But there was none of the fanfare that had been visible behind the Great Firewall after the film won a Golden Globe in February. According to a commentary in the Global Times, which has close ties to ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpiece the People's Daily, "people learned of her previous interview in which she made inappropriate remarks on China. Opinions about her changed."
The paper blamed a chill in the bilateral relationship between Beijing and Washington, which it said was "squeezing the room for cultural exchanges between peoples from the two countries." It then dismissed Nomadland, a movie about van-dwellers, as "typically American and far from the real life of the Chinese people." The editorial also appeared to call on Zhao to toe the party line and become a more active advocate for the CCP overseas.
