Film censorship in China


Film censorship in China involves the banning of films deemed unsuitable for release or the editing of such films to remove objected content by the governments in both Republic of China and People's Republic of China. In Mainland China, films are reviewed by the China Film Administration under the Publicity Department which dictates whether, when, and how a movie gets released. The CFA is separate from the NRTA under the State Council.
The long history in ROC's film censorship is a prelude to that of the PRC, but the exhaustive list of films on this page is going to focus on PRC which is still a one-party state and took over the ROC in controlling mainland China after the Chinese Civil War. ROC has attempted age-based rating system as early as November 1948, become a democracy since the 1980s, and technically dropped censorship requirement in its film law in 2015, despite it still may issue the Restricted rating occasionally for a number of scenarios noted below.

History

Republic of China

1912 to 1949

In 1911, under the Qing dynasty, the Shanghai Autonomous Bureau issued the first regulation on film content, disallowing "obscene content". Violations of the regulation were punishable by revocation of a theater's license to screen films.
Under the Kuomintang, the government banned foreign films for promoting Christianity, cited as negativity affecting Chinese society, and for including kidnapping and love stories with "carnal desire". Wuxia and shenguai films were banned for promoting "superstition and unscientific thinking", and wuxia was felt to be spreading anarchy and instilling rebellion.
In November 1930, the Legislative Yuan promulgated a Film Censorship Law, requiring four types of motion picture contents be edited, removed or banned:
In January 1931, the Executive Yuan formally established the Film Censorship Committee, putting the control of censorship in the hands of the central government for the first time. The committee was tasked with reviewing locally produced films and international films distributed in China. In March 1934, the government amended The Film Censorship Law, restructuring the Committee to include members from the film industry appointed by the Executive Yuan and renamed it to the Central Film Censorship Committee. The law got amended four more times before the KMT lost the civil war and fled to Taiwan in 1949. In November 1948, the reference to the "Three Principles of the People" was dropped and "the interests of the ROC could not be offended" was added in an amendment. Article 10 of the 1948 law also gave birth to a very early-stage motion picture rating system, using age 12 as the cutoff line for content restriction.

1949 to 1983

The ROC regained its footing in Taiwan. In 1955, 1956, and 1958, four more amendments to the law ensued without revising the main criteria. The law was renamed the Motion Picture Act in November 1983, and expanded the censorship criteria to include the following:
Article 30 of the 1983 law lowered the age cutoff line from 12 to 6 to dictate whether the viewing should be restricted or not.

1983 to the 2010s

KMT practiced martial law until July 1987. After lifting it, the Executive Yuan, or through its now dissolved Government Information Office, promulgated regulations to carry out the said revised law starting in 1987 and 1988. The then regulations revised the motion picture rating system, classifying films into three categories based on age. The categories were expanded into four in 1994.
The film law rephrased the censorship requirement in June 2015. To control the rating system requirement from a legislative perspective, article 9 of the new Motion Picture Act, promulgated by the Legislative Yuan, maintains that motion pictures and their advertisements shall not be screened if not granted a rating by the central competent authority which shall convene a rating commission to rate films. Members of the commission shall be representatives of government agencies, and scholars and experts having academic or practical experience in related fields. The commission's conclusions shall be made public and clear rationales for ratings given be listed. Article 10 maintains if motion pictures and their advertisements violate restrictions or prohibitions laid out in law, the central competent authority shall not grant a rating. The Ministry of Culture established by the Executive Yuan further specifies that not more than one third of the committee members can come from the Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development.
The rating system was expanded into five categories on October 16, 2015 per regulations drawn up in accordance with the Motion Picture Act.
Article 9 of the regulations specifically mentions the Restricted rating will be issued under the following scenario:
where the sale or use of illegal drugs, robbery, kidnapping, killing, or other illegal activities are detailed in the plot;
where there is concern that such activity could be mimicked;
where terrorism, bloody events, violence, or perversion are particularly vivid and could still be acceptable to persons over age 18.
Where sexual imagery or innuendo is portrayed vividly in animation, images, language, text, dialogue, or sound, but does not elicit feelings of shame or disgust in persons over the age of 18.
Article 235 of ROC's Criminal Code also penalizes the distribution, broadcasts, sale, publicly displays of obscene video record.

