Like a town marshal determined to nip trouble in the bud, China’s main film distributor rode into the country’s movie theaters on Thursday and took out Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” before it could get its gun out of its holster.

“Django,” the story of an American slave-turned-bounty hunter who cuts a bloody swath through the antebellum South in an attempt to free his wife, was set to premiere in China Thursday morning. But it was pulled at the last minute after China Film Group, the film’s government-controlled importer, issued a notice instructing theaters to stop showing it.

[...]The movie had already begun showing in some places when the orders arrived. One Chinese fan of Mr. Tarantino’s, 27-year-old photographer Xue Yutao, said he had just sat down to watch a 10:15 a.m. showing of “Django” when the lights suddenly came on.

“About a minute after the film started, several people in suits came in and the film stopped,” he said, adding that the theater apologized and offered them refunds. “At first we were shocked and didn’t know what to do, but then we all laughed at how ridiculous it was.”

Whether or not screenings will resume in China is uncertain. The Guardian tells of official and speculated reasons why the film was pulled from theaters, and the adjustments already made to prepare for China’s tight media regulations:

Media authorities claimed the Quentin Tarantino film, scheduled for release on Thursday, had been postponed for “technical reasons”, but unofficial news websites reported that the real reason was a scene showing full-frontal male nudity.

[...]Tarantino, Django Unchained’s director, had already reined in the movie’s gore for the Chinese market, retouching footage to tone down the colour and bloodshed.

[...]Many online commenters were perplexed by the cancellations because the film had passed China’s notoriously opaque pre-screening censorship process. Censors’ “cutting hands are fiercer than that of a slaveowner, insistent on making Django a eunuch”, wrote one, according to Agence France Presse.

Off Beat China translates netizen commentary showing frustrated suspicion that the film was pulled due to nudity:

One netizen 桃桃林林小淘淘 commented: “Some people don’t have balls, so they cannot tolerate the thought that other people have. I guess that all penis scenes will be cut before the movie is allowed to be shown again.” Netizen imomad thought the same: “Everyone at the censor body is a Taijian (royal servants in China’s history who need to be castrated before taking the job). They don’t have, so others’ must be cut. Or maybe they are intimidated by Django’s size because their own have shrunk due to overuse.” Another netizen 影评老大爷暗夜骑士 commented: “In this hypocritical country, the corrupt and the rich can have group sex parties, and yet the ordinary people aren’t allowed to see a penis.”

Even Hu Xijin, chief editor of mouthpiece Global Times, thought it was a stupid move: “The showing of Django Unchained was stopped abruptly. The action itself does more harm to the country than a few uncut ‘harmful scenes.’ China’s current system lacks people who dare to speak out the truth on sensitive issues to prevent inappropriate policies from being made. Maybe the system doesn’t encourage such people. Absurd policies are everywhere. The government’s credibility among its people is what at cost.”

Even after being edited to satisfy Chinese censors, the film was set to run its marathon 165 minutes, unlike Cloud Atlas and Skyfall, which both saw significant portions cut before opening in China earlier this year. Hollywood has been increasing efforts to reach the Chinese market by catering to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), China’s media regulator. The Washington Times looks at Tarantino’s taming of Django (and other recent examples) to show the contradiction between Hollywood’s flaunting of free-speech ethics at home and its desire to tap into China’s burgeoning market:

“For an industry that promotes free expression and alleged liberal values to work with totalitarian government that is the antithesis of the values we hold dear as Americans is in many ways a hypocrisy,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.

“They often mask what they do with other values such as the First Amendment, but if indeed they are working with China’s censors, then obviously they don’t believe in those values,” said Fitton.

[...]“The censoring of content is simply ‘good business’ as far as the studios are concerned,” said Stephen Tropiano, an associate professor of screen studies at Ithaca College and author of Obscene, Indecent, Immoral and Offensive: 100+ Years of Censored, Banned, and Controversial Films.

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According to the plan, the Ministry of Railways, which has long been at the center of controversy for being both a railway service provider and a railway industry watchdog, will be broken up into administrative and commercial arms.

[…] Other ministries and commissions to see a reshuffle are the Health Ministry and the National Population and Family Planning Commission, which will be merged into a new National Health and Family Planning Commission.

The status of the existing State Food and Drug Administration will be elevated to a general administration in order to improve food and drug safety.

The country’s top oceanic administration will be restructured to bring its maritime law enforcement forces, currently scattered throughout different ministries and departments, under the unified management of a single administration.

The National Energy Administration will be restructured to streamline the administrative and regulatory systems of the energy sector.

Two media regulators, the General Administration of Press and Publication and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, will be merged into a single entity to oversee the country’s press, publication, radio, film and television sectors.

At the Associated Press, Louise Watt outlined the reasoning behind the changes:

This time, the streamlining plan includes guidelines to restrict and better define the central government’s responsibilities, limiting its issuing of permits for projects, the setting of standards and other policies that have slowed decision-making.

