Source: YouTube Movies

Hollywood filmmakers have new ways to bypass China's film censorship

By Chuhan Jie

Poor Wolverine! Even his adamantium claws didn't keep him safe from Chinese censors. "Logan" (rated R), the 137-minute blockbuster starring Hugh Jackman - the latest installment of the X-Men franchise released in 2017 - was cut 17 minutes by China's censors. The deleted scenes included a bloody one in which Laura/X-23, Wolverine's female clone, carries the detached head of a mercenary.

Film censorship in China, unlike in the United States, is controlled by the government, which does not rate films based on their content but simply bans or edits content it deems to be unsuitable.

Despite being one of the world's biggest film markets, the country's censorship and importing policy limits the amount of content that both Chinese and foreign filmmakers are allowed to produce. In fact, China only imports 34 foreign movies a year. Of those films, about 80 percent had more than one minute deleted, according to Phoenix New Media, because the content was considered unsuitable for Chinese audiences.

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Western filmmakers are trying increasingly elaborate ways to get around Chinese censors, but with limited success. For example, "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (2014) avoided censorship by casting a single Chinese actor (Bingbing Fan) with a single line ("Time's up!"). "Transformers: Age of Extinction" (2014), on the other hand, cast three Chinese actors, but those actors only appeared in the version of the film seen by Chinese audiences.

The PRC Film Promotion Law regulates both film content and importation policy. The limitation on importing films is another difficulty that foreign filmmakers face. Dube said that because China has a restriction on the number of foreign movies it imports, Hollywood producers do not always successfully sell films to China. Producers have tried to use different methods, like co-production between American and Chinese film companies as one way to get around the policy, which is why co-production has been on the rise since 2010.

"The co-producing movies count as neither revenue-sharing films nor buy-out films," Zijia Wang, a Chinese actor, said in a phone interview from his home in Beijing. "So, co-productions help foreign filmmakers detour the limitation on importing."

Hollywood sees China as a truth grows area. It has invested heavily in co-productions as well as trying to get their blockbusters into China and to have them appeal to Chinese audiences.
- Clayton Dube,
the director of USC US-China Institute

Co-production is casting of Chinese actors. A lot of Chinese performers that have come and have taken part in either co-productions or American productions. Dube said some of the financing is tied to this.

"Hollywood sees China as a true growth area," he said. "It has invested heavily in co-productions as well as trying to get their blockbusters into China and to have them appeal to Chinese audiences."

Filmmakers edit two different versions for one movie, according to Wang. One version has Chinese performers and the other one doesn't. The "Chinese-only" version films involve at least one Chinese actor, who draws in Chinese audiences, but the main purpose is to meet the requirement of the Chinese government.

"When American-producing movies use a Chinese actor, they are called co-producing movies," Wang said. "So film producers can import as many movies as they want without violating the Chinese importing policy."

X-Men: Days of Future Past

"X-Men: Days of Future Past" is a superhero film produced by 20th Century Fox in 2014. Bingbing Fan is a famous Chinese actor whose role in X-Men is Blink. The length of the movie is 130 minutes, but Fan only existed for less than 1 minute and only had one line: "Time's up!" The box office in mainland China earned $105 million, which made the most profitable movie in 2014. According to Chinese audiences, Fan was a great choice for Hollywood, because she was impactful in China and had a great population of fans, which meant, even though those fans didn't know what Marvel was, they would go and watch the movie because of Fan.

The Chinese government censors all films, foreign and domestic. The main content that the Chinese government censors is the ideology of a film. For instance, The remake of "The Karate Kid" (rated PG) was a global success in 2010 but not a success in China because the Asian nation's censorship agency - the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television - cut 12 minutes from the film, including shots of two kids kissing and fighting, but more importantly, a Chinese character played the role of a villain in the film.

Logan cut

13 seconds were cut from of the scene, including Laura throwing the head of a mercenary as she walks out of the factory. This scene violates the Film Law on violence.

Source: YouTube Movies & iQiyi

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"The first thing filmmakers do to try to sell films in China is [to make sure] if there is a China component, it's a positive one. ...," according to Clayton Dube, the director of the University of Southern California's U.S.-China Institute. "The Chinese party-state does want to control the image, not just in China, but outside of China."

Many great Chinese-produced movies - for instance, "To Live" (not rated) - have won awards on the international level while being banned in mainland China. "To Live" was set during the time of China's Cultural Revolution, which was a sociopolitical movement that negatively affected China's economy and society to a significant degree.

"What attracts a positive response from critics and international audiences is not always what will please the censors or Chinese ticket buyers," Dube said.

Violence and obscenity are also taboo in China. Since China doesn't have a rating system, the only thing the Chinese government can do is cut out those shots. Therefore, in China, it's common to see parents take their children to watch adult-oriented movies, such as "Logan."

"Every film has to be acceptable for every audience," Dube said. "As a consequence, there can't be violence or pornography. The government is trying to limit what is accessible to the Chinese audience."

A former actor in China, Chao Yang now is a filmmaking student at USC. After being in the industry for several years, Yang said he believes China does not want to ban the content just because it contains violence or obscenity, but because of the country's scarcity of higher education resources. Yang said China simply wants to prevent its uneducated citizens from copying violent behavior they may see in a Hollywood movie.

China has 1.4 billion people, but only 120 million people gain higher education, which only makes 0.8 percent. The lack of education makes the ethical standards low, Yang said.

Titanic cut

36 seconds were cut from the scene in which Jack sketches Rose naked. This scene violates the Film Law on obscenity.

Source: YouTube Movies & iQiyi

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"We cannot guarantee that when people watch a movie which has obscene scenes, they are not going to see those scenes as art instead of pornography," Yang said. "So what the government does for movies is not to ban content but to protect audiences from learning bad behaviors from movies."

The restriction on obscenity is tougher now than 10 years ago. In 1998, "Titanic" (PG-13) was shown throughout China in its full uncut version. Fifteen years later, the 3D version was released. However, the film was cut by 11 minutes, including the sensual shots of Jack sketching his naked love interest, Rose.

However, young Chinese can get around the government restrictions by using VPN to pass the "Great Firewall" - a regulation restricts Chinese internet domestically.

"This is a 'gray area,'" Yang said. "People can actually get access to all full versions of movies if they know how to pass the firewall. That's literally not allowed, but there's no law in China to explicitly regulate it."

Whereas adult content is open for interpretation by the censors, politics is non-negotiable. All films shown in China must reflect the Chinese government's communist philosophy. As for China, Dube said, the film rating system can be tied with violence, sex, and cursing, for example, the F-word, but the political censorship is non-negotiable. The point is that the Chinese government wants a unified standard to regulate the segmenting film market, so the best way is to cut unsuitable shots out, instead of classifying different movies.

"What the Chinese government does care about is the ideology," Yang said. "The basic principle must be teaching people positive things. On the global level, China has to show the rest of the world that China is developing but hides the scandals which happened in the past."

Banned films Produced by Chinese People

In China, the government not only censors imported movies, but it also censors Chinese-produced movies. Any content violates the Chinese Film Law needs to be cut or totally banned to release in China. Therefore, although many great Chinese films had successes in international film circuits, they cannot be shown in China. Here are four Chinese movies that were either cut or banned in mainland China for obscenity, hurting the government's reputation, and homosexuality.

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To Live

To Live was directed by Yimou Zhang, a great Chinese director, in 1994. It was based on a novel of the same title. This movie portrayed the time after the People's Republic of China was founded. Due to its critical portrayal of campaigns of the Communist Party and various policies, this film wasn't released in mainland China. To Live was screened at the 1994 New York Film Festival.