This week, the Chinese government granted Crazy Rich Asians a theatrical release in China for later this fall , ending speculation that the movies depiction of ostentatious consumption and ultra-wealthy families in Singapore, as well as its focus on Chinese diasporic communities, might not fly with government censors.

As the first major studio Hollywood movie with a majority-Asian cast in a quarter-century, the romantic comedy was a landmark for Asian representation in the United States. Crazy Rich Asians based on Kevin Kwans book about the drama that ensues when Rachel Chu, a Chinese-American woman, meets her boyfriend Nick Youngs fabulously rich Singaporean family has wildly exceeded expectations and smashed U.S. box office records since its release in August, helping to further dispel the Hollywood myth that movies about people of color dont perform well financially.

Yet according to Chinese cultural scholars and observers, the films success is no sure thing in China, increasingly a target for Hollywood executives as the worlds second-biggest market for moviegoers .

What resonated with U.S. audiences might not resonate with Chinese audiences. The thrill Asian-Americans felt at being represented on screen at all, for instance, might well be supplanted in China by questions about the quality of the representation.

For Chinese people, its more like eating General Tsos chicken , said Afra Wang, co-host of Loud Murmurs, a Chinese-language podcast about U.S. pop culture. In other words, Chinese audiences might think the film is too Americanized and views Asia through an outsider or exotic lens.

After Crazy Rich Asians landed release dates in other parts of Asia, the movies fate in China seemed uncertain, given the governments censorship policies and its annual quota for foreign movies released in Chinese theaters.

Earlier this summer, some speculated that the Chinese government had denied the release of Disneys Christopher Robin because social media users have used Winnie the Pooh as a symbol to mock the countrys president, Xi Jinping.

Its hard to know whether politics really factored into that decision, according to Manya Koetse, the Beijing-based editor-in-chief of the site Whats on Weibo , which covers social media trends in China.

The reasons behind this will all remain behind the curtains, she wrote in an email, noting that some movies get delayed or are directly released to Chinese streaming services. Christopher Robin might be released anyway, Koetse said.