I don’t even know where to start so I’ll just tackle each major new restriction as is. China Broadcasting on behalf of the government issued an 8-point decree this week intended to broadly restructure and also restrict what is seen on television and the behavior of stars and their fans. Shows will not be able to show “sissy men” or abnormal aesthetics, namely what entertainment has called Flower Boys or Young Fresh Meat in the recent decade. Also banned are stars with bad morals, vulgar influencers, and paying inflated salaries to stars. On the derogatory “sissy men” hissy fit, the idea is that these pretty boys are not teaching the young men of China how to be masculine grown adults. Another decree ends the star ranking system and curtails fan activity to promote their stars with hashtags and comments and posts, thereby ending fanpower to make a star famous when he/she does not have established works or built up the stature. Going forward, idol production programs and variety shows featuring the children of famous stars will be forbidden, as those talent shows both have a surplus of “sissy men” so to speak and also feature tons of fan courting where fans pay to vote for contestants or buy tons of stuff for them or because of them. It’s intended to curtail excessive fangirling and copious spending. Chinese media was ordered to avoid hyping up star wealth and lifestyle and avoid gossip. Going forward, stars will also be responsible and liable for the (mis)conduct of its own fandom. From this list of new requirements, popular shows like Youth With You and Produce 101 will be permanently cancelled, and C-ent thinks BL dramas already filmed will not get to air (at least anytime soon) because of the “sissy men” implication with how the male leads are styled very aesthetically beautifully.
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This is so backward and regressive, it would be ridiculous if it wasn’t for the fact that people are legitimately getting ‘cancelled’ as if they have responsibility for the actions of their fans.
And who decides what is a “sissy” anyway? I guess any male who happens to look younger than 25 should just wear a fake beard if they ever want acting jobs again. As if they can help what features they were born with.
@Royal We – To your first point, Chinese fan club (especially the large ones) have direct communication channels with the celebrity’s agency. The two entities don’t operate completely separately and often will work together to broker CF deals and push PR, which is why blaming Chinese actors for how their fandoms behave isn’t necessarily unwarranted the way it would be for other countries.
I would say C-ent is getting their retribution. Last year, all these C-media and C-fandoms loudly advocated for celebrities (namely Xiao Zhan only) to take responsibility for their fans. Now that their own precious celebs have to do this too, they moan here and there. Double standards, really.
Oh wow, regressive and oppressive for the arts and artists. Pretty sure someone will comment about we shouldn’t judge a culture – we’re not judging a culture, it’s the CCP who enforced this right. Well, if their own people don’t speak up for their rights, what can outsiders do really.
Exactly, it’s not a culture, it’s a political party issuing arbitrary edicts. It’s exactly the ordinary people (fans and citizens) that this will affect.
@Royal We – Yes. Defining how men should look or what type of love should be shown on screen, or who the fans want to watch. Seems like CCP is giving the Taliban vibes albeit less extreme (for now), but who knows how far they’ll go. If their citizens allow it, well okay, I wish them well. If they want to curb unruly fandoms, teach kids to be kind, respectful, fair. It starts at home and in school. The CCP is basically taking away the power from the people to choose who they’d like to watch, not surprising as they cling to the power to influence their people.
Lol people calling regressive. What did u expect covid giver ccp? Lmao. There is no democracy.
They are still investigating the origin of the Covid-19, so it’s not a good idea to say it came from China. If you search for this title and you will find the article.
“US COVID origins report: researchers pleased with scientific approach
Intelligence investigation is inconclusive on virus’s origins, but finds SARS-CoV-2 wasn’t weaponized and is unlikely to have been engineered.”
I don’t thinking, that the public will ever know the precise origin of the current covid virus. There are to many powerful interests preventing that (e.g. WHO funded massively by China, since other members cutting or delaying their contributions).
What’s for sure, though, it infected the first humans in Hubei, China.
The title of your source just states, that it’s likely that it wasn’t purposely manufactured. It doesn’t say, the origin wasn’t in China.
The first cases were in China and have been spread worldwide from there.
No denying that!
Mostly likely it’s a common zoonosis. 61% of the the human diseases originated in animals.
