BEIJING — China told broadcasters on Thursday to shun artists with “incorrect political positions” and “effeminate” styles, and said a patriotic atmosphere needed to be cultivated, as part of a wider crackdown on its booming entertainment industry.
China’s communist authorities can censor anything they believe violates core socialist values, and already have stringent rules on content ranging from video games to movies to music.
The latest moves reining in the entertainment industry come in the wake of a series of celebrity scandals involving tax evasion and sexual assault.
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Two government ministries, including the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), and an industry association published fresh guidelines on Thursday,
The NRTA, a ministry level body, said it will strengthen regulation of stars’ salaries and punish tax evaders. It also said it would weed out any content in cultural programs that it deems to be unhealthy.
Last week, China’s internet regulator said it was taking action against what it described as a “chaotic” celebrity fan culture.
The selection of actors and guests should be carefully controlled, with political literacy and moral conduct included as criteria, NRTA said, adding that performers should be encouraged to participate in public welfare programs and assume social responsibilities.
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The notice further said that programs portraying “effeminate” behavior and other content deemed “warped” should be stopped, along with shows built around scandals, ostentatious wealth and “vulgar” internet celebrities.
Unhealthy fan culture should be deterred and strict controls placed on programs with voting segments, and any that encourage fans to spend money to vote should be forbidden, the notice added.
After years of runaway growth in the world’s second largest economy, regulators have been to trying to strengthen control over Chinese society by tightening oversight over a broad swathe of industries ranging from technology to education. They have called for measures to be taken to reduce gaping inequality.
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CRITICISM OF ‘EFFEMINATE’ STARS
Separate notices also published on Thursday by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the China Association of Performing Arts said that performers, like livestreaming stars, should undergo periodic training on professional ethics while agencies should terminate contracts with performers who “lack moral discipline.”
Besides criticizing the culture of celebrity worship, authorities and state media have criticized male stars who favor heavy make-up and carefully styled hair and project a feminine image, saying Chinese boys should become more manly.
Some “effeminate” stars are immoral and can damage adolescents’ values, according to an opinion piece in the state-run Guangming Daily on Aug. 27, written by a former official at a military newspaper.
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When such stars act as soldiers fighting in the war against the Japanese – a popular setting for Chinese movies and TV shows – they also make the “righteous” and “heroic” characters appear childish, said the piece.
One popular video-maker on Douyin, a short video platform, had his account suspended in late August after complaints that he was too “effeminate.”
Some comments on the social media site Weibo were more critical of the new guidelines for broadcasters.
“Actually esthetics should be diverse,” said one, with over 20,000 likes. “Isn’t this a kind of discrimination?” said another highly rated comment.
Chinese celebrities have attended government-arranged courses to learn about Communist Party history and have carried out “self-criticism” in the past two months in response to the crackdown.
At an event in Beijing in late August, movie stars Zhou Dongyu and Du Jiang read aloud a statement criticizing stars who had “crossed the bottom line,” calling on entertainers to never become “slaves of the market” and to be responsible to society, according to a video in local media.
Entertainers should “bravely scale artistic heights under the leadership of the (Communist) Party!” they said, to applause.
(Reporting by Gabriel Crossley, Brenda Goh and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Michael Perry, Kim Coghill, Simon Cameron-Moore and Mark Heinrich)
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Opinion: Brad West been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization
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Published Apr 22, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read
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VICTORIA — Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West fired off a letter to Premier David Eby last week about Allan Schoenborn, the child killer who changed his name in a bid for anonymity.
“It is completely beyond the pale that individuals like Schoenborn have the ability to legally change their name in an attempt to disassociate themselves from their horrific crimes and to evade the public,” wrote West.
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The Alberta government has legislated against dangerous, long-term and high risk offenders who seek to change their names to escape public scrutiny.
“I urge your government to pass similar legislation as a high priority to ensure the safety of British Columbians,” West wrote the premier.
