China Relaxes Some Film Censorship Requirements

Hollywood Reporter
The media regulator will now only require film summaries to be submitted for censorship approval before production, rather than full scripts, for select film categories.     

Chinese Whistleblower Blinded in Acid Attack

Malcolm Moore
Telegraph
Li Jianxin, an amateur Chinese whistleblower who posted embarrassing pictures of Party officials’ luxury cars, was rammed by a car, blinded with acid, and had two of his fingers cut off.  

Censoring the News Before It Happens

Perry Link
New York Review of Books
Chinese censors number in the hundreds-of-thousands. Their duties are to not only block stories they disapprove of, but to alter and obscure details in published stories, and promote stories that cast the Party in a good light.

Books

07.10.13

For a Song and a Hundred Songs

Liao Yiwu. Translated by Wenguang Huang
In June 1989, news of the Tiananmen Square protests and its bloody resolution reverberated throughout the world. A young poet named Liao Yiwu, who had until then led an apolitical bohemian existence, found his voice in that moment. Like the solitary man who stood firmly in front of a line of tanks, Liao proclaimed his outrage—and his words would be his weapon. For a Song and a Hundred Songs captures the four brutal years Liao spent in jail for writing the incendiary poem “Massacre.” Through the power and beauty of his prose, he reveals the bleak reality of crowded Chinese prisons—the harassment from guards and fellow prisoners, the torture, the conflicts among human beings in close confinement, and the boredom of everyday life. But even in his darkest hours, Liao manages to unearth the fundamental humanity in his cell mates: he writes of how they listen with rapt attention to each other’s stories of criminal endeavors gone wrong and of how one night, ravenous with hunger, they dream up an “imaginary feast,” with each inmate trying to one-up the next by describing a more elaborate dish. In this important book, Liao presents a stark and devastating portrait of a nation in flux, exposing a side of China that outsiders rarely get to see. In the wake of 2011’s Arab Spring, the world has witnessed for a second time China’s crackdown on those citizens who would speak their mind, like artist Ai Weiwei and legal activist Chen Guangcheng. Liao stands squarely among them and gives voice to not only his own story, but to the stories of those individuals who can no longer speak for themselves. For a Song and a Hundred Songs bears witness to history and will forever change the way you view the rising superpower of China.   —New Harvest

Censoring the News Before It Happens

Perry Link from New York Review of Books
Every day in China, hundreds of messages are sent from government offices to website editors around the country that say things like, “Report on the new provincial budget tomorrow, but do not feature it on the front page, make no comparisons to...

Hollywood, the Nazis, and the Chi-Coms

John Fund
National Review
A forthcoming book presents a strong case that pre–World War II Hollywood was in bed with Nazi Germany, in catering to its censorship demands. Is it happening again today, regarding show-business relations with the...

A Long Ride Toward a New China (Video)

Stephen Maing
New York Times
Every summer, the 59-year-old Chinese blogger Zhang Shihe rides his bicycle thousands of miles to the plateaus, deserts and hinterlands of North Central China. In this Op-Doc video, we meet Mr. Zhang, known to his many followers online as “...

Chinese Suggestions for Improving Internet Disappear

Adam Minter
Bloomberg
Few things irritate Chinese netizens as much as how their government acts on the Internet: blocking access to many foreign websites, censoring content and comments on Chinese websites and directing paid commentators to promote the...

Django Could Soon Be Unchained (Again) In China

Laurie Burkitt and Lilian Lin
Wall Street Journal
After being unexpectedly pulled from theaters moments after its Chinese release earlier this April, Quentin Tarantino’s controversial “Django Unchained” could return to theaters as early as May 7.

Conversation

05.07.13

Why Is a 1995 Poisoning Case the Top Topic on Chinese Social Media?

Rachel Lu, Andrew J. Nathan & more
With a population base of 1.3 billion people, China has no shortage of strange and gruesome crimes, but the attempted murder of Zhu Ling by thallium poisoning in 1995 is burning up China’s social media long after the trails have gone cold. Zhu, a...

The China Clusterf--k: Is Hollywood Fed Up?

Kim Masters
Hollywood Reporter
Even if studios expect only the chance to play a movie in Chinese theaters and believe all hurdles have been cleared, sudden obstacles can arise. Such was Sony's experience with Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained,...