“Departments of the State Council are now focusing too much on micro issues. We should attend to our duties and must not meddle in what is not in our business,” Ma Kai, secretary-general of the State Council, or Cabinet, told the legislators. He said that overlapping government functions has often led to buck-passing.

[…] The public has been complaining about government inefficiency and for that reason “we should dare to push ahead with cracking the tough nut of structural reform,” the state-run Jinghua Daily quoted Wang Feng, an official in the Communist Party office involved in drafting the reform program.

But Wang Xiangwei cautioned at the South China Morning Post last week that the rearrangements could bring their own problems:

Some analysts, including Wang Yukai , a professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance under the State Council, told state media that five super ministries created under reform measures in 2008 produced mixed results. Indeed, how to force the bigger ministries to deregulate and decentralise may prove to be an even more arduous task for Li in years to come.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is the earliest example of a super ministry. It was formed in 2003 and evolved from the State Planning Commission, a key ministry in the days of the planned economy.

Its purpose is to draft national economic and social development plans and undertake various economic reforms. But in reality, it has become a super powerful ministry with broad regulatory powers covering all the major industries.

Some cynics argue that it has been the biggest stumbling block to structural reforms.

The Economist (via CDT) also argued recently that “super-sized” ministries might fail to deliver promised benefits.

Bloomberg News examined the restructuring of responsibility for China’s maritime security, which comes after an alleged radar-lock incident raised questions about Beijing and Tokyo’s grip on events around the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.

The State Oceanic Administration will oversee the coast guard, fisheries law-enforcement and the smuggling police, which now fall under separate ministries, a report to the National People’s Congress, the country’s legislature, said yesterday. The administration also has a law enforcement arm.

The decision signals that China wants to better organize its maritime assets as it wrangles with Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam in territorial disputes. The U.S. has expressed concern that an accident or miscommunication could lead that sparring to escalate further.

“The recent tension has convinced the central authorities to better coordinate those agencies,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, head of the department of government and international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. “There’s been growing concern among observes including foreign governments about whether those agencies were coordinated or not. We have evidence that they are not.”

At The Wall Street Journal, Colum Murphy described the break-up of the colossal railway ministry, which currently employs over two million people, runs its own police force and courts, and oversees spending greater than China’s official military budget.

Currently, the ministry both regulates and operates China’s rail system, which has made for a murky structure and impeded both competition and financing.

[…] Under the new blueprint, the Ministry of Transport will absorb administrative duties including overseeing technology and safety standards and service and railway-project quality. A new entity, China Railway Corp., will focus on operational and commercial areas such as management of freight and passenger business as well as railway construction. Given the ministry’s problems, such a move was widely expected.

[…] “The large railway system is critical to China’s economy—and will become even more so with the economy’s shift from coastal areas inland,” said Gerald Ollivier, senior transport specialist with the World Bank, adding that the current multiplicity of roles at the ministry creates “some conflicting objectives.”

Assessments of the restructuring’s likely implications for family planning were somewhat divided. One source quoted by Michael Martina and Sui-Lee Wee at Reuters stressed continuity:

A recently retired official from the Family Planning Commission who maintains close ties with the agency, said the merger does not mean the commission’s power will be reduced.

“For such a long time, hundreds of millions of people had to have contraception and birth control, this kind of work is necessary. But it’s possible that there will be fewer things done by force,” the retired official said.

But some other observers argued that the changes herald the end of China’s ‘One Child Policy’, whose harsh enforcement and demographic effects have grown increasingly contentious. From Laurie Burkitt at The Wall Street Journal:

While the family planning agency will still exist, merging with the Ministry of Health, leaders have preserved it merely as a face-saving measure, said Wang Feng, a population expert and director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy in Beijing. “The way to interpret this is that the laws are in effect, but the judges and the policemen have all been fired,” Mr. Wang said.

Cheng Li, a political expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., said, “This is a signal to an end of a policy that in reality isn’t in line with China’s other reforms.”

[… But] “The family planning and one-child policy has been running for so many years, and it is in the constitution as state policy,” said Li Jianxin, a population expert from Peking University. “So I guess it might not be this easy for the new leaders to just simply put an end to it.”

Though their anticipated absorption by the Ministry of Culture did not materialize, two major media regulators are to merge. But the China Copyright and Media blog cautioned that halving the number of organs was unlikely to mean less intervention:

[…] As had been anticipated, the General Administration of Press and Publications and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television will merge into a new body, the State Administration of Press, Publications, Radio, Film and Television (guojia xinwen chuban guangbo dianying dianshi zongju 国家新闻出版广播电影电视总局). The National Copyright Administration, a subordinate department of GAPP, will also be brought into the SAPPRFT, an unfortunate moniker if ever there was one. […]

It should not be expected, however, that this merger will lead to any form of liberalization or deregulation. It is likely that cultural and media policy will remain in line with the Central Committee Decision on Cultural Reform of late 2011, which aimed to combine commercial success with enhanced political control. Also, problems of administrative overlap and dual licensing remain, particularly in the field of Internet management, as the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology maintain their respective Internet portfolios.

