Of course they are bent all the time in the UURB. The Western trade press has been a bit astonished by this, because the rules seem to be inconsistent. The take around the world is now US$288m. It has taken US$76m in two weeks, against US$115m in the US.
However, the Chinese did allow Coco into the country. Officially, this is to do with the ghosts. Hollywood has never had a problem with ghosts and supernatural stories, but the Chinese government has banned films like Ghostbusters and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. In fact they are polar opposites since the Communist Party is hostile to religion and great chunks of Thirties Hollywood actively promoted the Bible. Ceremonies of any definite religion should be carefully and respectfully handled. Ministers of religion in their character as ministers of religion should not be used as comic characters or as villains.ģ. No film or episode may throw ridicule on any religious faith.Ģ. (6) Advertising religious extremism, stirring up ambivalence and conflicts between different religions or sects, and between believers and non-believers, causing disharmony in the community ġ. Both systems demean filmmakers, lead to a lot of fearful sweating, and require detailed horsetrading over individual frames.Įven the treatment of religion is similar on the surface. They both seem to occupy a common place that bestrides the world – the Uncelestial, Undemocratic Republic of Bureaucracy (UURB). The sale of women, or a woman selling her virtue. Apparent cruelty to children or animals.Ħ. Actual hangings or electrocutions as legal punishments for crime.ĥ. The following subjects must be treated within the careful limits of good taste:ġ. That is enough to show that the rules are very subjective and anti-dramatic.īut they are remarkably similar to the Hays Code, signed in 1930, to bind Hollywood to conservative morality. According to Forbes, one of the provisions relates to ghosts.Ĥ) Showing contents of murder, violence, terror, ghosts and the supernatural distorting value judgment between truth and lies, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, righteous and unrighteous showing deliberate expressions of remorselessness in committing crimes showing specific details of criminal behaviours exposing special investigation methods showing content which evokes excitement from murder, bloodiness, violence, drug abuse and gambling showing scenes of mistreating prisoners, torturing criminals or suspects containing excessively horror scenes, dialogues, background music and sound effects The censorship restrictions published by SAPPRFT, the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, are strange to Western eyes, and potentially dangerous. So, in the broadest way, Netflix is now a system for transmitting Chinese cultural propaganda to the world.
Chinese producers now have access to up to 190 countries depending on the licensing deals. Netflix is going to run Youku Tudou’s Day and Night, a drama called Tientsin Mystic and crime serie s Burning Ice. While the West’s attitude to propaganda is largely unconscious, and fails to notice the crude way in which it promotes our culture, the Chinese structure understand how soft power works in the media. China wants to sell material internationally, partly to the diaspora.
Government policy mandates that the relationship with foreign companies is not about imports but exports. Now, the other side of the deal is coming home to roost.