The award-winning and internationally acclaimed women's rights play The Vagina Monologues has been banned in China's most modern city, staff at the playhouse said yesterday.
"It was scheduled to open Thursday, but we received an order from above not to hold the performance," said an employee at the Shanghai Drama Center. "They said it does not fit with China's national situation."
The performance would have been the first time the play is performed for the public in China.
The Drama Center is the largest playhouse in the bustling metropolis of Shanghai which is considered to be more liberal in its social attitudes, compared to the rest of China.
The banning of the play, how-ever, is a reminder that although Chinese people, especially young people, are becoming more open about sex -- with teenage sex, premarital and extramarital sex on the rise as well as widespread prostitution -- officials remain wary and conservative.
The employee at the Shanghai playhouse said authorities did not cite a specific reason for banning the play, but the word "vagina" is uttered numerous times throughout the performance.
"I never saw it, but people I know who have seen it said it's quite normal," said the employee, who declined to give her name. "It's about us women. It's not vulgar. It's our reproductive organ. It's about our physical freedom."
Written by Eve Ensler, the play, based on several hundred interviews with women around the world, celebrates women's sexuality and focuses on the abuses women suffer around the world.
"Female employees at our drama center who have watched it were very moved. Some of them cried," said the employee.
China Central Television is also facing obstacles trying to broadcast the American sitcom Friends, because sex is mentioned too many times, officials said.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
RSS