Or, more succinctly:

China’s new ministry: State Administration of Press Publication Radio Film and Television.Netizen: too long, but we know you’ll cut it!

— Kai-Fu Lee (@kaifulee) March 10, 2013

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The ministerial-level body, due to be approved within days at the annual session of the National People’s Congress, will follow the example of the US Food and Drug Administration.

It will integrate regulation and law enforcement in one agency.

[…] Despite numerous nationwide crackdowns, consumer confidence in the mainland’s food and drug industry has been shattered. The current system is tangled in red tape, with up to 13 government agencies controlling food and drug regulation and supervision.

The industrial and commerce authority, for example, is responsible for packaging, while the Ministry of Health handles food safety standards.

The Ministry of Agriculture steps in if animals are involved.

Academics and food safety watchdogs have long complained that the numerous agencies create blind spots and overlaps of power that contribute to the chaos.

Super-sized ministries may not fulfill their promised efficiency gains, however, as The Economist (via CDT) recently explained.

The structure of Chinese food production is also highly fragmented. Here, too, consolidation seems likely, as huge numbers of small-scale suppliers give way to a much smaller number of industrial-scale farms. While big agribusiness can bring its own problems, this trend is expected to greatly simplify food production chains and ease monitoring and enforcement of food safety.

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On Weibo, a kind of Chinese Twitter, I recently made a joking comparison between media censorship and the pervasive threat of contaminated food, a constant source of worry:

“There’s no end to these food scares,” a friend sighed. “Is there any hope of a solution?”

“Oh, all we need is for food inspections to be as forceful as film censorship,” I told him breezily. “With all that faultfinding and nit-picking, food-safety issues will be resolved in no time.”

More than 12,000 readers reposted this. One wrote: I know what we should do. Let’s have those in charge of film, newspaper and book censorship take over food safety, and have those responsible for food safety censor films, papers and books. That way we’ll have food safety — and freedom of expression as well!

The unpredictable whims of film censors at the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television have been blamed for wrecking China’s Oscar chances, and even state media have carried calls for a more consistent and codified approach. SARFT has been extending its reach to cover online video and require pre-vetting of TV documentaries, however, and Hollywood productions increasingly subject themselves to its censorship in exchange for access to Chinese funding and theaters. Meanwhile, the country has witnessed a seemingly endless stream of food safety problems, most recently cadmium-tainted rice.

Yu’s op-ed was translated by Allan H. Barr, who commented on his translations of Yu Hua and Han Han in an interview at Pomona College’s website (via CDT) in December. See more on Yu Hua via CDT.

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The new policy, which comes into effect immediately, stipulates that all television documentaries for public broadcast, produced by television stations, commercial studios and social organizations, should submit a content summary, cast list and shooting plan to SARFT before filming starts.

SARFT will then review all the information and publish the approved list of documentaries to TV stations. According to the announcement, the purpose of the new policy is to avoid subjects overlapping and resources being wasted.

[…] “I don’t know why they made this policy. Imagine the huge number of documentaries China produces each year, I doubt if they have enough manpower to fulfill this task. It’s almost mission impossible to carry out this policy,” Shu Haolun, professor at the School of Film and Television Arts of Shanghai University, told the Global Times.

[…] “Many documentaries involve sensitive topics which might upset the government. Now they can more easily reject such story ideas through this policy which I think harms our freedom of speech,” the CEO of an independent film production, who asked not to be named, told the Global Times.

The SARFT-unapproved but Oscar-shortlisted documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry will be shown on P.B.S. tonight (Monday, February 25th).

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As Oscar fever grows around the world with the 85th Academy Awards set to begin in Los Angeles just hours from now, excitement is building in China, even though it has no films in competition. There is also a sense of frustration here about why China’s movies aren’t nominated for the world’s biggest awards?

[…] The most popular answer to the question, held by ordinary Chinese and film experts alike, is: “Too few good films. That’s the real reason in recent years Chinese films have moved further and further away from the Oscars dream,” wrote The International Herald Leader newspaper, in a story carried on the country’s popular Tencent entertainment site.

An article by The Economic Daily, carried on People’s Daily Web site, gave another interpretation: “The Oscars have never been a communal forum, the films taken seriously have only the responsibility to portray the North American world view and the lives they’re willing to see.”

The Oscars’ presence in China is almost as thin as China’s at the Oscars, according to The Los Angeles Times’ Barbara Demick. Only one of this year’s Best Picture nominee has so far reached Chinese theaters: Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, which as a co-production with China enjoyed exemption from tight import quotas in exchange for compliance with the whims of the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television.

As for Oscar viewing parties? Unimaginable. The ceremony, which begins at 9:30 a.m. Monday in China, will be broadcast only in much-redacted form hours later by state-owned CCTV. (Last year, it didn’t air until 10:40 p.m. Monday.) […]

[…] “Nobody even has the live stream in China,” complained Raymond Zhou, film critic for the English-language China Daily. “The government won’t allow it. They are afraid somebody will say something against China.”

