China’s Ban on ‘The Great Dictator’

Curious news was coming out of China’s wartime capital of Chongqing in the summer of 1941. Charlie Chaplin’s famous movie “The Great Dictator” had been banned in Chinese theaters, allegedly in order not to upset the German government, which was upset about the film’s blatant lampooning of dictator Adolf Hitler.

This might seem somewhat contradictory, since Germany was an ally of China’s enemy Japan, but it did make some sense. In the murky world of wartime diplomacy, it wasn’t always the case that “my enemy’s friend is my enemy.” Rather, he might be a go-between, which was a role Germany had assumed previously during the war between China and Japan.

China’s ambivalent attitude towards Germany didn’t last for long, though. In July 1941, China broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, and in December of the same year, China declared war on Germany.

Even though discreet contacts continued between Chinese and German diplomats and agents in places such as Switzerland, there was no longer a need to keep “The Great Dictator” from Chinese movie-goers. It became a huge success in first Chongqing and then the city of Chengdu and was shown so many times that the film was eventually destroyed, and a new copy had to be flown in from India.

Categories: Media, War

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