Chloe Zhao's Oscar win censored by Chinese social media

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"Nomadland" director Chloe Zhao became the first Asian woman and only the second woman in history to take home the Oscar for Best Director at Sunday's 93rd Academy Awards. But you wouldn't know it if you were scrolling through Chinese media.

Congratulations poured in for Zhao on social networks, but by Monday, nearly all of those posts had been removed. Further, Chinese search engines Baidu and Sogou had little coverage on the Oscars at all.

China Central Television, the Xinhua News Agency, or the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily, all appeared to have ignored Zhao's win. The Global Times, a news site owned by People’s Daily, posted an op-ed that acknowledged the director's win, but went on to criticize both the 39-year-old director and the film.

"We hope she can become more and more mature," The Times writes of Zhao. "In an era when the China-US confrontation is intensifying, she can play a mediating role in the two societies and avoid being a friction point. She cannot escape her special label, and she should actively use it."

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Of "Nomadland," the Times describes it as "typically American and far from the real life of the Chinese people." "Nomadland" centers on a woman in her sixties who, "after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad," as described on IMBD.

China's censorship of Zhao's historic achievement may be in relation to a 2013 interview Zhao granted to the New York-based Filmmaker Magazine. In the interview, Zhao reportedly said of China, "there are lies everywhere," a quote which has since been deleted. Because of that years-old remark and another in which she said the U.S. is "my country now," Zhao was called a "traitor" after taking home the Golden Globe earlier this year.

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"Nomadland" had an impressive Sunday night, however. In addition to Zhao's Best Director win, Frances McDormand also took home the award for Best Actress and the film got the biggest prize of the night, Best Picture.

China has long been criticized for its heavily censored web. 

"China under Xi Jinping has been shutting out the rest of the world. It’s basically a closing of the Chinese mind because Xi does not like foreign influences," author Gordon Chang told Fox News in February after banning BBC News from broadcasting in the country. 

"As China cuts itself off from the rest of the world, it’s not going to get the benefit of communicating with other people. Everyone benefits from talking with others, and societies that cut themselves off end up usually strangling themselves."