[sevnson_71]

Hong Kong, China (CNN) – China has been cracking down on dissent of late, as the recent detainment of artist Ai Weiwei suggests.

But the latest guidance on television programming from the State Administration of Radio Film and Television in China borders on the surreal – or, rather, an attack against the surreal.

New guidelines issued on March 31 discourage plot lines that contain elements of "fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques, even propagating feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation, ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking."

“The government says … TV dramas shouldn’t have characters that travel back in time and rewrite history. They say this goes against Chinese heritage,” reports CNN’s Eunice Yoon. “They also say that myth, superstitions and reincarnation are all questionable.”

The Chinese censors seem to be especially sensitive these days. But for the television and film industry, such strictures would seem to eliminate any Chinese version of “Star Trek,” “The X-Files,” “Quantum Leap” or “Dr. Who.” And does that mean rebroadcast of huge Hollywood moneymakers like “Back to the Future” and the “Terminator” series are now forbidden?


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My take personally is this is pretty much the biggest affront on free thought since the 'Cultural Revolution', and certainly their most blatent attack on it in my nearly 40 years of being around. This equates in my mind to banning imagination, which is a tenet not of any political, religious or philosophical ideology but one of the things that makes us humans instead of mindless automatons.

I can understand why though. Look at the shows mentioned and the ideas they express, which are in diametric opposition to their style of government. RADIO FREE CHINA ANYONE?! We can package up sci-fi in encrypted packets. I'm certain their geekier folks can wrap their head around how to open the Easter egg.

[Kirok]

sevnson_71, on 15 April 2011 - 06:48 AM, said:

My take personally is this is pretty much the biggest affront on free thought since the 'Cultural Revolution', and certainly their most blatent attack on it in my nearly 40 years of being around. This equates in my mind to banning imagination, which is a tenet not of any political, religious or philosophical ideology but one of the things that makes us humans instead of mindless automatons.

I can understand why though. Look at the shows mentioned and the ideas they express, which are in diametric opposition to their style of government. RADIO FREE CHINA ANYONE?! We can package up sci-fi in encrypted packets. I'm certain their geekier folks can wrap their head around how to open the Easter egg.

I have a relative (name and relationship withheld for obvious reasons) who has taught in China for five years and is going back to do it again shortly. His teenaged students are just the same lively, questioning mental sponges that kids that age are all over the world. It is saddening indeed to think that they will not be given the same creative, ethical and moral stimuli that we take for granted in the Western world. Good Science Fiction makes you ask questions and seek answers. It would seem that the Chinese government does not want a population that asks questions or comes to its own conclusions. China will always be an emigma to me.

K

[jespah]

It's basic totalitarianism, and it's getting tougher to do as the world becomes more and more interconnectively (is that a word?) wired.

Way back when I was a wee jes, they could just shut down the newspapers and radio and TV stations. Sure, things like Radio Free Europe would come in, but not everyone could get 'em. And so the regime was free (heh, there's a choice o' words) to say whatever, and there was nothing out there to counteract what they were saying. A lot like being an abusive spouse, and cutting off the victim from his/her family and friends -- you squelch all other opinions and info, making yours the only source of news, love, knowledge, whatever and, inevitably, no matter how outrageous you are, the victim believes you.

Fast forward to today, where there are so many more media outlets, and it's so much tougher to keep a lid on 'em all. No wonder Google was out - we can't have people looking for non-state-approved information! That might lead to ... oh my God (oops, no religion)! ... it could lead to ... free thought! To disagreements! To realizing that the government doesn't know it's azz from its elbow.

And so on and so forth. Gadzooks.

[ensign edwards]

I don't think there's anything China can do that will shock me anymore.

[JulesLuvsShinzon]

ensign edwards, on 15 April 2011 - 09:23 AM, said:

I don't think there's anything China can do that will shock me anymore.

