{"id":702797,"date":"2024-11-28T00:08:47","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T08:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=702797"},"modified":"2024-11-28T00:08:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T08:08:47","slug":"online-censorship-about-lou-ye-geng-jun-films-winning-awards-at-61st-taipei-golden-horse-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2024\/11\/online-censorship-about-lou-ye-geng-jun-films-winning-awards-at-61st-taipei-golden-horse-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Censorship About Lou Ye, Geng Jun Films Winning Awards at 61st Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

A banner year for Chinese films and filmmakers at the 61st Taipei Golden Horse Awards<\/a> has attracted much attention on Chinese social media, despite strict ongoing censorship of any topic connected to the awards. This year\u2019s Golden Horse Award winners, announced on November 23, include Best Narrative Feature and Best Director for Lou Ye\u2019s \u201cAn Unfinished Film<\/a>,\u201d a work of docu-fiction about a film crew caught up in the COVID pandemic lockdown of Wuhan<\/a>; Best Leading Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the Audience Choice Award for \u201cBel Ami<\/a>,\u201d Geng Jun\u2019s LGBTQ+-themed black comedy<\/a>; and Best Adapted Screenplay for Wang Xiaoshuai\u2019s \u201cAbove the Dust<\/a>,\u201d a coming-of-age film that casts a critical eye on events in PRC history<\/a> (including 1950s land reform, the Great Leap Forward, and the massive famine that ensued).<\/p>\n

Chinese actors and films have technically been banned from participating in the Golden Horse Awards<\/a> since 2019, after a 2018 award-ceremony speech in which Taiwanese director Fu Yue expressed her wish for Taiwan to be treated as \u201can independent entity.\u201d Despite this restriction, films from China (including some co-produced films) made up over 200 of this year\u2019s record-high 718 Golden Horse Film Festival submissions from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Malaysia.<\/p>\n

A recent CDT Chinese post notes that the film review site Douban has scrubbed any mention of the Golden Horse Awards or award winners from the site, and Weibo search results for "Golden Horse Awards" (\u91d1\u9a6c\u5956, J\u012bn M\u01ce Ji\u01ceng<\/em>) are restricted to content posted by certified \u201cblue V\u201d accounts. Despite this, some articles about the awards that omitted or altered director names and film titles are still circulating online<\/a>. For example, an article from WeChat account \u201cSuper-Sauce Movie Paradise\u201d (\u8d85\u9171\u7684\u7535\u5f71\u5929\u5802, Ch\u0101o Ji\u00e0ng de Di\u00e0ny\u01d0ng Ti\u0101nt\u00e1ng<\/em>) managed to escape censorship by employing some extensive linguistic sleight-of-hand:<\/p>\n