Film Censorship in China

Noted Chinese Film Director Feng Xiaogang brought up a taboo subject in a speech when he accepted the honor of director of year from the China Film Directors Guild. A video of the event recorded his speech:

In the past 20 years, every China director faced a great torment and that torment is [beep].

The censored word, as anyone reading Feng's lips can surmise, is censorship. Feng choked up with emotion before he spoke about censorship, and as soon as he did, the attendees in the ball room let out a collective whoa, breaking into applause. Feng continued:

A lot of times when you receive the order [from the censors], it's so ridiculous that you don't know whether to laugh or cry, especially when you know something is good and you are forced to change it into something bad. Are Hollywood directors tormented the same way? ... To get approval, I have to cut my films in a way that makes them bad. How did we all persist through it all? I think there is only one reason -- that this bunch of fools like us love filmmaking -- are entranced by filmmaking -- too much.

The video of Feng's acceptance speech has gone viral on China's social media. One post containing the video was retweeted more than 10,000 times on Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

China is wrestling with how to reconcile its extreme censorship system with the need to create films the world will want to watch.

Xie Fei, a professor at the prestigious Beijing Film Academy, recently sparked a debate on government control over the film industry when he called for replacing the country's censorship procedures by a movie rating system with ratings similar to those used in the United States. Xie wrote in an open letter:

In the past few years, there were so many unwritten laws when censoring movies. Unwritten laws such as: 'ghosts are not allowed in contemporary settings,' 'extramarital affairs are not allowed,' 'certain political incidents are not allowed,' etc. The censorship system [in China] is not defined by law, but done according to individuals.

Such rules are killing artistic exploration.

Beijing-based filmmaker Dayyan Eng responded saying that with more foreign films entering the domestic market, local directors struggle to compete. He blames it partly on the censorship system.

It's [Censorship] restricting what we can make. And I think that everyone has been finding out, especially this year, because the local films have been killed by Hollywood.

If Hollywood is allowed to make whatever they want, and actually most of them, the big budget ones anyway, are being shown in China, we are at a disadvantage because the system that's in place to regulate or censor this things is not the same for Chinese films and for Hollywood films.

Eng's latest film, Inseparable , was the first wholly local production to feature a Hollywood star, Kevin Spacey. Eng says the censorship system influenced the way he wrote his movie.

When I first started out doing the story and writing the script and even up to shooting and editing it, in a way I have to censor myself a little bit. For example, there would be certain scenes I want to do, but I would think 'Maybe it is not going to pass the censorship if I do it this way, if I go too far' so I tend to pull myself back little bit.

Although Chinese lawmakers recognize that domestic films are facing increasing pressure to compete with foreign films, they did not directly respond to Xie Fei's suggestions that a US-style rating system was better than China's censorship rules.

Similar proposals surfaced in 2007, after nude scenes in the Ang Lee film Lust Caution were cut before the film's release in China. But censors put an end to the idea when a senior official from SARFT said that such a system would not be appropriate for China.

But now, with a growing number of actors, directors and producers sharing their views online, it has become easier for critical voices to contribute to the national discussion. Film producer Robert Cain has consulted Hollywood and Chinese studios on co-productions since 1987. He says that by not establishing a rating system, the Chinese government is patronizing its public:

There is no need to treat everyone in China like a child or an infant that can be hurt by certain topics in movies. Everyone knows that people have sex, everyone knows that crime takes place and it seems very hypocritical to me that the government wants to pretend, at least in films, that these things don't happen in China.

Award-winning Chinese director Xie Fei has accused his country's censorship rules of killing artistic exploration in an open letter to authorities.

Xie, whose films include Woman Sesame Oil Maker , which won the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear prize in 1993 - has not made a film since 2000. He urged censors to give clearer rules on banned topics. Xie wrote that China's system:

Long ago lost its real social, economic, ideological and cultural significance.

It has only become a corrupt black spot for controlling the prosperity of the cultural and entertainment industry, killing artistic exploration and wasting administrative resources.