Chinese television used to broadcast the ceremony live, but stopped after Richard Gere, as a presenter in 1993, called on then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to remove troops from Tibet.

“The Chinese translators didn’t know what to do, so they just tried to ignore the sentences. After that, they were afraid of the Oscars,” said Wu Renchu, a Shanghai film critic. “It is regrettable. There are many Chinese movie fans, students and white-collar workers who really would like to watch the ceremonies.”

[Update: CCTV6's M1905.com (via Bill Bishop) is streaming the awards ceremony.]

Gere’s outspokenness earned him a twenty-year ban from the awards, ending tonight with a musical performance to mark Chicago‘s six-Oscar haul in 2003. “Apparently, I’ve been rehabilitated,” he told HuffPost UK. “It seems if you stay around long enough, they forget they’ve banned you.” Despite this punishment, Gere became a symbol of Hollywood’s defiance of Chinese authoritarianism, before hunger for Chinese funding and market access made this a disposable luxury. From Damien Ma at Foreign Policy:

In Hollywood in the 1990s, China was an oppressive place. Red Corner opens with Gere gazing up at security cameras in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, ground zero of the infamous bloodshed of early June, 1989, seared into many Americans’ memories. Brad Pitt, too, had been blacklisted from China, ostensibly for starring in the 1997 feature Seven Years in Tibet, in which his character becomes friends with the young Dalai Lama.

[… But t]he era in which China could still be a menacing villain and stir political passions from the Spielbergs and the Geres appears to be ending. Even Brangelina are reportedly studying Mandarin. And the political drama surrounding disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, ripe for Hollywoodification, will never see the light of day. Too bad, because the Bo Ultimatum is the Chinese Godfather waiting to be made. As Hollywood gathers for its biggest awards night Sunday, the industry seems to be biting its tongue. After all, the future, as Jeff Daniels quips in Looper, is in China.

From The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos:

[… T]hese days, Hollywood directors find themselves in the curious position of being more compliant than some of their Chinese counterparts. When censors ordered the Chinese director Lou Ye to make additional cuts to his movie “Mystery” just over a month before the film’s release date, Lou took the unusual steps of publicly tweeting the censors’ demands and then removing his name from the credits. Online, he explained his decision to break the taboo of discussing censorship in the hope that the system would “become more transparent and eventually be cancelled.” He was not willing to comply in silence. “We are all responsible for this unreasonable movie-censorship program,” he wrote.

[…] By comparison, Hollywood has been less vocal on the subject of censorship. When James Cameron released “Titanic” in 3-D last year—having agreed to censor Kate Winslet’s breasts—the Times asked him about the compromises of working in China. He said, “As an artist, I’m always against censorship… [But] this is an important market for me. And so I’m going to do what’s necessary to continue having this be an important market for my films. And I’m going to play by the rules that are internal to this market. Because you have to. You know, I can stomp my feet and hold my breath but I’m not going to change people’s minds that way.”

Transparency might be a more constructive approach than either foot-stomping or meek compliance. While there may be no end in sight for Chinese film censorship, Osnos suggests that the industry could formally and publicly catalogue cuts made at SARFT’s behest. Lou’s defiance, meanwhile, together with changes recently imposed on imports such as Cloud Atlas and Skyfall, has prompted calls for a more codified and less capriciously restrictive system. From Kristie Lu Stout at CNN:

[…] Lu Chuan is calling for change in the censorship system, hoping that Chinese filmmakers can be governed less by guesswork and more by a transparent rating system.

Lu says there must be change for the sake of his craft and also because his audience demands it.

“In an American movie, you can blow up the White House. We cannot blow up (Tiananmen) Square. It’s different. But the audience wants to see a lot of exciting visual things. So I think the leadership will think about that.”

He’s asking for the freedom to film China’s own “Independence Day,” the freedom to blow up anything without fear of political blowback.

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The original film, based on the novel of the same name, spanned 172-minutes long for European and American markets but was cut to just 137 for its mainland version, according to the film’s directors.

[…] “Although the mainland version is a bit constrained, [we] fully believe in the regulator’s editing standards,” said Cloud Atlas co-director Tom Tykwer, who was in Beijing on Tuesday to promote the movie ahead of its January 31 release.

[…] Material deleted mainly comprised of love scenes, gory sequences and nudity. A number of same-sex love scenes between actors Ben Whishaw and James D’Arcy were also cut from the film due to the Sarft’s strict ban on homosexual content.

Details of changes to the latest Bond film, Skyfall, also emerged last week following its belated Beijing premiere. While The Atlantic’s Matt Schiavenza dismissed the edits as “little more than a government tailoring a popular film for its audience“, Xinhua reported that the altered film had prompted calls for a less capricious censorship process:

Shi Chuan, a professor from Shanghai University’s school of film & TV arts and technology, proposed the enaction of relevant laws and the establishment of norms for movie censors to follow.

