China bans Horror Movies

The Chinese have done some crazy things in the past, and right now the big issue with China is the whole lead in U.S. toys issue. But the Chinese also do some good things as well, like their death penalty approach towards corrupt officials. But now, it seems that they've fallen into the same crazy trap that many americans have fallen into. Which is basically blaming horror films for every ill within their country. With the Beijing Olympics rolling into town in August, the government of Chinas has seen it fit to begin a serious crackdown on all things horror related such as pirated movies, and general film and television programming.

And when these guys crackdown...they do not kid around. Their targeted materials include quote - "content including "wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror." - end quote. Pretty broad huh? Of course I'm sure most of our american Hollywood horror would be okay in China because with some of the crap that gets released here in america, and is passed off as horror these days...you'd think that they're trying to do everything but what's listed above. At any rate, their reasons for doing this is reportedly "to prevent horror, violent, cruel publications from entering the market through official channels and to protect adolescents' psychological health."

Perhaps living under a regime where being outstpoken against the government or even criticizing it harshly can land you in jail forever or sometimes even get you killed, is what's causing the psychological problems within youth and children. Then again...I could be wrong. But I doubt it. I really think that with the severe real life human rights violations, and lack of democracy that goes on in China, blaming horror movies for any social ills is a laughable conclusion at best. It's kind of like here in america two years ago when Bill O' Reilly tried to blame horror for the decline of american culture despite the fact that we were in the midst of attacking a country for their oil under the not-so-clever guise of a war on terror and stopping Saddam from using nukes on us.

It's amazing how whether it's China, or the U.S....a government will target popular media such as film, music, and other entertainment genres as the problem in society, and try to break it's back just to make it look like they're doing their jobs, and trying to look out for the people. Meanwhile...they're totally screwing the people and their futures by starting unnecessary wars which cripple the economy for years to come, or opressing their free speech rights and hauling them off to jail for criticizing the powers that be. It's even more amazing that some people will actually fall for this and see it as a good thing, a positive thing. Yeah, "Saw", and "Halloween" are the problem...not your corrupt, opressive government, or our totally inept, corporate lapdog government.

None of those things are the problem, it's the movies that are the problem. Of course, what the hell was I thinking? Until the world comes to an end, entertainment will always be used as an easy scapegoat when governments want to try and distract the populous from the "real" issues taking place within their lands. It's not the politicians, it's the films. It's not excessive goverment spending, it's "50 cent" and his "rap music". In the case of China, that country has alot of issues, but none of them as far as I can see are being caused by movies. In fact, more people have killed and blamed popular media for it in European and Western countries than have done so in China. So perhaps before the Chinese crackdown on everything horror-related, they should consider the current track record of their peoples behavior post exposure to horror films. What a weird world we live in.





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)