I agree, but what does shock me is the fact that China was given the Olympic Games even though there were still so many questions about its record on human rights. Here, again, we see how the Cultural Revolution never really went away now that the Chinese governent has basically banned imagination and outlawed geekery. Some "mundanes" out there might think that was a good thing, but taking away the opportunity for young people to be inspired by tales of wonder and imagination, or to deny them the opportunity to get to grips with the moral advisability and implications of an - as yet - theoretical notion of time travel, is likely to deny China its own Stephen Hawkings, Bill Gates or any kind of future innovators. Basically, this regressive, anti-intellectualsim wil cut the head off of the Dragon Economy far more swiftly that Western democracies and economoic centres could ever have dreamed. Watch as China slips back into the past as everyone else continues to develop new and as yet unimaginable technologies.

I just think this latest development is mud in the eye of the people who gave Bejing the Olympics. Bad choice. Bad judgement - just like giving Russia the 2018 World Cup.

[sevnson_71]

The biggest thing I see as a mistake in the West is not about the Olympics locale as that is all a popularity contest, but the fact China has quickly become the largest debtholding nation in the world, and the industrialized West has basically handed in large portion a thriving industrial segment on a silver platter in spite of that abysmal human rights record. They were dangerous enough 60 years ago under the "Cult of Mao" during Korea, Vietnam, but now they have a modern military and industrial complex(which are closely tied) that rivals anything in the West to back up that aggressive totalitarian style. Anyone remember what happened to Japan's military complex when they got too big? Remember they ARE nuclear, and they do thanks to us in part have a delivery system. I heard today they're cracking down on the Buddhists in Nepal again as well as the Christians within their own borders. I wonder if this is just them testing their limits to see how far we let them go?

[JulesLuvsShinzon]

sevnson_71, on 16 April 2011 - 09:01 AM, said:

The biggest thing I see as a mistake in the West is not about the Olympics locale as that is all a popularity contest, but the fact China has quickly become the largest debtholding nation in the world, and the industrialized West has basically handed in large portion a thriving industrial segment on a silver platter in spite of that abysmal human rights record. They were dangerous enough 60 years ago under the "Cult of Mao" during Korea, Vietnam, but now they have a modern military and industrial complex(which are closely tied) that rivals anything in the West to back up that aggressive totalitarian style. Anyone remember what happened to Japan's military complex when they got too big? Remember they ARE nuclear, and they do thanks to us in part have a delivery system. I heard today they're cracking down on the Buddhists in Nepal again as well as the Christians within their own borders. I wonder if this is just them testing their limits to see how far we let them go?

Yes, and not only are they the largst debtholding nation, they are also one of the world's biggest polluters. I hear what you're saying about the Olympic Games being a popularity contest, but the run-up to those Olympics were very revealing as to the degree of pollution in Bejing that they simply HAD to deal with when the world's athletes were about to descend upon them. There was a lot of bucks and bang in the opening of the games, and then came the story that cute little kid that sang the opening song was not in fact the kid that owned the voice that sang it. This in a country where the One Child per Family Rule has led to baby girls being dumped or new-born baby girls being exposed and serious imbalance between the sexes in a country which traditionally has not valued women, and that's before this latest totalitarian regime's latest act of lunacy. Our mistake, I think, was in encouraging China to be a capitalist nation assuming that market forces and increased wealth would make them more like us - big mistake. The Chinese do not think the way we do. They do not value the individual in the way we do, and before anyone says that a society that values the individual and individual rights leads to ungodly selfishness, let's consider that the Far Eastern way tends to see its citizens as being as one giant Hive Consciousness - a bit like the Borg. If a cultural revolution based on one man's Little Red Book can take a once great civilisation back to the collective mind of an anthill inside a generation, and even make its denizens where the same uniform, it's little wonder we don't get China, as we did't get he Japanese in WWII.

Of course China is pushing the limits, it probably can't believe its luck and all the approval we've given them in recent years.

[sevnson_71]

I also see we in the West as not paying mind to those differences. I think we'd be wiser to read up on our Sun Tzu as this progresses so as not to repeat the mistakes we've made in the past.

[Kirok]

A good dose of Bob Heinlein is exactly what they need!

[navydavy]

Just China being China. As the old farts in power hang on to the Communist ideals, the more liberal politicians move towards democracy. Their economy is pushing them towards being a republic within the nest 50 years. This is going to go down like Star Trek VI!