For weeks now, the ranks of Chinese visitors to Hong Kong have swelled with a brand-new category of tourists: moviegoers.
In a response to the censoring of a film about love and betrayal in Shanghai during World War II by Taiwanese director Ang Lee (李安), Chinese movie fans have flocked by the thousands to Hong Kong to see the full, uncut version of the film Lust, Caution.
The phenomenon of so many people voting, as it were, with their feet has highlighted the public's rapidly changing attitudes toward the long unquestioned practice of government censorship of the arts, and prompted debate about the way films are regulated in China.
Travelers have made their way to Hong Kong to see movies before, of course, but always in much smaller numbers. Critics and commentators in China attribute the interest in Lee's movie to a variety of factors, from word of mouth about risque sexual content stripped from the censored version, to a sensitive political subtext rarely seen in Chinese cinema, to the fame of the Academy Award-winning director.
Perhaps most important, though, is the rise of a class of affluent urbanites in China's rich eastern cities who have grown increasingly accustomed to ever more choice in their lives.
"I went to Hong Kong with my girlfriend to see Lust, Caution because it was heavily censored here," said Liang Baijian, 25, a businessman and stock market investor from the Guangxi autonomous region. "We could have bought a pirated copy of the movie here, but we were not happy with the control and wanted to support the legal edition of the film."
At least one Chinese movie fan has tried to sue the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, which regulates the industry, for deleting some of the film's content. Ang Lee has said the censored material was regarded as politically unacceptable in Beijing because it reinforced the notion of sympathy between a young Chinese woman and a collaborator with the Japanese occupiers. The lawsuit has been rejected by Beijing courts.
Many in the Chinese film industry support the idea of introducing a ratings system like the one used in the US, which advocates say would lessen the need for outright censorship. The state film administration, however, has resisted thus far.
Other travelers to Hong Kong, meanwhile, said they accepted the rationale of a censorship system in a country of stark disparities in regional income and education, but thought the practice was no longer justified in cities.
"For myself, I strongly object to censorship, but for the country as a whole, I think I can still understand its necessity," said Yan Jiawei, a graphics designer from Shanghai who saw Lust, Caution on a recent business trip to Hong Kong. "It has something to do with people's educational level. In big cities like Shanghai, people will treat the deleted scenes as art, while those in less developed areas will only think of them as immoral."
People within the movie industry here said the fact that a censored Lust, Caution was available at all in China demonstrated how far the parameters of the acceptable have broadened since the beginning of the reform era more than two decades ago. Not long ago, local film was dominated by plots heavy-handedly reinforcing conventional lines between good and bad. Unquestioned love of country was a favorite theme.
While many have been drawn to Lust, Caution by the allure of sex scenes, even more groundbreaking is the notion of a traitor in a leading role depicted as an attractive character instead of a villain.
"The country has undoubtedly become more and more open and advanced, and this is the tide of history, which no one can prevent," said Fang Li (方勵), a leading producer. "Compared to a market economy that's developing so fast, I've never seen an industry in China as backward as the film industry, though."
Fang said much of the blame for this lay with the censors, a group of mostly elderly people who work in committee and invite critical comment from branches of government, from the Women's Federation to provincial governments, all seeking to present their constituency in the best light and to avoid offense.
The censors "spend most of their time worrying how not to lose their post," he said. "They are very careful not to make mistakes."
Other critics of the system said the country's censors have become much more careful about leaving fingerprints. Wu Di (
"Now, under the so-called harmonious society, they wouldn't do things so baldly," Wu said.
Instead of publishing a banning notice, the same result is achieved today with a few phone calls, which leave little trace.
Li Yu (
"People who make movies in China understand the situation well, and a lot of them are criticizing the system, saying that censorship prevents them from making good movies, which is partly true," Li said. "But I feel the environment is becoming more and more relaxed."
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
It is being said every second day: The ongoing recall campaign in Taiwan — where citizens are trying to collect enough signatures to trigger re-elections for a number of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators — is orchestrated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), or even President William Lai (賴清德) himself. The KMT makes the claim, and foreign media and analysts repeat it. However, they never show any proof — because there is not any. It is alarming how easily academics, journalists and experts toss around claims that amount to accusing a democratic government of conspiracy — without a shred of evidence. These
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
RSS