People's Republic of China

1949 to 1988

The earliest predecessor to SAPPRFT was founded in June 1949. Communist Party of China won the civil war and founded the new republic on October 1, 1949.
With the ten-year Cultural Revolution, film industry was singled out as a target for public criticism. Mao's wife Jiang Qing blacklisted 54 films.
From the beginning of the Chinese economic reform, the PRC film industry has undertaken a series of decentralizing and privatizing reforms. In January 1986, SAPPRFT's predecessor is finally known as the Administrative Department of Radio, Film and Television .

1988 to 2010s

The ADRFT published its departmental-level film censorship regulation one after another in 1988, in 1993 and in 1997.
The basic principles of the 1993 document were reaffirmed in July 1996, when the State Council of the People's Republic of China promulgated Regulations on the Administration of Movies at a higher executive level. Its article 23 & 24 gave executive authority in stipulating that the country shall adopt a film examination system: "films that have not examined and approved by the film examination organ of the administrative department of radio, film and television of the State Council may not be distributed, projected, imported or exported."
In March 1998, the ADRFT was renamed State Administration of Radio, Film and Television .
In February 2002, the State Council replaced the 1996 regulations with new ones. Article 24 & 25 of the new regulations reiterates the censorship system and remains in effect despite what follows next.
In December 2003, SARFT also issued departmental-level regulation titled Interim Provisions on Project Initiation of Film Scripts and on the Examination of Films. This soon got updated in July 2004. Both the 1997 and 2004 regulations were later replaced by Provisions on the Archival Filing of Film Scripts and the Administration of Films in June 2006.
In March 2013, the State Council merged SARFT with the General Administration of Press and Publication to form the SAPPRFT.
On November 7, 2016, The 12th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress at its 24th session passed the new PRC Film Industry Promotion Law from a legislative point of view. The law became effective on March 1, 2017. Although the country lacks of a rating system like that of the ROC or the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, according to an unofficial translation of the new law, article 16 stipulates that films must not contain the following content:
  1. Violations of the basic principles of the Constitution of China, incitement of resistance to or undermining of implementation of the Constitution, laws, or administrative regulations;
  2. Endangerment of the national unity, sovereignty or territorial integrity; leaking state secrets; endangering national security; harming national dignity, honor or interests; advocating terrorism or extremism;
  3. Belittling exceptional ethnic cultural traditions, incitement of ethnic hatred or ethnic discrimination, violations of ethnic customs, distortion of ethnic history or ethnic historical figures, injuring ethnic sentiments or undermining ethnic unity;
  4. Inciting the undermining of national religious policy, advocating cults or superstitions;
  5. Endangerment of social morality, disturbing social order, undermining social stability; promoting pornography, gambling, drug use, violence, or terror; instigation of crimes or imparting criminal methods;
  6. Violations of the lawful rights and interests of minors or harming the physical and psychological health of minors;
  7. Insults of defamation of others, or spreading others' private information and infringement of others' lawful rights and interests;
  8. Other content prohibited by laws or administrative regulations.
Article 20 of the law stipulates that films for which there is no release license cannot be transmitted over the Internet, telecommunications networks, or radio and television networks, or recorded as audio or video products, except for under other stipulations. If the film could make minors and other audiences feel uncomfortable either physically or psychologically, there should be a reminder. However, in a March 2017 interview with China Central Television, SAPPRFT's film chief Mr. Zhang Hongsen said it was inaccurate for the media to label the guideline for minors as manual/euphemistic classification and it was a misinterpretation or over-interpretation of the new law.
Article 21 further stipulates that only films with the release license can be submitted for film festival or exhibition consideration. There have been circumstances where a film appears to be trimmed for commercial reasons, but on June 1, 2017, the SAPPRFT issued a notice, forbidding any spread of so-called "complete version", "uncut version", and "deleted scenes", etc. on any platform, including but not limited to online, mobile Internet, broadcast TV.
On June 30, 2017, the China Netcasting Services Association, an online broadcasting industry body subject to SAPPRFT and Ministry of Civil Affairs, issued a set of guidelines, signaling detailed control on all forms of audiovisual web content, including films. They explicitly prohibit the websites of the association's 600+ members, which include CCTV, Phoenix Television, Hunan Television, Dragon Television, Jiangsu Television, Zhejiang Television, Tencent, Youku, IQiyi, Sohu, etc., from displaying many things, including but not limited to the following:
  1. Defamation of revolutionary leaders, heroes, People's Liberation Army, armed police, national security apparatus, public security apparatus, and the judiciary branch, etc;
  2. Pornography and cheap taste: prostitution, rape, masturbation, incest, homosexuality, hentai, sexual assault, sexual violence, extramarital affairs, one-night stand, sexual freedom, wife swapping, prolonged or provocative scenes of physical intimacy;
  3. Feudalistic ideology which is pseudoscience: spirit possession, reincarnation, witchcraft, etc.
  4. Showcase excessive horror, psychological pain, hysteria, causing strong stimulation to senses and emotions with uncomfortable pictures, lines, music, and sound effects, etc.

