In 2012 “Excessive Entertainment” Shall Be Strictly Rationed
[See this post and more at http://tealeafnation.com/?p=551] Chinese television in recent years has spawned a bewildering array of variety shows, reality shows, dating shows, and dramas on topics ranging from children being sucked into their computers to time-travelling accountants turning into imperial princesses. Now the Chinese agency that regulates broadcasting, known as SARFT, is taking the punchbowl away.
SARFT has decreed that, starting on January 1, due to the “excessive entertainment tendencies” of television programming, seven categories of entertainment shows on satellite stations around the country will be reduced by two thirds in number.In their place, stations are to broadcast more news programs and educational programming that promote good public morals.
Among the victims are shows such as “My Man Can,” (pictured above) which pits couples against each other for the chance of winning all-expenses-paid vacations; the website for the show exhorts male contestants to “brave boiling water and blazing fire” for their wives in order to “demonstrate their manliness.”In lieu of these shows, stations around the country have announced a new line-up of more "healthy" programming including the likes of “Red Star Shining,” “Ordinary Heroes,” and “I Love My Country.”
Many netizens responded with outrage, questioning “Why should you [SARFT] be the arbiter of my entertainment?” and saying “freedom of entertainment should belong to the people…the masses can judge for themselves whether something is classy or vulgar.” One microblogger called on “officialdom to think instead about the ethics surrounding corruption; there is nothing else that does more to subvert society’s values.”
Another quipped that “next time maybe there will be a regulation that the public can only have children but cannot have sex. This way we can prevent the tendency toward too much entertainment and vulgarity.”
Some were more supportive of the policy, with one poster asking to public to “please take a close look at our entertainment shows. Are they not very pointless and very shameless?” and another saying “at least 50% of the public doesn’t like those reality TV competitions.”
At the same time, the SARFT announced a markedly more popular measure of eliminating commercial breaks in television dramas. This measure was cheered by many netizens who looked forward to “reduced commercial interruptions” and lambasted the “crazy amount of advertising that gets crammed into TV dramas.”
Others struck a more cautious note, with one microblogger writing, “don’t just cheer the restrictions on commercials…this is a packaged sale tactic by the authorities to appeal to the psychology of some of the masses.” Another netizen struck a more sinister note, warning those who support the government’s intervention to “think of the story of the frog that is boiled in water which is only gradually warmed up…please don’t be so ignorant.”
However, there are no restrictions on the lengths of commercials between different programs or on in-show product placements, leading some to expect a dramatic increase in these forms of advertising. Some stations are, unsurprisingly, considering the use of shorter back-to-back episodes instead of the longer episodes previously aired.
In related news, Shanghai commuters have been up in arms recently over a innuendo laden ad running on trains and buses involving a scantily clad woman and a blue cartoon octopus. Perhaps it will soon be the advertising industry's turn to get some tough love from big brother.
