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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Catherine Shoard

Anger in Hong Kong as Arrival poster shifts Shanghai landmark to city

Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl Tower looms large in both these posters for Arrival, but the one on the left uses a Hong Kong harbour backdrop.
Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl Tower looms large in both these posters for Arrival, but the one on the left uses a Hong Kong harbour backdrop

A Shanghai landmark has become part of Hong Kong’s skyline – at least in a poster for an forthcoming Hollywood movie.

The misplacement, transplanting the Oriental Pearl tower from the Chinese city to Hong Kong’s Victoria harbour, has sparked anger among Hong Kongers, some of whom read a political message behind it.

Many Facebook users employing the hashtag #HongKongIsNotChina expressed their ire at the error on the film’s official page, despite Paramount swiftly apologising for the error and deleting the poster.

The studio blamed a third-party vendor who had created the poster, leading some Facebook users to intimate that the vendor was likely pushing their own political agenda, rather than being sloppy on Photoshop.

Arrival trailer: Amy Adams makes first contact with aliens

The poster was one of 12 released this week by the company depicting various landmarks with the tagline: “Why are they here?” The film stars Amy Adams as a linguist trying to communicate with aliens, following their invasion of Earth. It premieres at this year’s Venice film festival.

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