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China Bans Horror Movies

KublaiKhan writes "According to an article on Reuters, the Chinese censors have decided that horror movies are verboten. 'Offending content included "wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror," the administration said. This is apparently a sort of Chinese version of the Jack Thompson effect, as the "mental health of adolescents" is cited as one of the reasons for the ban. Presumably, this ban — much like the spitting ban — is intended to improve China's image in the rest of the world before the Olympics open; but given the Streisand effect, would this ban perhaps unintentionally spur a surge of horror movie popularity in China?" Blizzard has had trouble with skeletons in World of Warcraft , and I imagine this decision stems from similar objections.

8 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. I didn't know what it was either by rolfwind · · Score: 4, Informative

    Figured it came from Southpark or something but it didn't...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

  2. Double-standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    They wont allow horror-movies, but they'll allow this : http://friendsoftibet.org/main/execution.html

    By analogy americans should arrest Jack Thompson on pre-crime suspicion.

  3. Can't be true... by MickDownUnder · · Score: 3, Informative

    Their movie industry will be totally lost for plot lines...

    http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=chinese+ghost+stories

  4. Re:Geography 101 by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Seeing how Canada is located in America, this is an easy mistake to make :).

    It's not, really. The common understanding is:
    America = USA
    US = USA
    USA = USA
    Canada = Canada
    North America = continent

  5. Re:Geography 101 by loganrapp · · Score: 2, Informative
    Wouldn't even be able to do that: The long-form name of Mexico translates in English to "United Mexican States."


  6. Re:Mao was horrifying, do they ban him ? I guess s by sydneyfong · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm not saying that censorship is right.

    But a lot of mentions of the Tiananmen Square are not to inform, but to incite. I know this is hard to understand for you westerners, but if you were to remove prominent political figures from office, you might as well kill them as well. Inciting people to doubt the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not really too far away from inciting people to revolt, or at least perform a bloody coup. Unless you're Chinese you probably have no idea why this is the case, but it just is.

    The reason why I'm going through the trouble of explaining this to you is that most people don't realize that trying to "educate" the Chinese people on Tiananmen Square actually hurts everybody. The Chinese authorities will get even more paranoid on the issue since those who have a vested interest in seeing the fall of the CCP usually use Tiananmen Square as a battle standard, and it's actually partially the western media's fault that the issue has become so politically sensitive that nobody in China with a right mind would mention it.

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    Don't quote me on this.
  7. The US do the same for japan anime ! by stm2 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't understand how you could surprised of this.
    Please read this before criticizing China:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editing_of_anime_in_American_distribution

    Extract:

    "Religious symbols are commonly airbrushed out if they appear in contexts that are not acceptable in the U.S. Religious terminology is often removed from dialogue for the same reason. Sometimes a character appearing to be crucified by being bound to two wooden beams in the shape of a cross is enough to be considered unacceptable[1].

    For example, representations of the Christian cross were airbrushed out of Pokémon and One Piece, while references to Hell were replaced with "HFIL (Home For Infinite Losers)" in Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT. Alleged demonic imagery is also commonly removed or toned down, as are uses of pentagrams, because of their religious meanings and their apparent association with Satanism and Paganism. ....

    Commonly, the censorship of violence is done by removing the exact moment when a physical attack, such as a punch or kick, connects with a person. In some cases this is achieved by airbrushing the scene to include a caption or object (such as an explosion or movement lines) over the point of impact, or by flashing the screen so that the impact is never seen. In other cases, the frames containing the connecting blow are removed and the frames immediately before and after it are extended to procure a slow motion or comic book frame effect.
    "

    The problem with this, is that other countries receive a translated version from the English censored version :(

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    DNA in your Linux: DNALinux
  8. Re:South of the border by mangu · · Score: 2, Informative

    unless someone is a royal or a leader then a place they discover is named after their LAST name

    Well, if you believe current customs were always applied everywhere, think again. They seemed to have different customs in old Italy. Whoever talks about Simoni's sculptures, or Vinci's inventions, or Sanzio's paintings?


    Anyhow, the question of who was America's eponym is easily settled: find the oldest map where that name is used. AFAIK, it was Martin Waldseemueller's map in 1507, and he wrote a book explaining why he used that name.