China Rumored to Ban Certain Genres of Popular Dramas from Network Airing

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• This is so sad and having just returned from China I can vouch to the very limited good tv programming. Only in Beijing was there a korean station available (think it was MBC or KBS), but only old family situation dramas were being televised. CNN is the only american station televised.

  I was surprised taiwanese pop was played on the equivalent of MTV, 'cause there was quite a difference between c-pop and t-pop groups. Oh well, it's still an issue to be discussed and I hope ears and hearts are open in the discussion and that the matter is not imposed. What's next, no kissing on tv?

  • Since most Chinese people prefer to watch Chinese programs on TV and American programs on line, it's hardly surprising that there aren't many Korean channels available. Hallyu has not and will never (IMO) penetrate China to the extent that it has Japan and Taiwan.

    • I disagree.
      I find that a lot of cpop bands are extremely kpop influenced head days (MIC is a good instance). Suju, for example, is extremely popular in China. I credit Suju for more than half of Hangeng's popularity right now.
      In addition, there's a reason so many Korean actors are branching into the Chinese market and so many dramas claimed to be remake of Korean ones.

• "I hate censorship more than crappy dramas". My thoughts exactly.
  I don't know what's the goal but it's just plain stupid. Do they want to kill the business? Oh, well, ... Viewers will buy comps and watch foreign dramas online. Welcome to the club people!:)

  • Doesn't China have a strict firewall? They might be controlling online access too. In which case, I pity our drama-addicted Chinese counterparts. :(

    Hey, maybe the remaining producers can make this work and start a new genre of dramas. Sometimes you don't need to base on a manga or an adaptation, an original story and great cast can also work.

    • actually i think China has a better system for foreign drama watching, they have streaming sites that buy licenses of foreign dramas (like even american shows) and those are aired with chinese subs. my friends from china were lamenting to me that they can't watch any american shows where they live because youtube removes most of these videos due to copyright and they can't watch from these china sites as the license only applies to those in mainland china.

• Read about it a few days ago and rolled my eyes so hard they nearly fell out.

  Luckily, Chu Han Contention and Patriot Yue Fei are unlikely to fail even under those insane guidelines, but I think this will hit Da Mo Yao (I guess it depends whether it counts as proper novel or Internet one) an I have no idea about King of Lan Ling (would it count as a palace intrigue drama?)

  And Yu Zheng is pretty much out of business with this.

  I happen to love my period cdramas, so I hope these crazy restrictions aren't true, but with SARFT, it's safest to assume the worst.

  • I think if this ban passes, I might start to miss Yu Zheng's stuff.

• Is this to help take them in the direction of good, quality dramas and movies or is there another reason for this wave of restriction?

  Anyway, I love historical/fantasy C-movies and have been watching since- forever. BBJX was WONDERFUL and my first C-drama. A little escapism is good and distracting from a tired mind imo, but if ppl are getting confused, well...that's not good.

  Sometimes I picture some viewers as no longer coming out to see the sunlight and are holed up in a basement somewhere subsisting on fantastical dramas and not really living or being able to function in society.

• Xuan Yuan really hurts my brain. It's a pain to watch even though I love the whole cast. They lost me at the part about dreams where they had to enter dreams in order to escape their dreams.

  • Hahahaha ok now I want to watch this for the funny

    • Hee show's definitely funny. But leave your brains at the door! *cringe*

• No need to be so dismissive about Cdramas - I've been enjoying the period fare a lot more than the crap coming out of Korea these days. I strongly doubt that SARFT will go ahead with these restrictions.

• Did they finally life the ban on time travel/futuristic dramas?

  I'll agree though a number of the dramas currently airing are rubbish but really restricting things to the nth degree pretty much leads to people just turning off their television and finding some other avenue for entertainment (well I'm okay with that given the mess that is American broadcast television - but I'm probably in the minority here).

• this is total bullcrap!! where is the creativity? with all this censor and regulations is making c-drama boring! i understand pornography should be ban but time-traveling, family-problem dramas, online story to movie, and etc... the chinese government taking too much control... i been reading lots of stuff about the government wanting to control and have power in everything, "being conservative", "what is right", "what you are allow to watch", targeting people who speak against them such as Ai Weiwei ahhum. they need to back off c-drama. let me know if there is a protest!

• What amazes me is that the C govt is successful controlling such a huge number of people. I don't mean their hearts and minds, because you can't command someone to dislike something, or not think something is pretty. What I mean is how they systematically block the internet, or domestic tv stations over such a huge geographic area.

  My impression is that the dam's gonna blow eventually, and the floodgates of their idealism will not hold. People generally are smarter than their leadership believes them to be and will outmaneuver the blocks and bans. It's just a question of time.

  The artistry coming out of the vast vast country has been proven over time. Can you imagine what would come from China if they allowed citizens free thought and movement? It's kinda mindboggling.

• JUST DONT BANNED FEMALE MINISTER... its based on true historical figures with different twists, so I am sure its going to be criticize by the SARFT