Hong Kong’s film censors have been instructed to begin censoring films on national security grounds, making the city’s vaunted film industry the latest victim of spreading political censorship under the Hong Kong...
Portions of a reunion episode of the American sitcom Friends were censored for Chinese audiences this past week. Friends was once wildly popular: grassroots subtitling groups translated episodes into Chinese and many fans...
Chloé Zhao made history on Sunday as the first woman of color to win an Oscar for best director. Her film “Nomadland” also took the top prize as the 2021 best picture. But in China, the country of Zhao’s birth,...
Since the beginning of this year, popular short-video social media app Douyin has been reportedly punishing users for “flaunting wealth” in their videos on the platform. That crackdown came to a head this week after...
The term “historical nihilism”—which has long been used to label accounts that challenge Party-approved orthodoxy—is again back in headlines and official crosshairs with the launch of a hotline allowing people to report those...
Over the weekend, an extended essay about Wuhan’s observation of the 2021 Qingming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Day) received considerable attention on Chinese social media. Weaving together painful memories from last...
Speaking at the Herstory conference this March as part of Chengdu’s Women’s Month, prominent women’s rights activist Xiao Meili shared the story of her 2,000km protest walk from Beijing to Guangzhou to raise...
After making history at the beginning of this month by becoming the first Asian woman to win best director for her movie “Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao was initially showered with praise from Chinese state media. That was...
Last April, Weibo user “Marilyn Monroe” (@玛丽莲梦六) wrote a widely-shared post of vignettes from the Wuhan lockdown. The user reported that they were “asked to tea” soon after the post went viral, and later disappeared. Now they...
Nobody was surprised when Clubhouse, the viral app on which Chinese users shared their unfiltered views with global audiences, was blocked in China. Users had widely anticipated that Clubhouse would have to die. But the sudden...
A growing number of voices are calling for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. While discussion among Western countries about a boycott has circulated for months, voices in favor of a boycott have grown stronger in...
Under Xi Jinping, China has launched aggressive religious “sinicization” campaigns that have affected the constitutionally protected freedom to religious belief of many in China. Members of China’s ethnic minority groups...
This year’s CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala, the massively popular annual variety show aired since 1983, included blackfaced dancers in a performance titled “African Song and Dance,” alongside belly dancers, flamenco...
Volunteer subtitle groups that translate uncensored American television shows and films are highly popular in China. Yet the future of one of the largest and most popular subtitling sites, Renren Yingshi, is murky after police...
Five years after his arrest on charges of inciting separatism, Tashi Wangchuk, an advocate for Tibetan-language education, has been released from prison. He attempted to use legal avenues to reinstitute Tibetan-language...
Weibo users this week hurled ridicule at a call from the Chinese Ministry of Education’s to prevent the “feminization” of boys by encouraging schools to hire more male gym teachers. The Ministry of Education’s statement was a...
The CDT Censorship Digest is a monthly round-up of censored speech, propaganda developments, and rights defense in China, compiled and written by CDT Chinese editors. We have selected, translated, and adapted relevant and...
A new album from a Mandopop superstar is raising awareness of domestic abuse in China at a time when a series of brutal recent news stories have sparked widespread public outrage over endemic violence against women in the...
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