[…] “Movie regulators should respect the producers’ original ideas, rather than chopping scenes arbitrarily,” Shi said.

However, he said that he believes the censorship system is necessary for China’s film industry.

[…] During an annual session of China’s political advisory body held in March last year, Yin Li, vice chairman of the China Film Association, said Chinese film-making faces too many restrictions regarding sensitive topics such as public security, diplomacy, ethnic minorities and religion.

“I hope China can offer more freedom to film-makers so that a more favorable environment can be created for the country’s movie industry,” Yin said.

While money from the mainland has attracted attention recently, SCMP’s Vivienne Chow wrote that Cloud Atlas‘ financing suggests a role for Hong Kong in the global film industry:

According to veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Philip Lee, an executive producer of Cloud Atlas responsible for its fund-raising in Asia, Hong Kong has a unique edge in film financing, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Hong Kong is the Asian financial centre and has a long history in filmmaking. With more collaboration with foreign projects or companies, knowing how to find the right match is very important, and Hong Kong has the expertise,” says Lee, who served as an associate producer of the international hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and a line producer for Batman film The Dark Knight during its filming in Hong Kong.

[…] “The mainland certainly has capital, but can they find the right people? Not necessarily. Hong Kong can be more active in bridging this gap,” [Media Asia's head of distribution Ricky Tse Chi-keung] says.

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[…] Paramount Pictures just learned the hard way that some things won’t pass muster — like American fighter pilots in dogfights with MIGs. The studio months ago submitted a new 3-D version of “Top Gun” to Chinese censors. The ensuing silence was finally recognized as rejection.

(“Political disapproval?” wondered the Times’ Edward Wong. “Or just good taste?”)

Mr. Cohen’s “Mummy” film, which was shot throughout China in 2007, was a historical fantasy about an evil emperor who is magically resurrected by foreign adventurers in 1946. The script was preapproved by China’s censorship board with only token changes — the emperor’s name had to be fictionalized, for instance. The censors also cautioned that the ancient ruler should not resemble Mao Zedong.

In a 2011 Web post, Robert Cain, a producer and consultant who guides filmmakers through China’s system, described having worked in Shanghai on a romantic comedy that went off script; the director included a take in which an extra, holding a camcorder, pretended to be a theater patron taping a movie on a screen.

The next day, Mr. Cain and others involved with the film were summoned to the office of a Communist Party member who told them the film was being shut down for its “naïve” and “untruthful” portrayal of film piracy. Assuming they had been reported by a spy on their crew, the producers apologized and managed to keep the film on track.

As tricky as dealing with SARFT may be for foreigners, it is all the more so for Chinese filmmakers. Last year, director Lou Ye described the tortuous process of securing approval for Mystery, a film he ultimately disowned in protest.

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But in the last few years, more and more filmmakers like Yang have been trying to carve out a new middle ground: They are developing scripts for art house-style movies that can win a “dragon seal” (Chinese censors’ official stamp of endorsement). As the number of these government-approved indie films grows, a nascent Chinese industry — production houses and exhibitors — is emerging to support them.

The trend is not without its detractors, who fret that a new generation of filmmakers may be sacrificing its artistic integrity. But Yang and others say independent filmmaking in China can be broader than just underground cinema.

While non-dragon seal films can be sold only overseas or online, Yang said applying for a dragon seal, so that a film can be screened domestically, does not necessarily mean making a deal with the devil.

Among members of the younger generation, though, there seems to be an expectation — perhaps naive, perhaps practical — that they will simply hop back and forth between the two worlds of dragon seal and underground independent film with little conflict.

Indie films in China continue to run into trouble with the government with the power outages earlier this year at the Beijing Independent Film Festival. While the “dragon seal” is available for filmmakers, other filmmakers, such as Lou Ye, have taken a more confrontational approach when dealing with government censorship.

See also “Devils on the Doorstep”: Film Censorship Up Close, via CDT.

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The delay points to a central quandary regarding culture in China today. Officials want to impress the world with its richness, but they also want to manage it as they have managed the economy, and this constant meddling leaves culture in a deeply uncomfortable place, suspended between genuine creativity and political correctness, between greatness and mediocrity.

In film, weak ideas, often because of political restraints and bowdlerized scripts, and delayed openings because of lengthy censorship are weakening the ability of Chinese directors to attract audiences. As foreign imports increase, people are voting with their feet and domestic movies are slipping financially.

[...]

To try to change that, film bureaucrats said last week that the National Film Development Fund would return its 5 percent cut of box office takings to theaters that show more domestic films, in a kind of reward.

Yet in a sign of what officials really intend, at the same news conference, Sun Zhijun, deputy head of the party’s Propaganda Department, said: “Some media organizations and people believe that deepening the cultural reform is for the purposes of making the culture an industry and wholly market-based. This is not true.”

