adaptations tend to update it to Afghanistan or somewhere in the Middle East. | |
| Red China / int_6a4bddd6 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_6a4bddd6 | featureConfidence |
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| Iron Man (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_6a4bddd6 | |
| Red China / int_812165e3 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_812165e3 | comment |
China is one of the foreign powers in Tropico 4. It buys canned fish and pineapple, corn, goat cheese, llama wool, and cars. It likes you more if you have an open doors immigration policy, low liberty, and bad relations with the USSR. The benefits of good relations are cheaper luxury goods, increased commodity prices of canned goods, and the ability to ask for development aid in the form of 100 immigrants. | |
| Red China / int_812165e3 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_812165e3 | featureConfidence |
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| Tropico (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_812165e3 | |
| Red China / int_8a56bef5 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_8a56bef5 | comment |
Played with in Les Innommables: the Chinese Communists are depicted as utterly merciless and depraved, but the main character's love interest is a fanatically loyal Communist agent. And the other sides aren't depicted in a much more favorable light either. | |
| Red China / int_8a56bef5 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_8a56bef5 | featureConfidence |
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| Les Innommables (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_8a56bef5 | |
| Red China / int_8e8086c3 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_8e8086c3 | comment |
Goldfinger is of the first type. The Chicoms are clearly bankrolling Goldfinger's plan to break into Fort Knox, having also provided the nuclear bomb he's planning to detonate. | |
| Red China / int_8e8086c3 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_8e8086c3 | featureConfidence |
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| Goldfinger | hasFeature |
Red China / int_8e8086c3 | |
| Red China / int_95226eb6 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_95226eb6 | comment |
Cyberpunk: Red China is still there, but in this version Deng's reforms led to increasing tensions between Deng's reformists and Maoist hardliners, which eventually led to a civil war. By 2013, the nation has basically returned to the "Warlord Era" of the early 1920s. All the power players are still nominally Communist, but differ on how Communist they want to be. | |
| Red China / int_95226eb6 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_95226eb6 | featureConfidence |
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| Cyberpunk (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_95226eb6 | |
| Red China / int_996edf24 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_996edf24 | comment |
Wonder Woman: The mind-boggling weirdness that is the original version of Egg-Fu. | |
| Red China / int_996edf24 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_996edf24 | featureConfidence |
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| Wonder Woman (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_996edf24 | |
| Red China / int_b008ce44 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_b008ce44 | comment |
The second half of Durian Durian is set in northeastern China. | |
| Red China / int_b008ce44 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_b008ce44 | featureConfidence |
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| Durian Durian | hasFeature |
Red China / int_b008ce44 | |
| Red China / int_b50cc7e6 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_b50cc7e6 | comment |
The Missing Link, their own equivalent of The Incredible Hulk | |
| Red China / int_b50cc7e6 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_b50cc7e6 | featureConfidence |
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| The Incredible Hulk (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_b50cc7e6 | |
| Red China / int_b5ab36eb | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_b5ab36eb | comment |
In You Only Live Twice, Blofeld is implied to be working for Red China. | |
| Red China / int_b5ab36eb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Red China / int_b5ab36eb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| You Only Live Twice | hasFeature |
Red China / int_b5ab36eb | |
| Red China / int_cac20f89 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_cac20f89 | comment |
JAG: In the two-part episode "Dog Robber", a U.S. reconnaissance plane has to make an emergency landing in mainland China. | |
| Red China / int_cac20f89 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_cac20f89 | featureConfidence |
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| JAG | hasFeature |
Red China / int_cac20f89 | |
| Red China / int_d37ed654 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_d37ed654 | comment |
To Live by Yu Hua (later adapted to film by Zhang Yimou) depicts the vicissitudes of an ordinary family from the 1930s to the 1980s. | |
| Red China / int_d37ed654 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_d37ed654 | featureConfidence |
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| To Live | hasFeature |
Red China / int_d37ed654 | |
| Red China / int_df64a221 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_df64a221 | comment |
One of the factions you can work for in Mercenaries and its sequel. However, which category the Chinese faction falls into is never really specified, as they seem to take a vaguely nationalistic stance, if anything. However, they support the populist and presumably Marxist La Résistance and are willing to butt heads with the West, so the first form is at least implied. | |
| Red China / int_df64a221 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_df64a221 | featureConfidence |
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| Mercenaries (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_df64a221 | |
| Red China / int_f26c58d6 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_f26c58d6 | comment |
Receive a cursory mention in World in Conflict when you are told Red China has entered the war on the same side as the Soviet Union, with the Chinese army on its way to Seattle. Best not to think too hard about how the late 1980s Chinese army intended to accomplish that. | |
| Red China / int_f26c58d6 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_f26c58d6 | featureConfidence |
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| World in Conflict (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Red China / int_f26c58d6 | |
| Red China / int_faea2e0 | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_faea2e0 | comment |
Tomorrow Never Dies is probably the only Bond film thus far which uses the Red and Rich version of the trope. To be sure, China exists as a possible enemy, but agent Wai Lin and Bond never really discuss or debate politics, and they do collaborate to uncover the evil plan of the week. Both China and the UK were being manipulated into war by a third party, and in the end the villain was exposed, his own forces destroyed, and everyone just went home. | |
| Red China / int_faea2e0 | featureApplicability |
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| Red China / int_faea2e0 | featureConfidence |
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| Tomorrow Never Dies | hasFeature |
Red China / int_faea2e0 | |
| Red China / int_fc95bd6b | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_fc95bd6b | comment |
The Last Emperor sets its Framing Device during this period. | |
| Red China / int_fc95bd6b | featureApplicability |
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| The Last Emperor | hasFeature |
Red China / int_fc95bd6b | |
| Red China / int_fe94578f | type |
Red China | |
| Red China / int_fe94578f | comment |
In the Alex Rider series, Red China is briefly implied to have been The Man Behind the Man (or at least one of) in regard to Herod Sayle, though it turns out that it was Scorpia. | |
| Red China / int_fe94578f | featureApplicability |
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| Alex Rider | hasFeature |
Red China / int_fe94578f |
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