Even though, the virus obviously started in China, the CCP doesn’t even want to admit that. So, to blame the CCP to have created it WITHOUT proof is indeed not a good idea.
I don’t thinking, that the public will ever know the precise origin of the current covid virus. There’re to many powerful interests preventing that (e.g. WHO funded massively by China, since other members cutting or delaying their contributions).
What’s for sure, though, it infected the first humans in Hubei, China.
The title of your source just states, that it’s likely that it wasn’t purposely manufactured. It doesn’t say, the origin wasn’t in China.
The first cases were in China and have been spread worldwide from there.
No denying that!
Mostly likely it’s a common zoonosis. 61% of the the human diseases originated in animals.
Even though, the virus obviously started in China, the CCP doesn’t even want to admit that. So, to blame the CCP to have created it WITHOUT proof is indeed not a good idea.
I don’t thinking, that the public will ever know the precise origin of the current covid virus. There are to many powerful interests preventing that (e.g. WHO funded massively by China, since other members cutting or delaying their contributions).
What’s for sure, though, it infected the first humans in Hubei, China.
The title of your source just states, that it’s likely that it wasn’t purposely manufactured. It doesn’t say, the origin wasn’t in China.
The first cases were in China and have been spread worldwide from there.
No denying that!
Mostly likely it’s a common zoonosis. 61% of the the human diseases originated in animals.
Even though, the virus obviously started in China, the CCP doesn’t even want to admit that. So, to blame the CCP to have created it WITHOUT proof is indeed not a good idea.
I’m so so sorry. I tried to edit my post and it didn’t show me the content. And the end I posted it three times. facepalm. I didn’t meant to.
Please, Miss Koala, can you delete it. I couldn’t. My apologies for spamming the comment section.
Covid giver ? Is the “Institut Pasteur” Chinese ? ?
WYF case felt like opening a Pandora’s box. C-ent is just so messy right now. The govt expects every celeb to be on their best behavior. They even have to have a control of their own fan clubs now. Sad but no one can really do anything about it except their own people. W/c is why i always feelt nauseous whnvr i see antis dragging chinese celebs over not showing support to this and that. like they really are forgetting china is freakin communist govt. People there doesn’t have rights y’all enjoy.
Does that mean no luhan on TV?
Does that mean no bts/kpop idol/on TV?
Haven’t all Korean idols been blocked since THAAD anyway? Afaik the only kpop idol (who isn’t already Chinese) seen on Chinese tv recently is one member from Black pink and she’s Thai, not Korean.
Honestly with all this, it’s probably a good thing Korean groups don’t have much exposure there (at least afaik they don’t, correct me if I’m wrong)
Yep.
Korean celebrities in general should re-evaluate any career strategy that involves them developing their popularity in China. While the monetary potential is highly attractive, the risk is too high right now due to volatile geopolitical tensions. At worst, you will lose both the Chinese and Korean market if relations between the two countries get worse; you’ll be banished from former and branded an opportunist and traitor in the latter.
Actually no. There’s still Yoona ads all over Weibo & Nathan Lee (from K-group Take)& James Lees (former Royal Pirates member) are pretty active in China.
I guess it depends(?) There used to be a boom of K-idols/actors starring in Chinese dramas before THAAD.
@Ophelia – you are right about that. Korea and Japan also have periodic tensions and it’s a fine line for groups to walk between fans in both countries but at least the Japanese government doesn’t act like it’ll punish fans…. China has the political tensions AND a high degree of interference from the ccp in creative contents, at this point I’m really thinking THAAD was a blessing in disguise since it forced k-ent to look at other markets and avoid future shtshows like this.
@Gem – I dunno about Yoona but I googled the two guys and they are Korean-American? So maybe not affected by the THAAD ban. In any case it remained up for a long time and I don’t think China activities are back to 2015 level. I remember when the ban went in force, Korean series were pulled from streaming services literally in the middle of airing.
The homophobia jumped out but how does ccp not realize these restrictions will eventually lead to their downfall in the following decades. Draconian governments always tumble sooner or later.
Woah that just wrong.
They alreqdy have so mucb power yet they want to just hold everything and everyone at the palm of their hand. Thats sooooo wrong.