In an accompanying blog post, Tatlow writes about the difficulties of parsing out why censors choose to restrict one film over another. For more on how State Administration on Radio, Film, and Television censors films, see the text of a decision to censor the 2000 film Devils on the Doorstep, via CDT.

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The translations are by Rogier Creemers of China Copyright and Media.

26 August 2005

(1) Close news trackers on “Anti-Corruption: More than 10,000 Leading Cadres Actively Handed Over More than 60 Million Yuan in Cash, Etc.” Existing ones are to be deleted, it is not to be discussed.

(2) Search websites, if there are articles such as “North Korea’s Fall-out with China,” these are to be deleted.

23 August 2005

Heading: Corpse of Old Person Discovered Exposed on Hospital Roof, Ten Days After Hospitalization (Images), the content of this article is about an incident of a violent struggle between the hospital and relatives after an old person died in Xi’an Gaoxin Hospital. This incident may not be reported, if discovered, immediately delete it!!

22 August 2005

Everyone, a small number of people in Meishan Town, Changxing, Zhejiang used the masses’ emotions of appealing to enterprises to protect the environment, and took advantage to create a mass disturbance, at present, the situation has already calmed down. It is only permitted to reprint Xinhua copy, forums and other interactive columns may also not disseminate or play up this matter. Our websites do not have news qualifications, no channel may disseminate this news, please immediately delete this when examining and verifying matters.

18 August 2005

Gong Xiantian’s “Open Letter on the ‘Property Law’ (Draft)” may not be reprinted by any website without exception. Concerning “Li Datong’s Open Letter on the China Youth Daily’s New Assessment Methods to Editor-in-chief Li Erliang and the Editorial Committee” and corresponding content inspection of forums must be strengthened, and relevant information timely blocked and deleted.

13 August 2005

The incident of the Heilongjiang Higher Procuratorate Director’s suicide may not be reported.

13 August 2005

Phoenix Net issued three articles on the 11th, with the respective titles: (1) Japan and the U.S. Plan to Use Military Exercises to Probe China and Encircle China’s March to the Oceans; (2) Japan Blocks China’s Gas Exploration in the East China Sea, Related Persons Point Out China and Japan May Come to Blows Within the Year; (3) Chinese Ex-diplomat in Japan: China and Japan May Come to Blows Within the Year Because of the East China Sea Dispute. Content corresponding to this and netizen discussion must be deleted without exception.

11 August 2005

“China’s Ten Worst Cities,” this article is pure foreign fabrication, and is to be deleted without exception.

The article “SARFT Notice concerning Further Strengthening Radio and Television Channel Management” must be deleted.

7 August 2005

Concerning the mass attack on the Huangshi Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government building that took place in Huangshi City, Hubei Province, networks may not report without exception, corresponding information on forums is to be deleted without exception.

2 August 2005

(1) Online information related to demobilized military personnel. (Information referring to treatment and corresponding demobilization systems must be deleted.)

(2) Domestic online information concerning hotspots and commentaries that shareholders pay attention to, as well as information concerning inciting and arousing netizens to conduct rallies and demonstrations. (Apart from incitement of rallies and demonstrations, it is permitted to not delete this.)

(3) Online matters related to Japan, activities and trends of organizations and individuals to protect the Diaoyu Islands. (Where language is radical and destructive to the Sino-Japanese relationship.)

(4) Online information related to rights defense and petitioning by workers and peasants. (To be deleted where the cause of the matter is related to the government.)

(5) Online information on activities concerning Tibetan independence and Xinjiang independence, East Turkestanists planning terror activities during the 50th anniversary celebrations. (All pieces containing this information are to be deleted.)

(6) Online information concerning network real-name systems. (Maintain the positive side, delete the negative side.)

(7) Online interest paid to information concerning the Sichuan illness that has no clear cause. (Do not manage the past, delete the pieces maliciously playing this up this week.)

(8) Foreign websites’ attention paid to peasant land rights defense at the South China Sea, as well as the level of domestic attention. (Those clashing with the government are to be deleted, others are provisionally not to be deleted, but must be reported.)

(9) Online information related to unemployed laborers’ rights defense as well as the issue of the Three Rurals.

2005年8月北京网管办发出的禁令

2005-8-26

1：关闭《反腐：万余领导干部主动上交现金等6000余万元》一文的新闻跟贴。原有的删除，论坛中不讨论。

2：搜索网站,如有”朝鲜对中国翻脸”相关文章做删除处理.
2005-8-23

标题：老人住院十日后被发现暴尸于医院天台 [组图] ，此文章内容是一老人死于西安高新医院后发生的医院和家属的暴力纠纷事件。此事件不准报，发现即删！！
2005-8-22

各位，浙江长兴煤山镇少数人利用群众最企业环保诉求情绪，趁机聚众闹事一事，目前事态已经平息．只许转载新华社通稿，论坛等互动栏目亦不得传播炒作此事。我们网站没有新闻资质，任何频道不转转载此新闻，请审核时看到立即删除！
2005-8-15

