Image Credit: ABC
HBO should cross China off its list of potential markets for Game of Thrones.
The Chinese government’s State Administration of Radio Film and Television has issued new entertainment guidelines discouraging TV writers from creating shows about “fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories…”
So much for all Syfy channel shows. Not to mention shows like Lost, Fringe, Star Trek and Camelot. Seems the rule may have been prompted by writers annoying the government by telling historical stories that deviated from the official version of Chinese history and — oh, wait. There’s more banned content on the list.
According to CNN, the China authorities are also nixing “… bizarre plots, absurd techniques, propagating feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation.”
Now “Bizarre plots” and “absurd techniques” takes a lot of the broadcast shows off the market too. I mean, Patrick Jane’s absurd mentalism techniques cannot possibly trick all those murderers into confessing, and Dr. House certainly uses plenty of odd techniques that would probably never work in real life. But who wants to see people solving crimes and healing patients the boring ‘ol normal way? As far as “bizarre plots,” all of Fox’s animated shows and South Park are bizarre, when you think about it. Though I suspect U.S. writers could be OK with leaving out content that’s “propagating feudal suspicions.”
What? There’s more on the list?
The Chinese government is also nixing: “…ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking.”
Well, there goes every show I watch.
Why don’t they just ban television while they’re at it…?
Has Palin called for an invasion yet?
Nah, she’d be FOR the ban, since these kind of shows require actual thinking and not just parroting what someone else tells you to think and believe.
Don’t worry. They have our manufacturing jobs to keep them occupied.
Darn. My SUV time machine is going to that much harder to sell on craigslist
War is peace! Slavery is freedom! Ignorance is strength!
@James Hibberd:
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(First of all, no hatred here, James) I’m not suffering the Palin Syndrome but, to begin with, I don’t think my neighboring CHINA is ALLEGEDLY “THAT” controlling. Matter-of-factly, it seems you are subjectively reporting this based on virtually none but those secondhand quotations or even further ones; for instance, you wrote, “Not to mention shows like Lost, Fringe, Star Trek and Camelot.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but you were NOT reporting facts (i.e. they banning these shows?); you were just thinking out loud your personal opinions and carelessly offering some instances in random, based on the preceding secondhand quotation, “fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories…,” which per se has proven in a sense TOO GENERIC a set of words, not to mention without giving any examples. CHINESE movies and other forms of amusements — not only those produced in HK — are rich of history-based tales, folklores, legends, etc., all of which also have been based so well educationally and entertainingly upon the so-called FANTASY, TIME-TRAVEL, MYTHICAL STORIES.
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Some people must have been missing a link (e.g. lost in translation, subjective info, etc.)
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This is the same thing as the case of the recent disastrous earthquake events mainly occurred in certain prefectures in ONLY one region in JAPAN, by the light of which people in some Western countries in particular, ignorantly went, ‘LEAVE “JAPAN”. . .”JAPAN” is not safe. . . It’s too dangerous. . . etc.’
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IMO, some foreign news networks “themselves” in general were many a time ironically reporting but the so-called fantasies and misrepresented information, etc. Some journalists in the Western countries – “I swear by the moon and the stars in the sky. . .” – even make the best account (sales) executives in the world blush.
Well, I guess when you’re communist dictatorship you can make whatever dumb-as* law you want.
Like banning happy meal toys.
They’re not a dictatorship. They’re an authoritarian regime. At least they have an excuse for their dumb laws. We have no excuse for some of ours.
newspeak?
Yay for communism!
So, basically, all they can watch is ‘Full House’. Although Joey Gladstone, the unofficial uncle, is pretty bizarre.. And morally ambiguous. Lol
Haha! But it does fall under absurd. Poor Asians, we guess no tv for them
So all Asians live in China or fall under Chinese rule? BTW, why is this news on an US entertainment site?
It’s important because it affects sales of US tv shows. And the loss of freedom of expression affects us all. A lot of “American” tv shows are shot in Canada, should we never discuss them here then?
They can watch Felicity (not the last season).
wow
FB, Twitter, YouTube are already banned there for the longest time…
they’re list is just getting longer…
really a tough country to live in…
So basically they’re banning any kind of escapism fantasy which would highlight the disparity to their actual stringent, dismal society.
Nice.
This is really bad.
No Doctor Who in China! bleh.
That alone is sacrilege.
That was my first thought. What will there be left to watch?
That was my first thought too! How unfortnate for them…
And my first thought as well! So many sad sad pandas…..
and according to Looking for superman their suppose to be the better country then us
Anyone who thinks China is a better place to live than America has no understanding whatsoever of communism, nor any clue about just how precious freedom and liberty are.
Yeah freedom and liberty abound here; nevermind that certain political factions are trying to legislate it away.
And America is up to it’s eyeballs in debt to China; good thing we’ve got this whole capitalism thing figured out. It’s not like our economy has been toppled and the nation is being defrauded by the financial sector…
Go Cheery!!
No Doctor Who, I guess.
Well, cross China off the bucket list. No desire to go there amymore
Ah. Remember when America was all “Communism! Bad!”??? Now, I can’t buy anything without seeing a “Made in China” stamp. Good thing they have our economy to fuel their tyranny.
china is still a dictatorial communist state, no matter how it refer itself as some sort of republic or embracing capitalism, it really is still a country with no civil rights (they do pretend like they have) and the big brother government practice all kinds of brainwashing and censorship to control its people. very sad and pathetic really. what’s more sad is that many of the people who never left china doesn’t know what they’ve been missing because their censored life is all they’ve known (even the internet is controlled)…to us, shocking, but they probably don’t even notice.