In his letter, Xie urged censors to:

Move from the current administrative review system to a rating system that allows for a self-governed and self-disciplined film industry, bound by legal restrictions and administrative supervision.

Currently, China has no film age rating system and films must be made suitable for all audiences. This means that many western films have been subject to cuts in order to be released. China also maintains a quota of just 20 foreign movies that can be shown in cinemas.

Chinese film censors have been spouting about ludicrous reasons for cutting Titanic 3D.

Kate Winslet's famous bare-breasted life drawing scene has been censored in a bid to supposedly promote a harmonious ethical social environment , according to China's State of Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) classification board. A SARFT official told Offbeat China:

Considering the vivid 3D effects, we fear that viewers may reach out their hands for a touch and thus interrupt other people's viewing. To avoid potential conflicts between viewers and out of consideration of building a harmonious ethical social environment, we've decided to cut off the nudity scenes.

The nude scene was fully intact in the original Chinese screenings of the film in 1998.

China's film censor, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said that an ongoing debate about a film classification system must end now and that China had no plans to introduce such a system as it was inappropriate.

We did a lot of investigation and research in both the overseas and domestic market, but decided that the movie classification system is not appropriate for the Chinese movie market currently, said Zhao Shi, vice minister of SARFT.

China is developing its own way to maintain the management of the movie market in a legal, scientific and effective way, and this 'own way' would be more suitable for China's domestic conditions and the reform of China's movie business, she said.

Many in the film business had hoped that a film classification system would be introduced as it would diminish  the need for censorship.

As it stands in China, all films have to be cut so as to be suitable for all ages.

The censorship process also takes a long time giving pirates ample time to flood the market with good DVD copies of the movie for impatient filmgoers.

A movie rating system cannot be implemented at the present time, a Chinese official has said.

Zang Zengxiang, deputy director of the Beijing municipal bureau of radio, film and television, said the bureau has been researching the feasibility of a movie rating system for several years. He said the research proved clearly that Beijing couldn't carry out a movie rating system for many reasons but he didn't explain any of them.

Audiences in the capital have grown used to spending their money on censored movies. All domestic and foreign movies must be censored in order to receive public viewing licenses from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

Movies that show numerous sexual or violent scenes undergo large-scale deletions, an act that has been fiercely criticized as producing emasculated stories by some film industry insiders.

The fruitless struggle against censorship  started in 2003 with the first movie rating proposal by Wang Xingdong, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Li Yu, director of the Berlin Film Festival's nominated film Apple , which went through censorship a total of five times for its sex scenes, told METRO she never believed a rating system could be implemented under the current cultural and economical environment: We refer to censorship as an 'iron' rule, meaning that no one can move or dodge it . She added that the absence of a rating system took away the adult audience's right to watch adult scenes, and made it impossible to prevent younger moviegoers from seeing films with violence and sexual content.

China is to pull the plug on screenings of Avatar at most cinemas and replace the Golden Globe-winning film with a 'patriotic' biopic on the life of Confucius, according to reports.

Hong Kong's Apple Daily said the state-run China Film Group has ordered cinemas across China to stop showing the 2D version of the film and to show only the 3D edition, amid concerns from China's censors that it could cause unrest. Because there are so few 3D cinemas on the mainland, the order effectively prevents general distribution of the James Cameron blockbuster.

The Central Publicity Department is said to have issued an order to the media prohibiting it from hyping up Avatar, the newspaper said.

The film opened on 4 January to queues across the country, with Imax cinemas said to be booked for weeks ahead. It was due to run until 28 February, including over Chinese new year. Instead, the reports said, the 2D version will close on 23 January.

China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has submitted the final version of its Film Promotion Law to the State Council and a film rating system may be implemented, according to sources from the ongoing 10th Seminar for Film Directors from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The system, which will have a comparatively simple "two ratings", may offer some films that fail to meet mainland censorship requirements access to the Chinese mainland audience.

