China’s media harmonization goes a step further. From AP:
In an order posted on its Web site, China’s General Administration of Press and Publication said all existing products were to be pulled off the market and all hints of horror and the occult had to be removed from anything currently in production. It gave no details on how the crackdown would be enforced.
The horror, violence and cruelty portrayed are extremely harmful to the psychological development of children, it said in a statement posted late Wednesday.
In a country where B-level horror movies (恐怖片) from Japan and Korea dominate the shelves of cheap video shops, reaction to the new law promises to be less than pleased.
One commentator, writing on a Yunnan Provincial Government website [Chinese], has argued that, following the same logic, the government will have to ban the epic tale “Journey to the West” (origin of the famed Monkey King) because it contains non-human characters that might scare children.
[Image: Poster for the Chinese horror movie ‘Suffocation’ (窒息), via Baidu]
