May 20, 2024

Are China’s Crackdowns in Film & Entertainment Doing More Harm Than Good?

China’s strict regulations on the media have been a strong deterrent for local and international filmmakers alike. However, productions that rise up to the creative challenge may find rewarding results. By Ching Wai.

China - Over the years, the Chinese government has implemented many laws and cracked down in many areas, including the media, film and entertainment industry. Although crackdowns and strict regulations can create the central government’s ideal healthier cyber-environment, they also limit creative and critical freedom. This also becomes a high barrier to entry, detering international producers and filmmakers from entering the Chinese market, as well as discouraging local artists and talents from boldly stepping into the industry.

An example of these laws is the “Qinglang Operation” launched in 2021 by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to better the internet ecosystem in China. The country saw several major scandals in the following years that led to even heavier restrictions on the internet, entertainment industry, and fandom behaviour.

More specifically, streaming services and social media platforms Weibo, the largest and most popular social networking site in China, have internal censorship departments that act in line with government authority requirements. The “Qinglang Operation” saw Chinese streaming service iQIYI cancelling survival shows for a few years. The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) had also been escalating reforms to “cleanse” the industry of “unhealthy behaviour” and “tainted celebrities”. This led to even more regulations implemented on areas like tv drama salaries, tax evasions, and boy love (BL) adaptations. Affected drama series like Guardian, The Untamed, Immortality, and Word of Honor, had to change romantic storylines between male leads to bromance or friendships, for example, or risk getting pulled out of streaming services.

On top of BL, themes such as time travel, rebirth or reincarnation, hedonism, and inappropriate exposure are all considered to be negative or false representations and are banned as well. Although the bans are made with the best intentions, the broadness and subjectiveness of these themes can lead to unreasonable censorships or cancellations of projects. This affects not just distribution, but also the process and costs throughout production, including the creative process.

Recently, the horror drama series Spirealm, adapted from Chinese novel Kaleidoscope of Death, was released on iQIYI on 2 February this year. After just two hours, the series was banned in China. Despite this, fans had downloaded all 78 episodes, allowing viewers to continue watching them.

Evidently, there is a mismatch between what the government tries to implement and what Chinese consumers actually want to watch. Instead of monetary gains or economic value, the Chinese government seems to highly regard the importance of creating the ideal healthy cyber-environment, which includes the film and entertainment industry.

While Chinese consumers may be more than ready for content not recommended by the central government, due to the strict restrictions and laws, international and local filmmakers alike remain deterred from entering the Chinese market. Projects, especially those with high production costs, risk losing more as they have to ensure they fulfil all requirements to not be denied its release or its distribution at any point.

While the Chinese government’s strict crackdowns may be necessary to create the ideal, healthy cyber-environment, creative and economic endeavours have to be somewhat sacrificed. Filmmakers seeking to dive into the Chinese market will have to prepare to face consequences of the bigger risk they are taking. Yet if they can keep to the regulations, the chances of reaching a large audience and gaining a solid fan base may be worth the creative challenge.

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