As Far as China Is Concerned, Keanu Reeves No Longer Exists

'It's no longer possible to watch any content starring Keanu Reeves in China,' reports PC Magazine, 'and searching for his name returns no results from search engines.'

The AV Club explains:
Earlier this year, about a month after the release of The Matrix Resurrections, Reeves was announced as a performer at the 35th annual Tibet House Benefit Concert. The concert was organized by Tibet House, a nonprofit founded by supporters of the Dalai Lama that Chinese authorities have labeled 'a separatist organization advocating for Tibetan independence,' according to The Hollywood Reporter....

Now, after his appearance at the show, it's being reported by the Los Angeles Times that the Matrix movies, Speed, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Lake House, and more films from the actor's catalog can no longer be streamed on platforms such as Tencent Video, Youku, and Migu Video.... The one Reeves picture that is still up and available to stream in the country is Toy Story 4 — but that's because the film's credits feature the dubbing cast, not the original cast from the American release.

But it's more than that, notes PC Magazine:
As Reuters reports, the Chinese authorities have seemingly wiped the actor's existence from servers across the country.... And with the internet being so restricted and controlled there, it's relatively simple for those in power to digitally disappear someone. So far, Tencent and iQiyi have removed at least 19 of the actor's movies from their streaming platforms, and performing a search for either his English name or its Chinese translation will return zero results from search engines, apparently.

The Los Angeles Times supplies some context:

The development emerged just after his latest film 'The Matrix: Resurrections' became the first blockbuster to hit Chinese theaters in over two months, ending an unusually prolonged drought of censorship approvals on U.S. titles in a year of rising geopolitical tensions and a further cooling of relations with Hollywood.... 'It's a curious case that's worth following. We tend to think of the censorship machine in China as this really coordinated monster, but the fact that we're seeing these conflicting signals [between the online and theatrical markets] suggests that some of these measures come from different places,' said Alex Yu, a researcher at China Digital Times, a U.S.-based news organization that translates and archives content censored in China.
It's unclear who ordered the deletions, China's regulatory agencies or platforms acting proactively to remove potentially troublesome content, Yu said.... 'Why all of a sudden did they decide to take this measure at this exact moment? It's a question we as outsiders might never be able to answer,' Yu said. 'The system is so opaque that it's pretty much impossible to pinpoint which agency or person is responsible....'

The ban on Reeves' past works bodes poorly for the China prospects of his upcoming projects. These include animation 'DC League of Super-Pets,' starring Chinese fan favorite Dwayne Johnson, and the pandemic-delayed sequel 'John Wick: Chapter 4,' which appears to target mainland viewers with its top billing of Donnie Yen, the Hong Kong action star known for his expressions of loyalty to China's ruling Communist Party....

Despite the original trilogy's popularity, 'The Matrix: Resurrections' was a flop in China even before it faced nationalist backlash, grossing only $13.6 million and notching just 5.7 out of 10 on the taste-making ratings platform Douban.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.