‘Unmade In China’ - When China Tries Calling A Filmmaker’s Shots

Ian Buckwalter
NPR
Unmade in China is nominally about filmmaking, but what Kofman and Barklow do well is to use their unusual position within the Chinese state machine - sponsored and controlled by the government - to make a thinly veiled movie about politics...

China Censors The Word ‘Censorship’

Al Jazeera
‘China’s Spielberg’, film director Feng Xiaogang, gave an emotional acceptance speech for ‘director of year’ in which he referred to censorship as a “torment” for Chinese filmmakers. The video - in which the word ‘censorship’ was censored - has...

Tale Of China’s Leader In A Taxicab Is Retracted

Chris Buckley
New York Times
The state-run news media, which had initially given credence to the story, abruptly reversed course, and the tale was in shreds. What does it mean when feel-good propaganda cannot be trusted even on its own fanciful terms? 

China Dismisses N.Y.T.'s Pulitzer-Winning Report On Wen

Agence France-Presse
The article provoked anger from authorities in China, who said it was part of a “smear” by “voices” opposed to the country’s development. The Times’ Chinese and English websites were subsequently blocked in China and remain inaccessible as...

Books

04.19.13

The Power of the Internet in China

Guobin Yang
Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has revolutionized popular expression in China, enabling users to organize, protest, and influence public opinion in unprecedented ways. Guobin Yang’s pioneering study maps an innovative range of contentious forms and practices linked to Chinese cyberspace, delineating a nuanced and dynamic image of the Chinese Internet as an arena for creativity, community, conflict, and control. Like many other contemporary protest forms in China and the world, Yang argues, Chinese online activism derives its methods and vitality from multiple and intersecting forces, and state efforts to constrain it have only led to more creative acts of subversion. Transnationalism and the tradition of protest in China’s incipient civil society provide cultural and social resources to online activism. Even Internet businesses have encouraged contentious activities, generating an unusual synergy between commerce and activism. Yang’s book weaves these strands together to create a vivid story of immense social change, indicating a new era of informational politics.              —Columbia University Press

The Dangerous World Of Independent Film In China

Isabelle Regnier
Le Monde
An interview with Zhang Xianmin, founder of one of the many independent cultural events that were banned last year by the Chinese government. 

Conversation

04.16.13

Why is China Still Messing with the Foreign Press?

Andrew J. Nathan, Isabel Hilton & more
To those raised in the Marxist tradition, nothing in the media happens by accident.  In China, the flagship newspapers are still the “throat and tongue” of the ruling party, and their work is directed by the Party’s Propaganda Department...

Sinica Podcast

04.12.13

Gady Epstein on The Internet

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
The Internet was expected to help democratize China, but has instead enabled the authoritarian state to get a firmer grip. So begins The Economist’s special fourteen-page report on the state of the Internet in China, a survey that paints the country...

Rebel Chinese Newspaper Dares To Challenge Party Line

Malcolm Moore
Telegraph
Operating out of two rooms in a dilapidated pharmaceutical factory, and with a staff of four, the Voice of the People is a muckraking  freesheet challenging the local propaganda paper. 

Media

03.01.13

No Closer to the Chinese Dream?

Timothy Garton Ash
2013 began dramatically in China with a standoff between journalists and state propaganda authorities over a drastically rewritten New Year’s editorial at the Southern Weekly newspaper.In the first week of the New Year, the editors of Southern...

After Ang Lee’s Oscar Win, China Imagines Cinema Beyond Censors

Abby
Global Voices
A look at the various reactions on Chinese social media to Lee's Oscar victory , as well as the censorship-related conversation it sparked.

Reports

02.28.13

Challenged in China

David Schlesinger, Sophie Beach, Madeline Earp, and Danny O'Brien
Committee to Protect Journalists
As Xi Jinping takes office as president of China, the citizenry he governs is more sophisticated and interconnected than any before, largely because of the Internet. A complex digital censorship system—combined with a more traditional approach to...

Thank You, Xie Xie, Namaste: A Movie Undercuts Old Rivalries

Didi Kristen Tatlow
New York Times
For Xinhua to quote Ang Lee thanking Taiwan would be to unacceptably recognize the de facto reality that Taiwan is a separate state, so his thanks didn’t make it into China, at least not via the official media. 

