While the whole world loves Keanu Reeves, China has just ‘canceled’ him and removed all his movies from streaming platforms. Just as you read it, the government of this country decided to remove the productions where the famous Hollywood actor appears after he supported a public event in Tibet in early 2022.
According to the Los Angeles Times, so far China has removed 19 of Reeves’ films from the Tencent Video platform, and although it did not delete Toy Story 4, a film where the actor gave his voice to give life to one of the animated characters, it did delete his name in the credits.
But why did they take this extreme measure and cancel the beloved Keanu Reeves?
Why was Keanu Reeves ‘canceled’ in China?
It turns out that the Matrix star attended the 35th edition of the Annual Tibet House Benefit Concert along with Cyndi Lauper, Iggy Pop, and Laurie Anderson, among other celebrities, and then some nationalists protested on social networks for such action since China is against Tibetan independence.
Therefore, after his appearance at the event, his image, his tapes, and even his name were completely vetoed.
Since this controversy began in January 2022, Reeves has not stopped being boycotted in the eastern country to the extent of being removed from Chinese platforms and not reflecting good box office sales numbers after the theatrical release of the film The Matrix: Resurrections.
In addition to Tencent Video, some of the platforms that have disappeared from the actor’s productions are Youku, Migu, Bilibili, Xigua Video, and iQiyi.
The event attended by Keanu Reeves was organized by the Tibet House in the United States, a non-profit organization founded at the request of the Dalai Lama to preserve the culture of Tibet after China’s invasion in 1950.
The problem is that, on the one hand, the Chinese government says that the intervention of Tibet only brought the liberation of the people of the territory, and on the other hand, the Tibetan government says that it is suffering cultural colonization by China.
Story originally published in Cultura Colectiva