The current system has a single rating and that has to be suitable for children of all ages

A total of 150 directors took part in the seminar.

Update: Low Expectations

9th February 2009. From chinadaily.com.cn

A film rating system is very essential in China, Tong Gang, director of Motion Picture Bureau with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) was quoted as saying by a report on website of the Ministry of Culture.

A movie rating system in China has been discussed for years since the people have begun to enjoy an increasing number imported films and a booming domestic film market.

The director said the draft of the law had recently been finished and was submitted by the SARFT to the State Council, China's cabinet. He did not reveal that whether the NPC's annual session this year would review or approve the draft law.

Tong said he had supported a movie rating system in China when he was interviewed by a TV program in Singapore and he expressed a will to take Hong Kong's rating system as a reference during a visit to the SAR: However, my utterance has been overexplained and even distorted by some media reports. A rating system in China will not mean that we will allow depictions of porn or violence in the movies for sales and screen.

Censors reiterated the criteria for censorship saying that films with explicit sex and fear-provoking elements must be cut or revised before release.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said in a notice on its website that the move was intended to purify screen entertainment and create a more harmonious and "green" film environment for the public, especially children.

The censor asked nationwide studios not to produce films that depict hardcore sexual activity, rape, prostitution, nudity and the like. Vulgar dialogue or music and sound effects that had a sexual connotation were also restricted.

Content involving murder, violence, horror, evil spirits and devils and excessively terrifying scenes, conversations, background music and sound effects were on the list as well.

Other films that would be banned include those that:

• Distort the civilization and history of China or other nations
• Tarnish the image of revolutionary leaders, heroes, important historic characters, members of the armed forces, police and judicial bodies
• Reconstruct crimes or reveal police investigatory techniques
• Advocate nihilism, environmental damage, animal abuse and the capture or killing of rare animals.

Hopes for film ratings in China took a step back as a senior government official here equated the creation of such a system with legalizing the production of pornography.

Liu Binjie, director of China's General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP), said film ratings are "too sensitive" for the general public, and no such measures could be undertaken currently because China had yet to build a mature and orderly film market, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Under the current circumstances, a film rating system equals legalizing the mass production of pornographic publications, he said.

Currently, films seeking cinematic release in China must be approved as suitable for all audiences, with cuts requested of scenes deemed too sexual, violent, or related to horror, magic and superstition.

The ultimate authority on a film rating system will likely be the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, which regulates the production and distribution of film and television, although GAPP may have some say over whether products would be re-rated for home video release.

Zhang Hongsen, deputy director-general of China's Film Bureau and a censor himself, gave a rare briefing recently on the inner workings of the country's movie censorship process, which has come under fire from prominent Chinese filmmakers.

We're not only concerned about the political aspect of a movie, said Zhang. A movie's style may be problematic. For example, some movies may poorly portray the customs of ethnic minorities . . . some are problematic in their portrayal of the rights of women and children. There are different problems.

One of the films that required heavy editing this year was director Li Yu's Lost in Beijing (Ping Guo) , a powerful story about the fallout after a Beijing foot massage parlour owner rapes one of his employees from the countryside.

Fang Li, the producer of Lost in Beijing , said earlier he was asked to cut scenes depicting sex, dirty streets, gambling, the Chinese national flag, and Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

In a recent interview, Fang accused the movie censorship committee of operating in a black box, saying it doesn't give reasons for the cuts it asks for.

Zhang said censors target sex and violence because China doesn't have a ratings system. All movies must be appropriate for viewing by people of all ages.

He said China's movie censorship committee comprises 24 regular members - five Film Bureau officials, including Zhang, and 19 film professionals, including directors, script writers, cinematographers and movie critics and scholars.

The committee, whose two-year term ends in May, also includes 13 "special" members who are brought in on a case-by-case basis for specialized issues like minority affairs, religion, law, foreign relations, and women and children's affairs, he said. Zhang, who is 43, said the youngest censor is 40 and none are older than 65.