In April, China’s Global Times chided overseas media for oversimplifying and exaggerating new guidelines against time travel dramas from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Following the announcement of new and much broader regulations, however, the English-language version has published an op-ed vigorously attacking SARFT for stifling program-makers’ creativity:
There’s no doubt of the influence TV, video games and online content has on people. But can we really blame a TV show involving desperate single men and women finding dates on the moral decay of our society? Are we to understand that the reason people turn a blind eye to car accident victims is because they have been watching too much China’s Got Talent …?
Have the regulators ever considered the possibility that the reason there are too many similar shows is because creativity has been restricted? Afraid of breaking the rules, producers just follow the bland yet safe and successful route of copying others.
What if Michelangelo was told he couldn’t make nude sculptures, or if Michael Jackson was banned from performing because of his crotch-grabbing antics? China just isn’t a country where outlandish thinking or creativity is encouraged. As for plans to emulate a genius of the late Steve Jobs’ caliber in China? Good luck with that.
