From AP, via International Herald Tribune:
When Zhang Yuan released “East Palace, West Palace” in 1996, its bold exploration of the power play between a police officer and a gay man set off alarms among China’s highly sensitive censors. Authorities confiscated his passport to prevent him from promoting the film overseas, and the movie was never shown on the mainland.
A decade later, state-run media lavished praise on the director’s “Little Red Flowers” ” a seemingly innocuous story about a rebellious child at a kindergarten.
So now critics are questioning whether China’s former “underground” directors have compromised their artistic independence for mainstream recognition. [Full Text]
