Are they running out of things to censor now? http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/14/china-bans-time-travel-for-television/?hpt=C2 China bans time travel for television Posted by: CNN.com business producer, Kevin Voigt Hong Kong, China (CNN) – China has been cracking down on dissent of late, as the recent detainment of artist Ai Weiwei suggests. But the latest guidance on television programming from the State Administration of Radio Film and Television in China borders on the surreal – or, rather, an attack against the surreal. New guidelines issued on March 31 discourages plot lines that contain elements of "fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques, even propagating feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation, ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking." “The government says … TV dramas shouldn’t have characters that travel back in time and rewrite history. They say this goes against Chinese heritage,” reports CNN’s Eunice Yoon. “They also say that myth, superstitions and reincarnation are all questionable.” The Chinese censors seem to be especially sensitive these days. But for the television and film industry, such strictures would seem to eliminate any Chinese version of “Star Trek,” “The X-Files,” “Quantum Leap” or “Dr. Who.” And does that mean rebroadcast of huge Hollywood moneymakers like “Back to the Future” and the “Terminator” series are now forbidden? These guidelines will certainly add a creative challenge to Chinese writers, producers and directors. CNN.com’s Dean Irvine wondered how some classic time travel films might be re-imagined minus the time travel:
This is so ridiculous I almost can't believe it. It's so over-the-top I bet this decision gets reversed.
That's clever, that way the time travel movement, with reduced opportunity for media enrichment, will fizzle, and no one there will learn to be able to go back in time to remove the ban on time travel, creating a ... wait a second.
This is kind stupid. Considering Chinese mythology is something their tv and film industry rehash nearly every year. If those get banned, along with crappy Hollywood movies, all that's left will be WW2 movies about fighting off the japanese and nationalists. Oh right...
You people should be grateful. Clearly China is trying their best to protect us from the catastrophic collapse of the fabrics of the space-time continuum that will end the world as we know it. If they don't ban it, you could be banging your own mother before you know it.
I guess the Chinese Govt is saying they don't want the people yearning to go back in time and thwart Mao and communism. They're afraid someone might actually create a machine to go do it?
The weird (or good) thing about China under the CPC is that the country has become so open. When I returned a few years back, it looked nothing like the country I visited in the 90s. You'd think with every passing year, the CPC would transition to a freer country under a state-led capitalist system. But recent rhetoric on HR, trade, the renminibi, and now this makes you think the Party is tightening control again. The country's economic success is partly because of the post-Deng reforms, so why work against that?
I bet this movie had something to do with it. Spoiler This had time travel and random compilation of mythical stories in one crappy package.
