Twitter Gets Salty Thanking Matt Damon For Saving China In ‘The Great Wall’

The Great Wall — starring Matt Damon as a European mercenary looking for gunpowder in medieval China who becomes embroiled in a fight against CGI monsters (totally based on a true story, right) — is in theaters today. The film rose hackles months ago when people suspected whitewashing, like when Exodus was filled with white Egyptians, Emma Stone played an Asian character in Aloha, Tilda Swinton played The Ancient One, or Scarlett Johansson played the Major.

But, as director Zhang Yimou clarified, Damon is playing one of five heroes, four of whom are Chinese and one of whom (Damon) was always written as a white European. That said, it would still be easy to accuse the film of being yet another story where people of color somehow need a white guy to save them. To be fair, The Great Wall is a movie about fighting CGI monsters, but it’s easy pickings to make fun of a film which appears at first glance to be yet another self-serious “white savior” movie.

With that in mind, Twitter got extra salty about the white savior trope on Thursday with #ThankYouMattDamon, a hashtag dedicated to thanking Matt Damon for his many contributions to China and to the entire East Asian population. We’ve collected some of our favorite tweets below.

— Melissa K. (@melissjk) February 16, 2017

Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson are my favorite Asian couple. #ThankYouMattDamon

— Andrew Nguyen (@andrewnguyening) February 16, 2017

Matt Damon taught me how to use chopsticks. #thankyoumattdamon

— Jenny Yang (@jennyyangtv) February 16, 2017

Matt Damon is my favorite anime character. #ThankYouMattDamon

— Andrew Nguyen (@andrewnguyening) February 16, 2017

Matt Damon hates it when you're all like "no, but where is your FAMILY from" #thankyoumattdamon

— Miya Hirabayashi (@heytheremiya) February 16, 2017

#ThankYouMattDamon for the best performance in a puppet movie! pic.twitter.com/WVaasQVh6R

— Tanju Yesilkaya (@TanjuTweet) February 16, 2017

Matt Damon invented the paper placemats that explain the Chinese Zodiac. #ThankYouMattDamon

— Angry Asian Man (@angryasianman) February 16, 2017

Matt Damon introduced noodles to the Europeans #thankyoumattdamon

— Teresa Wang (@tewang32) February 16, 2017

Putting the Asian in Caucasian #ThankYouMattDamon

— Paul Tanner (@Paul_Tanner_) February 17, 2017

Matt Damon fought over the check with my ancestors to pay for dinner #ThankYouMattDamon

— YK Hong (@ykhong) February 16, 2017

#ThankYouMattDamon for telling me how to write "WHITE SAVIOR" in Chinese for my new Chinese tattoo.

— Kristina Wong ❄️ (@mskristinawong) February 16, 2017

I named my son after an ancient Chinese folk hero, Matt Damon. #ThankYouMattDamon

— David Lo Pun-ch Nazi (@helpmeskeletor) February 17, 2017

#ThankYouMattDamon for not being @BenAffleck

— Fabian Sanchez (@Mordecai5280) February 16, 2017

When you don't need to say anything about a certain movie because Asian Twitter did it already with #ThankYouMattDamon pic.twitter.com/0hN5Mx6sVD

— The Red Housewife (@TheRedHouseWife) February 16, 2017