The B.C. Review Board has granted Schoenborn overnight, unescorted leave for up to 28 days, and he spent some of that time in Port Coquitlam, according to West.
This despite the board being notified that “in the last two years there have been 15 reported incidents where Schoenborn demonstrated aggressive behaviour.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable that an individual who has committed such heinous crimes, and continues to demonstrate this type of behaviour, is able to roam the community unescorted.”
Understandably, those details alarmed PoCo residents.
But the letter is also an example of the outspoken mayor’s penchant for to-the-point pronouncements on provincewide concerns.
He’s been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization.
His most recent blast followed the news that the New Democrats were appointing a task force to advise on ways to curb the use of illicit drugs and the spread of weapons in provincial hospitals.
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“Where the hell is the common sense here?” West told Mike Smyth on CKNW recently. “This has just gone way too far. And to have a task force to figure out what to do — it’s obvious what we need to do.
“In a hospital, there’s no weapons and you can’t smoke crack or fentanyl or any other drugs. There you go. Just saved God knows how much money and probably at least six months of dithering.”
He had a pithy comment on the government’s excessive reliance on outside consultants like MNP to process grants for clean energy and other programs.
“If ever there was a place to find savings that could be redirected to actually delivering core public services, it is government contracts to consultants like MNP,” wrote West.
He’s also broken with the Eby government on the carbon tax.
“The NDP once opposed the carbon tax because, by its very design, it is punishing to working people,” wrote West in a social media posting.
“The whole point of the tax is to make gas MORE expensive so people don’t use it. But instead of being honest about that, advocates rely on flimsy rebate BS. It is hard to find someone who thinks they are getting more dollars back in rebates than they are paying in carbon tax on gas, home heat, etc.”
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West has a history with the NDP. He was a political staffer and campaign worker with Mike Farnworth, the longtime NDP MLA for Port Coquitlam and now minister of public safety.
When West showed up at the legislature recently, Farnworth introduced him to the house as “the best mayor in Canada” and endorsed him as his successor: “I hope at some time he follows in my footsteps and takes over when I decide to retire — which is not just yet,” added Farnworth who is running this year for what would be his eighth term.
Other political players have their eye on West as a future prospect as well.
Several parties have invited him to run in the next federal election. He turned them all down.
Lately there has also been an effort to recruit him to lead a unified Opposition party against Premier David Eby in this year’s provincial election.
I gather the advocates have some opinion polling to back them up and a scenario that would see B.C. United and the Conservatives make way (!) for a party to be named later.
Such flights of fancy are commonplace in B.C. when the NDP is poised to win against a divided Opposition.
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By going after West, the advocates pay a compliment to his record as mayor (low property taxes and a fix-every-pothole work ethic) and his populist stands on public safety, carbon taxation and other provincial issues.
The outreach to a small city mayor who has never run provincially also says something about the perceived weaknesses of the alternatives to Eby.
“It is humbling,” West said Monday when I asked his reaction to the overtures.
But he is a young father with two boys, aged three and seven. The mayor was 10 when he lost his own dad and he believes that if he sought provincial political leadership now, “I would not be the type of dad I want to be.”
When West ran for re-election — unopposed — in 2022, he promised to serve out the full four years as mayor.
He is poised to keep his word, confident that if the overtures to run provincially are serious, they will still be there when his term is up.
LIVE Q&A WITH B.C. PREMIER DAVID EBY: Join us April 23 at 3:30 p.m. when we will sit down with B.C. Premier David Eby for a special edition of Conversations Live. The premier will answer our questions — and yours — about a range of topics, including housing, drug decriminalization, transportation, the economy, crime and carbon taxes. Click HERE to get a link to the livestream emailed to your inbox.
New York Times reporter and CNN senior political analyst Maggie Haberman explains the significance of David Pecker, the ex-publisher of the National Enquirer, taking the stand in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump.
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