BBC World Service Shortwave Radio Blocked In China

BBC
BBC director of global news Peter Horrocks said the jamming in China was being timed to cause maximum disruption to BBC World Service English broadcasts there. 

Hollywood And China: Revenue And Responsibility

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
Until recently, Hollywood looked upon China with a mix of dread and desperation, but Hollywood’s view on Beijing has—in Washington parlance—evolved, because China is now where the money is.

“China’s Leonard Cohen” Calls Out Political Corruption

Louisa Lim
NPR
On “These Tiny Grapes,” Zuoxiao Zuzhou’s new album of edgy ballads focusing on the woes of modern-day China, he hones in on rampant corruption, food scandals, injustice and abuse of power.

Media

02.04.13

Media Censorship and Its Future

Ouyang Bin
The year 2013 has gotten off to an inauspicious start for China’s press, especially for its most outspoken members. At the end of last year, when many of the country’s media were heralding newly installed Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to...

Dead-end Trail to Bo’s Trial in China’s South

John Ruwitch
Reuters
China scotched reports that disgraced politician Bo Xilai’s much anticipated trial would open on Monday, amid chaotic scenes at a courthouse packed with expectant journalists in the south of the country.

One of China’s Early AIDS Heroes Hounded into Hiding Identity

Kaijing XIao
ABC
Tian Dawei was the first Chinese man to being a gay, HIV-positive man on state TV. He wanted to help people understand, but in China AIDS still carried a strong stigma. 

“Cloud Atlas” Cut by 38 Minutes for China Audience

Louise Watt
Associated Press
Nearly 40 minutes were cut from the Hollywood film “Cloud Atlas” for Chinese audiences, deleting both gay and straight love scenes to satisfy local censors. 

In China, Can Pollution Spur Media Transparency?

Matt Schiavenza
Atlantic
 The Chinese press often puts the best spin on Beijing's pollution problem, questioning the accuracy of air-quality measurements and dismissing concerns as "fog." 

Media

01.16.13

Their Horizons Widening, China’s Web Users Look Abroad — And Want More

Last week, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt urged North Korean leaders to embrace the Internet. Only a small proportion of that country’s 24 million people can access the World Wide Web, and the majority of the 1.5 million mobile phones there...

China's Press Freedom Goes South

Annie Zhang
Foreign Policy
Censorship is commonplace, but is usually more subtle, with directives described over the phone rather than by email (where it leaves a trail).

(Editorial) Why Southern Weekly Said “No”

QIan Gang
China Media Project
The road to freedom of expression as guaranteed in Article 35 of China’s Constitution will be a long one.

China Said to Crack Down on Censorship Protests

Edward Wong
New York Times
People across China have been detained or questioned for supporting protesting Southern Weekend journalists.

Censored China Newspaper Returns to Publishing Amid Struggles

Edward Wong and Jonathan Ansfield
New York Times
Propaganda officials in south China have agreed to loosen controls over a newspaper struggling against censorship.

China Censorship Protest "Living in Truth" (Opinion)

Christian Science Monitor Editorial...
Christian Science Monitor
Protests erupt following a strike by journalists at a Chinese newspaper whose editorial on free speech was censored. Unlike most other protests in China, this one is about living in the truth.

Solzhenitsyn, Yao Chen, and Chinese Reform

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
When a Chinese ingénue, beloved for comedy, doe-eyed looks, and middle-class charm, tweets Solzhenitsyn's words, we may be seeing a new relationship between technology, politics, and Chinese prosperity. 

Media

01.08.13

Online and Off, Social Media Users Go to War for Freedom of Press in China

When Mr. Tuo Zhen, the propaganda chief of Guangdong province, rewrote and replaced the New Year’s editorial of the Southern Weekend newspaper without the consent of its editors, he probably did not think it would make much of a splash. Indeed, Mr...

Inside the Southern Weekly Incident

David Bandurski
China Media Project
A Hong Kong University media scholar's review of the strife that led to a strike at one of China's most influential newspapers.

Censorship Protest a Test for Reform-minded China

Jaime Florcruz
CNN
For two days, journalists at the Southern Weekly offices and hundreds of their supporters called for free speech.

