‘The Legend of Zhen Huan’ and Why China Limits TV Historical Dramas to 10%

By Tina | Wednesday, December 12, 2012 | 8 Comments

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Partly thanks to the popularity of the drama The Legend of Zhen Huan (甄嬛传), China’s cultural authorities have limited the number of historical dramas on TV to 10% for next year, according to Washington Post and the Associated Press. Other cited reasons for this new restriction is that mainland authorities fear young viewers would get distorted ethics from the series, as well as themes of power transition hitting too close to home.

Based on the novel Zhen Huan by Liu Lianzi, the main protagonist Zhen Huan is a concubine of the emperor who finds herself in the treacherous world of court life where jealous rivals and power mongers are willing to poison and even kill if necessary to be in the favored position or otherwise gain power. Aside from beautiful scenery, lavish costumes, and lessons in court etiquette and classical poetry, fans are also being drawn to this show due to the cutthroat politics being played that apparently remind many women in China and Taiwan of their workplace office politics.

What I find particularly amusing about this whole situation is that there are “cultural authorities” in China. What is that (aside from being a censorship and propaganda machine that is)? Do we even have an equivalent to that here in the U.S.? State restrictions on “culture”? I’m just imagining a committee of culture in Congress sending an order to Hollywood: “Only 10% of TV shows are allowed to be Science Fiction this year.” I think any American will agree with me in saying that that sounds absolutely, positively ridiculous. Hollywood would laugh at the order, and so would the rest of the country, and it would be the center of hearty guffaws on SNL, Daily Show, and Colbert Report. Heck, even Fox News would join in. So, is this really the way media content works in China? Unbelievable.

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

LTE2

“What I find particularly amusing about this whole situation is that there are “cultural authorities” in China.”
“Do we even have an equivalent to that here in the U.S.?”
.
Actually we did and it was called the Fairness Doctrine which was ended under Ronald Reagan.
.
Today you have things like political correctness that cause programs and news stories not to run or be severely edited. Fox News Channel (not the separate Fox Network) gleefully points out details the major media omits in news reporting or not report on at all and their competitors scream bias at Fox News. In this situation there is a sort of cross check being performed where in China you have none outside of a few blogs.
.

I think China’s official phrase for the censuring is labelled as “For The Good Of The Image Of The Chinese People” (started around 2000).
pandora

Don’t forget Hollywood once was under the Hays Code, aka the moral and censorship guidelines on whether a film could be approved or not. Then there was the American Comic Code Authority which banned certain topics for the sake of the audience and suffocated a lot of creative freedom in comics.

Anyways, didn’t the Chinese media ban time traveling dramas in 2011? So how did the uber popular Bu Bu Jing Xin and that other time traveling series manage to scoot through censors?

If the ban was to curtail palace harems, I would understand. There’s always been a glut of dramas depicting imperial concubines rising to the top and/or scheming princes fighting over the throne. Not having seen Legend of Zhen Huan, it seems quite similar to Hong Kong’s popular War and Beauty (which I heard had the same effect on OL in 2003 or so).

I think China need to impose 10% restrictions on REMAKES. How many more times do they really need to remake Journey to the West, Jin Yong serials, etc etc? Its as bad as Hollywood.
http://www.facebook.com/tinabot Tina Tsai

lol if I see another movie with Sun Wu Kong Monkey in it, I am going to hurl just to make a statement.
gimirzz

Well Korea which is supposed to be democratic and all also has a media censorship department. Maybe it’s an Asian thing? *shrugs*

Although its scary if OLs are reminded of themselves in these type of dramas. I was always so bored by it and didn’t know why ppl would watch it.
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http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005023898558 Allen Jiang

Don’t be surprised at it ! China is a coutry that places emphasis on rationality in culure ,and ideology ,which is not prejudice you read into a socialism country ..I’m a chinese and have also watched The legend of Zhen huan .It’s really a great opera series ,into which peformers and others dedicate much .There are too much you havn’t known about my country ,so always you just judge it by what you see and hear .USA is a place of freedom and creativity ,and you American are very good at crafting something amazing !But anything have two sides ,and excessive freedom creat many toubles for you ,such as gun control !
As is known to us ,there are 1.3 billion people in our country .If measures are not taken ,then you know, what hapened to us ? It must be terrible !
honky wonky

Chinglish speak you not understanding to me
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005023898558 Allen Jiang

chinglish ? how can i overcome it ,and make my English more idiomatic?

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