China Censors Horror Material

By Mike Sachoff - Mon, 02/18/2008 - 10:45

Says its to protect young people

China says it is banning all audio and video content that features horror related themes according to the General Administration of Press and Publications.

Specifically the banned content includes, "wronged spirits and violent ghost, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror," the administration said.

Producers in China are being given three weeks to search through their material to find "horror" related content and report it to authorities. The new regulations are designed to," control and cleanse the negative effect these items have on society, and to prevent horror, violent, cruel publications from entering the market through official channels and to protect adolescent's psychological health."

China started its crackdown on "terrifying publications" in 2006 when it focused on a Japanese comic story "Death Note" about a notebook that "can kill people" if there names are written on it.

Earlier this year China announced a crackdown against "vulgar" content in audio and video products. It required audio and video producers to halt production and sale of vulgar products and to pull content already on the market.

News Tags: Technology, China, censorship, Horror Films

About the author:
Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews.

4 Comments

By Guesting (WPN reader) - Mon, 03/17/2008 - 20:12

internet censoring

Consider to China's censorship in internet, we use several ways to avoid it. China blocks lots of services like myspace, google, youtube, bebo, etc. You can use any proxy but it won't help a lot. I'm using now http://strongvpn.com account. It’s really great thing! It gives strongly encrypted channel with fast speed. It couldn't be compared with any proxy.

By Joe (WPN reader) - Wed, 02/20/2008 - 17:20

China's Censorship

Wow! is right.

One of the drawbacks to living in a democracy is the that we are surrounded by all the toxic garbage called 'entertainment' spewed out the media, hiding under the banner of free speech protections. They are dumpster-divers, willing to produce any disgusting trash and pander to any tastes as long as it makes a buck (who's the guy that made Corpse Bride?). Just have a good look at what adults and children in free societies have to take in every day on billboards, television, the 'news' and movies. We have our faces rubbed in sex, violence, perversion, and sadism of every kind. Then we ask "Why?" when someone cooks their girlfriend on the barbecue grill or a kid gets some guns and shoots up the school.

Luckily for the Chinese, the old communists at the top have 'been there - done that' and now want to protect their people from more destructive craziness (and apparently don't own much stock in media companies). Wouldn't you do the same thing if you were king?

By JayDee (WPN reader) - Mon, 03/03/2008 - 10:29

Sad news

The previous poster's comments shocked and appalled me. While he or she is obviously not a fan of the horror genre, it is far beyond their right to condemn those who enjoy it.

What China is doing seems extremely harsh, especially to those who make a living producing horror and science fiction films. This sort of thing has happened in numerous other countries, but hasn't stopped these genres. Germany, for example, has a ban on violent horror, which just forced the majority of filmmakers to start working more frequently in the underground film scene. England still has a ban on showing people being beaten by blunt objects in films, but countless movies from the UK still have it.

Chinese genre filmmakers will keep on donig what they do, regardless of the laws... and like so many clean-up laws that get passed on a whim, I'm sure it will pass in time.

And "the guy" who made Corpse Bride, Joe? Its Tim Burton, one of the most amazingly talented filmmakers who has ever lived. Try opening your eyes to the wonder of cinema and enjoy what he - and many other genre filmmakers - have to offer. You might be surprised.