The Old Fears of China’s New Leaders

Jonathan Mirsky from New York Review of Books
I felt a shudder of déjà vu watching the mounting protests inside China this week of the Communist Party for censoring an editorial in Southern Weekend, a well-known liberal newspaper in the southern city of Guangzhou. It is all too similar to the...

Southern Weekend Editorial Staff Goes on Strike (Updated)

Scott Greene
China Digital Times
An internal standoff has escalated into a full-blown crisis at Southern Weekly, where Guangdong's propaganda chief meddled in the publication's "New Year's Greeting." 

Supporters Back Strike and Newspaper in China

Edward Wong
New York Times
Hundreds gathered outside the headquarters of a newspaper office in southern China to support journalists who had declared a strike to protest censorship by officials.

China, the American Press, and the State Department

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
It’s time for the State Department to take up the matter of American reporters in China, and Chinese reporters in America. 

China Insists Reporter Was Not Forced to Leave

VOA
Voice of America
China is still considering the visa application of a New York Times journalist who the paper says was forced to leave.

China Expels Journalist after Wen Revelations

John Garnaut
Sydney Morning Herald
An New York Times reporter was expelled from China in apparent retaliation for a report about the Chinese Premier's wealth. 

Out of School

12.24.12

Politics and the Chinese Language

Perry Link
The awarding of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature to the Chinese novelist Mo Yan has given rise to energetic debate, both within China’s borders and beyond. Earlier this month, ChinaFile ran an essay by Chinese literature scholar Charles Laughlin...

The Top 10 Chinese Internet Memes of 2012

Josh Chin
Wall Street Journal
2012 saw social media supercharg one of contemporary China’s finest forms of cultural and political expression: the Internet meme.

Chinese Directors Call for Censorshp Reform

Clarence Tsui
Hollywood Reporter
Chinese filmmakers are calling for a system of classifying films according to their suitability for audiences of different ages.

China Cracking Down on Doomsday Group

John Hannon
Los Angeles Times
China arrests 100-plus members of a Christian group predicting Dec. 21 apocalypse.

CCTV Airs “V for Vendetta”

Anne Henochowicz
China Digital Times
When CCTV aired, uncut V for Vendetta about an anti-totalitarian masked crusader, viewers couldn’t believe their eyes.

Why Salman Rushdie Should Pause Before Condemning Mo Yan

Pankaj Mishra
Guardian
Mo Yan, China's first Nobel laureate for literature, has been greeted withsome extraordinary hostility in the west. This week Salman Rushdie described him as a "patsy" for the Chinese government...

Culture

12.11.12

Yu Jie: Awarding Mo Yan the Nobel Prize Was a “Huge Mistake”

Ouyang Bin
Mo Yan accepted his Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm on December 10.The 57-year-old novelist often writes stories based on memories of his village childhood, and his work and his political views have triggered wide debate. In...

Nobel Literature Winner Skirts Support for Dissident

Anna Molin
Wall Street Journal
Nobel literature prize winner Mo Yan dodged requests Thursday to repeat comments supportive of Chinese countryman and jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, and said censorship may be necessary to stop the dissemination of untrue rumors and insults but that...

Chinese Media Partly Retreat After Black Jails Verdict

Andrew Jacobs
New York Times
A brief news article published on Sunday by a score of state-run news media outlets offered an account of an unexpected judicial verdict: a Beijing municipal court had sentenced 10 people to jail for illegally detaining and assaulting a group of...

China Bans Rowdy Game Show After Mother's Rant about Turning her Daughter into 'Sexy Goddess' of China

The Associated Press
Associated Press
China suspended a broadcaster after an unaired segment of a TV game show leaked online showing a shouting match with a woman who calls her daughter the next Lady Gaga.

China Will Top U.S. as Biggest Film Market in the World by 2020: Study

Clarence Tsui
Hollywood Reporter
Box office haul in China, which now stands as the second-largest film market in the world after Japan, will surpass that in the U.S. by 2020, according to Ernst & Young.

State Meddling Stifles China's Film Industry

Didi Kirsten Tatlow
New York Times
The release of Lu Chuan's latest film was delayed until after the recent leadership transition. The film depicts the bloody machinations of the first Han emperor's wife.