No comment on the “sissy men”, but some of these points such as removing the popularity ranking system and curtailing excessive fandom behavior are welcome regulations that will do much to curb the out-of-control toxicity and wildness. The general Chinese public and more tellingly, tech analysts look favorably on some of these points.
If you look at this site alone, it’s always the ranking posts that bring about the biggest fan wars in the comments.
The “sissy men” ban seems better in the long run too given how I’ve witnessed “stan culture” is mostly dependent on fetishistic fangirls getting hyper obsessed with flower boy types and wanting to “protect” them and forming psychotic cults in their name. If China bans that then good for them.
Curtailing fan wars is the one thing in this I think is fair but why make the celeb responsible for the fandom bad behaviour?
The rest reminds me of a few years ago when China was banning all fantasy dramas etc. Really excessive and honestly I think the CCP just don’t like anything getting too popular (time travel dramas then, BL now)
@Royal We – see my reply to your first comment re: fandom responsibility atop the section.
Tldr: Chinese fandoms are pretty organized. Large fanclub work directly with celebrity agencies and fanclub organizers often are on agency payroll. So celebrities and agencies do have a method of reining fans in.
Chinese celebrity cult-worship is getting out of hand (Kris Wu fans were organizing a jailbreak) and reining it in starting with BL dramas makes sense from an execution standpoint.
@Ophelia – I didn’t see your earlier reply, sorry! It wasn’t showing for me when I posted the above comment.
Thanks for shedding light on that aspect of agency-fan relations, I used to think Korean fandom culture was excessive sometimes but China really takes the cake. Especially with the fan clubs working directly with agencies part to that degree…so it looks like this is to get the agencies to rein in their fan club tactics too (from what I can tell, Korean fan clubs also work/coordinate with agencies but they aren’t literally driving cf deals and all that)
Also – a jailbreak?!!! How far gone do you have to be to think of doing that for a celeb, I’m surprised they haven’t been arrested for planning a criminal offence (or given some kind of warning, idk. Those people need psychiatric help).
@Royal We – one of the Kris Wu fans wrote that she watched Prison Break, so she knows how to go about planning a jail break. I almost spit out my tea when I read that. Lulz for days.
Agree that they like banning things that get too popular. Wasn’t there a time they were against court/palace/imperial dramas too because imperial life looked too glamorous? I’m still trying to figure out which cdrama characters would fall under their sissy men description? I’m guessing they’re throwing the leads of BL dramas in that category. Seen lots of flower boy characters wielding swords and kicking ass. Is that not manly enough? But what if a guy looks pretty and girly but acts like a total alpha. Or a muscular guy who wears pink? How about those CEO characters who are nitpicky? Would they be considered unmanly?
I feel like Chinese dramas with young actors have been blowing up these last 5 years or so and getting a lot of attention overseas. Thought they would be happy to have the growing influence. They’ve been looking at the pervasiveness of kdramas with envy and now that they have the tiniest chance of competing, they’re pulling back.
@prettyautumn – I don’t think BLs are how China wanted to gain soft power ?. At the end of the day, China doesn’t need an international market for its entertainment the way Korea does. Its domestic market is more than enough. International popularity is a nice-to-have, but not a necessity.
@Royal We – To be honest, the Chinese current fandom culture is hugely influenced by Korean fandom culture during the Hallyu wave. Double that with China’s massive population and that makes them even scarier.
I agree with the banning of excessive fandom culture because I have consistently read about one fan having sixty different logins (paid for) to vote for their idol. These people could be underage and that is bad influence.
For the past few years ‘sissy’ dramas have produced the most liuliang stars but it has also brought the worst fandoms. Xiao Zhan & Wang YiBo toxic fandoms arguing so much that their management agency had to step in and lower that hot search was not so long ago.
Production companies wanting to earn quick money were following this trend and producing many ‘sissy’ dramas. Male actors were left with limited choice but to act in ‘sissy’ dramas in order to get fame quickly. These were actors who had graduated from four years of acting school. The general feel was that C-ent had turned unhealthy. It wasn’t that long ago that YXH were bragging about no drama we’re being filmed except ‘sissy’ ones. So I would say the ‘sissy’ drama banning was a delayed response to the fame and toxicity it gained in the past few years.
