Recent strategic cropping of China’s TV series, The Empress of China, by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television (SAPPRFT) has raised outcry among Chinese netizens and eyebrows among China watchers. Project Pengyou Leadership Fellow and writer for Tea Leaf Nation, Bethany Allen Ebrahimian discusses some of the implications of this decision:

After the sudden withdrawal and subsequent sanitizing of a popular Chinese show, viewers in China have renewed long-standing calls to strip government censors of their power, using one simple solution: a ratings system for television and film…The outcry and downright mockery that resulted says much about why Chinese entertainment continues to fall short of its massive potential.

The show contained a rather benign amount of “plunging necklines” which many believe was not cause for such an overhaul of the series, causing even The People’s Daily to admit that the show had lost its “edge”. The heart of the matter lies in the tug-of-war between economic motives for creating a ratings system for the Chinese entertainment industry and the undermining effect that doing so would have on the power of SAPPRFT to control what Chinese audiences have access to.

Although Weibo users voiced their protest through creative re-imagining of other famous figures and art using the same tactics, it’s unlikely that they will win this battle. Still, they are pretty entertaining:

TV actresses, foreigners, Olympic athletes, and even Mao himself were not safe from these Weibo users!

See Bethany speak with CNN about the situation here.

Image credit: all images courtesy of the Shanghaiist.com