Chinese Movie Industry Debates Proposal to End Censorship

For a country that wants to project "soft power," China is wrestling with how to reconcile its 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 abolishing the countrys censorship procedures in favor of a movie rating system similar to that used in the United States.

In the past few years, there were so many unwritten laws when censoring movies, Xie wrote in an open letter that was reposted tens of thousands of times online. 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, Xie wrote, are killing artistic exploration.

According to Xie, several directors had been ostracized because of the subjects they chose for their early films. Among them, Zhang Yuan, whose 1993 independent film, Beijing Bastards, depicted the life of Beijings disaffected youth. Censors banned the movie, and Zhang was prohibited from making films in China for the next 7 years. In a microblog, Zhang expressed gratitude. Thank you old Xie," he wrote, "for letting out such a mighty voice. Xie represents our rallying cries.

Increased competition

Beijing-based filmmaker Dayyan Eng, who reposted Xie Feis comments on his microblog account, says 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, Eng says.

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 U.S.-style rating system was better than China's censorship rules.

The Chinese government protects its local film industry by imposing a quota of foreign movies allowed in China each year. The number was increased in February from 20 to 34. In addition, movie theaters are financially rewarded for choosing to show local films. But, according to official statistics, the share of Chinese-made movies has dropped this year to 41.4 percent of total ticket sales. 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 thats in place to regulate or censor this things is not the same for Chinese films and for Hollywood films, Eng says.

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Chinese Movie Industry Debates Proposal to End Censorship