Even I really hate how CCP putting their hands on culture creativity, but I think you do have a very valid point.
i supported this as well. excessive fan support with conspicuous consumption should be curtailed. those with actual competency are to be recognised for their effort and work rather than talentless people being pushed by fan, which at some point sounds like a cult. often, hardworking and talented people are overlooked due to these people. entertainment should be taken as it is, for some downtime pleasure rather than purpose of living like these obsessive fan culture adopting.
I kinda agree when I see how a drama like “New Face” with the OH SO TALENTED Zhou Yi Wei has been shunned by cdramas followers. And I expect youngsters like Cheng Xing Xu or Wang You xuo who got talent to get more interesting leading roles.
Lol China is amazing. The American empire is on a decline and China’s sphere of influence just keeps on expanding, so I’m curious to see how the political and cultural landscape will be in a few decades. Will they overtake the prevailing western liberalism/neoliberalism of the times? They already have Hollywood and western corporations on a leash despite those two posturing as “woke”.
Can I like your comment ?
^probably the most accurate comment on here.
good! i still can’t brain why every actors and cp who acted in bl adaptation drama become soooooo popular. and it’s actually quite irritating to see how their fans become sooo full of themselves and became soooo arrogant.
Good Luck Chinese Ent. Lets see the amount of weed you can pull out.
I love it, especially on that sissy men.It infuriates me to my bone.
I miss the days of manly actors like Jackie chan and jet li, donnie yen, chow yun fat.
now it is a bunch of men acting cute with flowers. God forbid.
I wish they will do the same in Korea.
The only manly actors in that side to me are Lee Byung-hun, hyun bin, gong yoo etc
Others are just a bunch of skinny femine men acting delusionally cute and doing that stupid nauseating aegyo of a thing.
Wow! I think we can agree that different people have different standards of beauty and that different types of aesthetics for men exist as well as they do for women! There’s really no need to throw hate on people just because you don’t agree with their appearance.
I do agree that the fandoms have gotten out of hand and it shows character and moral upbringing when celebrities chastise their fans to keep them reasonable. Unfortunately many celebrities are also unwilling to offend their fans and rather stay silent on fans’ ridiculous behavior. That’s the true problem with fandoms; strange how the government decided to go after “sissy men” instead.
this is all so dumb because the ones behind these regulations are old af baby boomers who are out of touch with society. they’re attempting some cultural revolution esque censorship but fail to realize society isn’t like before. you can’t pull this off when the internet is as big as it is.
Surely the one signing off the Order must be an old hack n has been in isolation n lost touch of society. How’s the Judgement of being sissy? This is very subjective and has no standards in doing so. Frankly speaking not every men can carry those looks. Just too sad that China is imposing unreasonable controls like issuing order to tell public to boycott an actor who has pictures take 2 yrs ago vs some very popular stars who have evicted millions of tax the same punishment. In the actor’s case, those who acted in the same show would face the same a consequence.
I just know some of you are going to take offense to my POV. I was really wondering when the Chinese govt was going to put a stop to shows featuring “sissy men”, to borrow their term.
Before anything else, let me just say that I have nothing against LGBTQ, effeminate men, or whatever appearance any person may be. The reason why it occurred to me (way before all the BL stories were turned into dramas) that someone’s going to put their foot down sooner or later is that I know for a fact that China is a communist government and they monitor and supervise their people and their media. I EXPECT this kind of behavior from this type of government.
Luhan and Tao going back to Korea ? ?
The good thing about it, is the end of those shitty idol survival shows which are most of the time rigged.
After reading all comments it’s clear the majority believe fandom is out of control, and asking fans to pay or purchase a vote is crazy. I really love watching C’-dramas,they help me learn Mandarin, but honestly, I have a difficult time finding quality shows. Mystery shows, detective series, medical and courtroom dramas– not enough of them. Chinese entertainment writers could learn from BBC, look at quality shows there–All Creatures Great and Small, a fiction about the life of a country veterinarian. Or, Last Tango in Halifax, comedy series about family life and super high-quality writing.