Incidents like this make me start feeling ashamed of our media. I have always thought we had a higher standard as far as responsible journalism is concerned. Since when had CNN gotten down to this level?
You can be ashamed of western media if you want. But please don't do it because this guideline is not law. Do it over something else. This is a story of great complexity. But to capture eyeballs, it (the western media) uses the most extreme aspect of a story and exaggerate the heck out of them. The result is "wow, look at them, how ridiculous and how backward they are". We can elect 20 Obama's, we would still be looked upon very negatively by the third world countries. By the way, those guideline ARE the law until they are no longer the law. SARFT generates those guideline all the time. You better follow them unless you want to get shut down (or unless if you are backed by a powerful politician). But most of these guideline are not made in public. Editors of news stations, web sites, tv stations receive them all the time. Those guideline are usually very vague and convey a sense of limit of what you can't cross. A guideline are effective until the next guideline that covers the same area comes out. But this guideline is different. This guideline is very public. In addition, it is very broad. This guideline is not targeting the western time travel movies. There is a very big power struggle over the future of China right now. One camp believes in "traditional Chinese value" as defined by Carl Marx, Frederich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Chairman Mao, and other early Chinese revolutionaries, while the other believes in the "ancient Chinese value" as defined by Confucius, Mencius, Daoism, and Buddhism. This guideline is an attempt by the "traditional Chinese value" camp to dominate over the "ancient Chinese value" camp. by the way, just look at the description of the guideline: "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.". It basically outlaws all movies and TV series depicting all Chinese stories before the revolution. The other camp has very powerful politicians as well. This guideline can't be carried out completely. But how much this guideline is carried out can give you a sense of which side is winning.
You've been fooled. Try use Google Translation and see what the article is really about. 3月29日，广电总局向各省、自治区、直辖市广播影视局，新疆生产建设兵团广播电视局，中央电视台，解放军总政宣传部艺术局，中 国教育电视台发出《广电总局关于2011年3月全国拍摄制作电视剧备案公示的通知》，通知说,2011年3月，全国电视剧拍摄制 作备案申报公示的剧目共95部、2783集，同意公示的剧目共66部、1961集。 按题材划分，当代题材33部、942集，分别占公示总数的50.0%和48.04%，其中 ，当代军旅题材1部30集，当代都市题材25部744集，当代涉案题材4部93集，当代科幻题材1部35集，当代其它题材2部4 0集。现代题材2部、55 集，分别占公示总数的3.03%和2.8%，其中 ，现代军旅题材1部30集，现代其它题材1部25集。近代题材28部、864集，分别占公示总数的42.42%和44.06%， 其中 ，近代都市题材1部25集，近代传奇题材11部332集，近代革命题材15部477集，近代其它题材1部30集。古代题材3部、 100集，分别占公示总数的4.55%和5.1%，其中 ，古代宫廷题材2部70集，古代武打题材1部30集。批准立项的重大革命题材电视剧目2部、65集 。本月申报的剧目中，因内容或手续不全问题暂不予公示的剧目共29部、822集。 近几个月，全国报备剧目的总体态势是好的，但我们也发现一些不正确的创作苗头：个别申报备案的神怪剧和穿越剧，随意编纂神话 故事，情节怪异离奇，手法荒诞，甚至渲染封建迷信、宿命论和轮回转世，价值取向含混，缺乏积极的思想意义。对此，希望各制作机构 端正创作思想，要弘扬中华民族优秀传统文化，努力提高电视剧的思想艺术质量。 另外，近期申报备案公示的涉案剧数量有所回升。在此提示各制作机构：广电总局2004年以来有关涉案剧制作和播出的管理要求 持续有效，各制作机构在涉案剧创作之初，要审慎考虑市场风险，避免盲目立项投资。 遵照中央精神，为庆祝中国共产党成立90周年，各级电视台要积极筹备，努力推出一批生动再现中国革命、建设和改革开放历史画 卷、真实反映各族人民在党领导下实现民族伟大复兴奋斗历程的优秀作品，为建党90周年献礼。 备案公示剧目表请在总局政府网站电视剧电子政务平台公示专栏中查询。
I don't see a problem with the title. When totalitarian regimes "discourage" behavior that's pretty much a ban on that behavior.
Actually that has been working pretty well. From what I have been seeing incadescent light bulb sales are way down and average fuel economy for cars has gone up.
I wonder about how much this is expressed in the media. From what I have been seeing of Chinese movies is that in the last 10 years there has been a huge interest in ancient China, particularly the Warring States period and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. A lot of this seems driven by the importance of having a unified nation such as in the last part of the movie Hero. Just from my own point of view it seems like the Communist propaganda themes of movies like the East is Red aren't as popular in Chinese media as they were years ago.
I don't think SARFT is stupid enough to think average Chinese can tolerate the East is Red. But if you read the directive posted by KingLeoric (assuming you can read Chinese). The second to the last paragraph is the key. SARFT wants all the production studios to make revolutionary films like the following: http://tv.sohu.com/s2011/xgxg/index.shtml or http://tv.sohu.com/s2011/zjnbsmh/index.shtml Those are modern TV episodes with romance, intrigues, and complicated plots. But in its core, they are still the shows that glorify the revolutionary heroes (just like Saving Private Ryan glorify American ww2 heroes). As far as ancient Chinese shows. You are making the movie Hero clouding your judgement. Those shows regards ancient China are all over the places. Those shows are completely influenced by Taiwan and Hongkong. The subject can be anything. There are virtually no political meaning in them. Any subjects that gets more viewership will be duplicated.
Time travel on TV is neither banned nor dis-encouraged. It was a summary report filled with statistical numbers and some generic "pros" and "cons"; certain TV shows were criticized for using fantasy in a crappy way to make ridiculous and depressing stories. No criticism was directed at "time travel" itself. In fact "time travel" was barely even mentioned. CNN managed to pull a breaking "China bans time travel for television" news out of nothing and made these r****ded readers go "China so evil".
Wow, you have really taken idiocy to the next level. Look, I don't read Chinese. I don't understand written Chinese. So I depend on the English media to find out what is happening around the world. You can say I have been misled by the 'news'. You can even say I have been coaxed into believing a fallacy. But you are an idiot to say I am r****ded because of it.
And I was pointing out that a government recommendation of the things you mentioned actually is consequential.
Don't really want to drag this out much further. Let me give it one more try. The final two paragraphs of the SARFT directive (the real meat of the directive): " 遵照中央精神，为庆祝中国共产党成立90周年，各级电视台要积极筹备，努力推出一批生动再现中国革命、建设和改 革开放历史画 卷、真实反映各族人民在党领导下实现民族伟大复兴奋斗历程的优秀作品，为建党90周年献礼。 备案公示剧目表请在总局政府网站电视剧电子政务平台公示专栏中查询。 " My direct translation: "According to the spirit of the central government, to celebrate the 90th birthday of the founding of Chinese Communist party, all TV stations shall actively prepare and create a group of shows to gleefully recreate China's Communist revolution, rebuilding of new China, and reforming of China. Those excellent shows shall truthfully reflect how people of different ethnicities, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist party, struggles and renews. (All TV stations) shall develop those excellent shows as gifts for the 90th birthday of founding of Chinese Communist Party. " You don't have to believe me. Print out the directives in Chinese and give it to your friends who can read Chinese. Make your own judgement.
If you think about it; some of the things we do like L.A. "banning" fast food resturants probably sounds pretty rediculous to other countries as well.