巩献田关于《物权法（草案）》公开信》各网站一律不得传播。《李大同就中国青年报新的考评办法致李而亮总编辑并编委会的公开信》及相关内容，要加强对论坛的检查，及时封堵和删除有关信息。

2005-8-13

黑龙江高检检察长自杀事件，不准报。
2005-8-13

凤凰网11日发了三篇稿子，标题分别为：1、日美拟借军演试探中国围堵中国走向海洋 2、日阻华东海采气 相关人士指出中日年内或动武 3、中国前驻日外交官：中日年内或因东海纷争动武。与此相关的内容及网友讨论一律删除.
2005-8-11

“中国十大最差城市”此文纯属境外造假，一律删除。

“广电总局关于进一步加强广播电视频道管理的通知”一文要删除。
2005-8-7

关于湖北省黄石市发生群众冲击黄石市委市政府大楼的事件，网站一律不报，论坛中相关信息一律删除。
2005-8-2

1.网上有关复转军人的相关信息。（提到待遇和相关复转制度的要删）

2.境内网上股民关注热点、评论以及煽动、鼓动网民进行集会、游行的相关信息。(除煽动集会游行外可不删)

3.网上涉日、保钓组织、人员的活动动向。(言词激进的破坏中日关系的）

4.网上有关工人、农民维权、上访的相关信息。（事情原因与政府有关系的删）

5.网上藏独、疆独活动信息，东突分子策划50周年大庆之际进行恐怖活动。(凡有与此信息的删除）

6.网上关于网络实名制的相关信息。（正面保留，负面的删）

7.网上对于四川不明原因疾病相关信息的关注。（以前不管，对于这周的恶意炒作的删）

8.境外网站对南海农民土地维权问题的关注，以及境内网的关注程度。(与政府相冲突的删，其他先不删，但要上报）

9.网上有关下岗工人维权以及三农问题的相关信息。

These translated directives were first posted by Rogier Creemers on China Copyright and Media on November 10, 2012 (here).

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-corruption, Beijing, Beijing Internet Instructions, censorship, Censorship Vault, china youth daily, diaoyu islands, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, east china sea, environment, Gong Xiantian, Heilongjiang, Hubei, Internet censorship, Japan, lands rights, Li Datong, Li Erliang, Ministry of Truth, North Korea, phoenix, rights defense, SARFT, Sichuan, Tibet, xian, Xinhua, Xinjiang, Zhejiang
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The SARFT decision, written in 2000 when the movie was released, offers a rare glimpse into the decision-making process of SARFT, which is responsible for overseeing and censoring the content of movies released in China. It explains in detail, almost scene by scene, the reasons for banning the movie.

On his blog China Copyright and Media, Rogier Creemers has translated the full document. From Creemers’ introduction:

Normally, censorship decisions are not made public, and their content is only revealed by reference in interviews with filmmakers. However, this document provides an insight into some of SARFT’s methods and priorities.

The most important part of the verdict relates to the portrayal of Chinese villagers and Japanese soldiers against the background of the Second World War, or, using the Chinese term, the War to Resist Japan. Throughout, SARFT takes the film to task for incorrect depictions of the nature of the Chinese people. An old grandfather should not be shown as being sympathetic to a young Chinese soldier, it is deemed incorrect that the villagers care for the Japanese soldier and the Chinese traitor (汉奸 hanjian), or that they indicate that they haven’t really suffered under the occupation. When the Japanese soldier imagines being attacked by the villagers, he imagines them as Samurai. However, SARFT feels that what he should feel most are “the armies resisting Japan, such as the Eighth Route Army or guerrilla forces”. Imagining villagers as samurai “uglifies the Chinese people”. In short, in this film, the “common Chinese people” do not show sufficient hatred towards the Japanese, do not sufficiently differentiate between foe and friend, and display ignorance and apathy. At the same time, according to SARFT, the film does not correctly display the cruelty of the Japanese army but, amongst others, shows a Japanese soldier giving sweets to children. Also, “Japanese army songs are played often, putting a spin on the Japanese imperialists flaunting their strength, which may gravely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”

A smaller issue comes at the end of the film, where a Guomindang general declares that only the Guomindang can legally accept the surrender of Japanese troops. Again, this does not fit in official CCP historiography and is therefore beyond the pale.

Lastly, there are a few issues of obscenity and language. A sex scene between Ma Dasan and his lover Yu’er is deemed to “bring about strong, harmful sensual stimulation to people.” A scene in which the villagers’ pack donkey gets aroused by a Japanese army donkey is described as vulgar and boring.

