Let us hope that China’s future will rest in the hands of the Yang Kuns and Yan Yajuns rather than the Hu Jintaos and Wen Jiabaos.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13152549,00.html

CHINA BANS HARRY POTTER

Harry Potter may have fought off Voldemort, but can he hold out against the Chinese Communist Party?  

At least for this summer, the answer is “No”, writes Sky’s Holly Williams in Beijing.

The third instalment of Harry’s celluloid adventures, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, has been effectively banned for the school holidays on the Chinese mainland after a government decision to delay its release as part of an official crackdown aimed at strengthening morals.  

The government’s morality campaign began earlier this year, and was initially targeted at the Chinese media. Around 16,000 internet cafes have been closed down, while remaining operations were told to deny access to minors and better regulate their customers’ access to sites deemed unsuitable by authorities.  

Chinese television presenters were also ordered to clean up their act; the government has banned them from sporting dyed hair and revealing clothing. The intended effect, according to one official, is to “reduce the negative impact of queer dressing and behaviour on youngsters”.  

Exactly how “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” might negatively influence Chinese children has not been explained by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television the government bureau responsible for the ban.  

Also affected by the clampdown are Hollywood Blockbusters “Spider-Man 2″ and “Shrek 2″, which will have their releases delayed until after the school holidays.  

Many copies are being sold on the black market

Chinese journalist, Shen Ting, says that the government believes that the media is to blame for a new youth culture that is alien to older Chinese leaders.  

“The people are all calling more and more for openness in the media”, said Shen, ‘but maybe the Chinese Government has the kind of concern that if they just open the market very abruptly that will bring disruption or damage to society.’  

Indeed, the Chinese government is struggling to come to terms with a transformation of the country’s young. China’s first ever generation of Western-style teenagers is hungry for imported pop music, video games, fashion and movies. At least in the eyes of their worried parents, many young people have rejected traditional Chinese values such as academic excellence and filial piety in favour of shopping, surfing the internet and night clubs.  

Daniel Radcliffe – aka Harry Potter

Meanwhile, in a tone reminiscent of conservative media in the West in the 1960s, China’s state-run newspapers abound in disturbing reports of juvenile delinquency and violence. One paper recently reported that two teenagers, aged 16 and 17, robbed a taxi driver of cash and his mobile phone after seeing car-jackings on a television show. Xinhua, the government’s official news wire service, reported that three middle school students beat up a cyclist and later told police they were simply acting out scenes they had scene on video games.  

Many officials agree that there is a clear link between a rise in youth violence (it jumped by 12.7% last year) and foreign influence via the media. “In the past it was hard to imagine that some crimes would appear in Chinese juveniles”, said Shen Ting, “but now more and more cases are appearing, and social problems are getting more common.”  

But Harry Potter’s young Chinese fans seem unlikely perpetrators of violent or anti-social acts. On a recent afternoon at the Xinhua Bookstore in downtown Beijing, primary school-aged children flocked around the shelves displaying all five Harry Potter books. A sales assistant attested that the books are top sellers.  

The children all avid readers, and, according to those parents present, good students seemed confused and worried by the suggestion that Harry Potter might be a negative influence on their development.  

Ten-year-old Yang Kun said that the first two movies were “frightening and really good” and rebutted the government’s concerns, arguing that “Harry teaches kids to be brave and helps them solve their problems.”  

Told that he would not be able to see the new Harry Potter film this summer, 14-year-old Yan Yajun was outraged. “I think that’s wrong”, he said. “They shouldn’t stop kids from watching what they want to watch. Harry doesn’t have a bad impact on kids; he teaches us things.”

My real question concerns the shows’s title and radio presenters’ pronunciation. For a while now I have been listening to news accounts of what sounded like the The Rock War. I finally grasped that this referred to the unpleasntess currently playing out in and around Baghdad.

Now my commute dulled brain has been jolted with another oddly titled phenomenon. “Open Sores” the previews appeared to promise. Sort of appropriate, I thought, find a series of festering issue like the Iraq war, and keep picking at it. A little low-brow perhaps, but catchy, as it were. Then I heard a different pronunciation- less Canadian neutral perhaps, and I realized that my brief fantasy of a vulgarly titled NPR show was nothing of the sort. Open Source is the show’s name. I cannot believe it is entirely unintentional.

This wave has been in response the the rapid spreading of the Epoch Times’ “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,” which, since November of last year, has spurred the withdrawal of over 2 million members from the party.

Check out the 9 commentaries, or Jiuping, at http://www.theepochtimes.com

Yes, I was wondering how people talk in code about democracy in China. But, if it’s in code, better not say it!

Jon

Thanks for putting this together.

One thing that people forget in this country, the land of the free, is that we had censored movies for three decades. I can’t defend the Production Code, but I can point out that producers and artists found a way to work around it and stretch what they can do. And in a little twist of history, the Production Code did not fall because of free speech reasons, but because of an anti-trust lawsuit (another consequence was the brilliant movies after the code fell, in the 60′s and 70′s.) So I would support Amardeep’s point that there may be value in using “codewords” for the short term.

Hmm. Can people still self-organize if they are resigned to using codewords? If history has always pointed in the direction of freedom and liberation (at least for cultures adept at codewords?) then we should be optomistic.

Jon