    The Chinese Film Censorship System

It is a rather critical administrative way implemented by the Chinese government to manage and control content of films. The establishment and expansion of such a regulatory regime began in 1978 making the country's economy flourish and assisting China develop a wide film market. Nevertheless, there are a lot of drawbacks in the Chinese film censorship system. First of all, the system has quite doubtful criteria of a film’s content assessment. It requires a producer to actively participate in self-censorship to ensure that there are no problems with content and ideology. Then the producer needs to apply a censorship application to the film reviewing committee. The committee then decides whether this film is appropriate and can be released. In case the film receives a low grade, the producer should revise its content once more. After the revision, the same procedure takes place. The point is that such a process may continue endlessly and the reasons for a low grade may depend on the viewpoint of committee members.
The committee uses double standards for different film genres. The requirements are rather strict when assessing a film's ideology and content. The requirements become even stricter when assessing sexual content, regardless of whether it includes non-obscene or sexually explicit scenes. Though, the requirements are quite tolerant in regard to violent scenes. Even in government-backed Hollywood films, this standard is very evident.

Regulation of Behavior and Advertising Deals of Actors

It is another main element of censorship assessment. Celebrity status and associated richness do not necessarily mean personal liberty in China. Thus, the government calls famous people to maintain self-discipline in public. In order to be more influential in such an industry, celebrities who were seen drunk or showed signs of drug use were immediately blacklisted by the government for moral failures. In addition to controlling actors’ behavior, government officials put a limit on famous actors' money-making activities. Under the advertising law that came into force on September 1, 2015, anyone who take us in an advertisement that promotes a product or service can be held responsible if such an advertisement breaches the law. Lawbreakers face sanctions and, if convicted, can be blacklisted for up to three years from all sponsorship deals.

China's Film Censorship Law Today

The new law, which is primarily focused on censorship, claims that films should not include content that harms national dignity, honor, and ambitions, exposes government secrets, endangers national unity or supports extremism and terrorism. The law also requires all films to obtain a special license if they are to be shown in cinemas and film festivals or on TV and streaming sites. In addition, in regard to screening time, Chinese films should receive two-thirds of the annual cinema screening time. Although a nationwide cinema evaluation system is still to be introduced, in case the content is inappropriate for children, the law requires films to provide the parental advisory label.

List of banned, partially banned, or unreleased films

List of edited films

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