Hong Kong’s national security purge shows no signs of slowing down, two and a half years after Beijing’s National Security Law was forced through the territory’s legislature. The government’s latest legal pursuits have targeted...
Discontented with the ending of “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” during which the titular supervillain Gru and his partner-in-crime Wild Knuckles escape arrest alongside three yellow bean-shaped minions, China’s censors gave it...
Over two years after the National Security Law went into effect, government censorship continues to stifle free expression in Hong Kong. Authorities have recently taken measures to conceal from the public various books, films,...
In recent weeks, Tibet-focused media outlets have reported that Tsewang Norbu, a popular young singer, died after self-immolating in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa. CDT was unable to independently confirm the reports and...
A heavily censored version of the American sitcom “Friends” has been released across Chinese streaming platforms, eliciting derision and despair from millions of fans who fell in love with the original, un-cut version of the...
Tencent’s streaming service has restored the original ending of “Fight Club”—undoing their own cuts after facing widespread international and domestic ridicule over their edit to the 1999 cult classic. Earlier...
On November 27, Kiwi Chow Kwun-wai’s “Revolution of Our Times” was crowned best documentary film at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Festival. The award provided a moment of celebration for the film’s subjects, the millions of Hong...
In the 404 Files podcast (404档案馆), CDT Chinese tells multimedia stories of censorship and circumvention in China. The following is a translation of the transcript of Episode 36, released on October 27, a deep dive into why films...
Liang Yongping, founder of the video subtitling group and streaming site YYeTs Renren Yingshi (人人影视), was given a hefty fine and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for piracy. He was arrested in February along with 13 others. The...
On Tuesday, five former students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) were each sentenced to almost five years in prison for their involvement in protests against the National Security Law in November 2019. One of the...
Marvel blockbuster “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” has not yet been released in China, despite starring Hong Kong megastar Tony Leung and featuring extensive Mandarin dialogue. It is unclear why the movie has not...
One of China’s most famous actresses has been summarily wiped from the internet as part of a “clean up” campaign aimed at celebrity culture. Zhao Wei, who starred in the über-popular TV drama “My Fair Princess,”...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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