The full translation is on China Copyright and Media.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: arts censorship, film censorship, Jiang Wen, SARFT
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Yesterday, Weibo user @EddeLovesFantasy (@Edde爱空想) posted a text image of this directive (available from Weibo and CDT Chinese) apparently issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) to “hotels serving foreigners” (涉外宾馆), which must be formally approved for this designation by the National Tourism Administration:

Notice Concerning International Satellite Television Channels Which Hotels Serving Foreigners and Similar Work Units May Apply to Receive

On February 18, SARFT issued this Notice Concerning International Satellite Television Channels Which Hotels Serving Foreigners and Similar Work Units May Apply to Receive (SARFT Order No. 27) to every province, autonomous region and direct-controlled municipality. The notice concerning international satellite television channels which hotels serving foreigners rated three stars and above and similar work units may apply to provide during 2012 is as follows:

The following 33 international satellite television channels, approved in 2008, remain available to hotels serving foreigners rated three stars and above and similar work units to apply to provide:

(1) CNN
(2) HBO
(3) Cinemax Asia
(4) CNBC Asia Pacific
(5) MTV Mandarin
(6) National Geographic Channel Asia
(7) Star Movies International
(8) Channel V
(9) AXN
(10) Discovery Asia
(11) Hallmark
(12) BBC World
(13) NHK World Premium
(14) Phoenix Movies Channel
(15) Phoenix Television
(16) TVB8
(17) TVB Xing He
(18) NOW TV
(19) Australia Satellite Chinese (澳洲卫视中文台)
(20) Phoenix Infonews Channel
(21) Bloomberg
(22) Xing Kong Wei Shi
(23) Euro Sports News
(24) CETV
(25) Horizon Channel
(26) Sun TV
(27) Celestial Movies
(28) Channel NewsAsia
(29) TV5 Monde
(30) Cuba Vision International
(31) KBS WORLD
(32) ESPN
(33) Star Sports

Approval of the channels listed above remains in effect from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012. During this period, the 33 above-mentioned international satellite television channels will be transmitted via encoded signals (Asia-Pacific Satellite 6, 134 degrees east longitude). China International Television Corporation (CITVC) is the sole agent concerned with transmission issues and provides unified, fixed-orientation access to the SARFT international satellite television channel decoder. All domestic hotels serving foreigners rated three stars and above and similar work units approved through examination or annual inspection for an international satellite television program license by the film and television broadcast administration bureau of its respective province, autonomous region or direct-controlled municipality are limited to carrying to above-mentioned 33 items, and the signal source they receive is limited to the SARFT international satellite television channel.

Read more about SARFT and media censorship in China from CDT.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, SARFT, satellite TV, TV, weibo
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Over twenty days from September 8 to 26, Lou tweeted his negotiation process with SARFT [the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television]. At one point, Lou tweeted,

“I’m waiting for an answer: Can the film be released on time without any changes, yes or no? The answer is so simple but so difficult–[the process] makes me feel disappointed and sad, but I also feel a sense of understanding and support. China’s domestic film industry needs everyone to work together. I totally accept the fact that I’m a director in the age of film censorship. I just want a dialogue [with the authorities], and a dialogue is not a confrontation. There are no winners and losers in a dialogue. There are no enemies.”

[…] Lou’s exposure of the inner workings of China’s film censorship process and bold gesture attracted support from other filmmakers, artists, and average netizens in China. Another director named Zhang Jiangnan (@张江南导演) commented, “Every time I looked at my films after censorship, I thought about removing my name, but I can never be as resolute as Lou Ye. I keep a ‘director’s cut’ for myself to make me feel better. To tell the truth, it’s about getting used to eating [expletive]…” A film critic named Han Houye (@韩浩月) commented, “Lou’s removal of his name as director is like a hunger strike on the street.”

See more on SARFT and censorship via CDT, including a speech by writer Murong Xuecun on the “absurdities” of Chinese censorship.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: directors, film censorship, film industry, Lou Ye, SARFT, sina weibo
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维稳 (wéiwěn): maintain stability

A local official admonishes the policeman, “It must be stabilized!” The roots of the tree of social stability are “the welfare of the people.”

Hand-in-hand with Hu Jintao’s policy to promote “a harmonious society” is an increasing focus on “maintaining stability.” According to the New York Times, the Chinese government budgeted US$111 billion for social stability maintenance in 2012, US$5 billion more than the military budget.

Netizens have their own take on stability maintenance. For example:

When Titanic was first shown on the mainland in 1998, the scene where a naked Rose let Jack sketch her was left alone. Then why was that scene deleted from 2012 screenings? The State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) has finally provided an explanation: “Considering the unique aspects of 3-D movies, we were concerned that when the movie is shown members of the audience would try to reach out and touch, which would result in unnecessary disputes with those seated in front of them. Given our concerns about maintaining stability, we have decided to delete this scene.”

1998年大陆上映的【泰坦尼克号】保留了Rose裸身让Jack作画的情节，而2012年上映时为何被删除？近日广电总局终于 对此给出了解释：“考虑到3D电影的特殊性，总局担心，播放该片段时可能出现观众试图伸手触摸而打到前排观众的头，造成不必要的纠纷。出于维稳考虑，决定 删除此片段。”

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, harmonious society, Hu Jintao, netizens, propaganda, SARFT, stability maintenance, Titanic, word of the week
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