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Banned on the Mainland: Gay Cowboys are a filth foreign idea with no place in a modern Chinese society
Despite claims to the contrary, censorship is an ever present fact in modern day Mainland China. A fact that reaches far beyond the normal political issues, and onwards into every aspect of public and private life. Curtailing anything and everything that Beijing feels might either lessen its grip on power, contradicts its version of history, or undermine its particular view on what is and isn't socially acceptable.
For this reason, it come as little surprise to China watchers to learn that Brokeback Mountain, a controversial film depicting the secret 20 year relationship between to gay cowboys, will not be running in Chinese theatres any time soon.
According to media sources, censors working for the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film & Television were outraged by the film's sexual content and its depiction of same sex relationships, and refused to grant it permission to be screened or distributed on the Chinese Mainland.
Ironically the film's banning in China comes only a matter of days after its Taiwanese born director 李安 (Li Ang, also known as Ang Lee) hailed Asia as having a far more open-minded approach to sexuality than America.
Suppression?
While China has become more accommodating towards the issue of homosexuality over the last half decade, things remain far from ideal. At present, Chinese authorities largely deny that there is any substantial 'gay presence' in China, instead choosing to promote homosexual, at best, as being a 'foreign problem' and at worst, as being a personality aberration caused by insufficient effort not to be homosexual.
China has previously banned a number of domestic films portraying homosexuality, including 张元 (Zhang Yuan)'s 东宫西宫 (East place, West place); a rendition of the lives and treatment of homosexuals in modern day China, which won critical acclaim at the 1997 Cannes film festival.
There have also been a number of reports of officially sanctioned harassment of China's fledgling gay and lesbian communities, including an incident that occurred on 16 December 2005, when Chinese security forces raided the On/Off Bar, a homosexual friendly club located in Beijing, in order to break up a 'Gay and Lesbian Festival' that was being held there.
Some observers have however voiced that the On/Off club raid may not have been strictly related to the fact that the festival being held there was a 'gay and lesbian' event, but instead that it was more a reaction to the fact that it was organized outside of Beijing's sphere of influence, and that it was setting up to contradicts a number of misconceptions about homosexuality and homosexual lifestyles that were being tascitly supported by the Chinese government.
Social Censorship?
Despite containing strong homosexual theme, and mild male nudity, both of which Beijing comonly speaks out against, some have voiced that the Beijing may have found additional reasons to ban Brokeback Mountain. Including its depiction of 'rustic life' in America, and its contradictions of certain beliefs about America's origins.
As such, some observers have suggested that Chinese censors might have found cause for concern in the fact that Brokeback Mountain depicts America as having strong agrarian roots, rather than the industrial and commercial roots that many Chinese believe are the source of America's modern day wealth, and which Beijing is currently promoting as the 'only way forward', and the fact that it clearly shows that many of America's rural poor of the 1960s and 70s had a higher quality of life than much of China's modern rural population.
Although an outside concern when compared to the sexual issues raised by Brokeback Mountain, the level of rural unrest in China, particularly that created by poverty and industrialization, mean that these issues would likely have played on the minds of Chinese censors lest the have an impact on potential audiences.
Irony, Infamy and Idiocy
Despite claims that it is an open and accepting country, Brokeback Mountain caused a great deal of controversy when it was released in America. With many religious, conservative, and so-called 'family' groups denouncing it for its depiction of a male-male relationship, and accused it of 'trying to subvert American into accepting homosexuality'.
As a result, Brokeback Mountain has already been subject to an 'informal' ban in several parts of the United States, which has seen many cinemas in regions such Utah and Washington refusing to show it after pressure was put on them by conservative and right-wing elements.
In stark contrast to its reception to its reception in America, and its treatment by Mainland censors, Brokeback Mountain was well received in Asia. When it was released in Chinese-Taiwan, on 20 January, it quickly took the number one box office position; serving to highlight many of the differences and 'social incompatibilities' that have emerged between the two uneasy neighbors.
In addition to highlighting some of the differences between Mainland China and Chinese-Taiwan, the banning of Brokeback Mountain also served to illustrate exactly how much China's attitude towards sexuality and same sex relationships differs from that of Neighboring Japan, where 少年愛 (Shounenai), or 'male love', is a popular theme for Manga, Anime and conventional cinema.
Like Brokeback Mountain, Japanese 少年愛 (Shounenai) often focuses on the social and emotional aspects of a same sex relationship, rather than on sexual content. Similarly, it also attracts a large heterosexual female audience, who are drawnto it by its romantic story lines and portrayals of male emotions.
Brokeback mountain was filmed in the Canadian province of Alberta, where I
grew up, although it was set in the States.
I'm sorry, but my friend the owner of the back-street pirate DVD store and
myself beg to disagree -- two weeks after he sold me a DVD quality copy of
the movie. And don't be overlooking the fact that an overwhelming percentag
of American movies (I would guess 95%) never make it to Chinese theaters
anyway, but are viewed by thousands like me. The "social censorship" part,
especially about America's "agrarian roots", makes no sense at all. Chinese
censors are anything but sociologists, and in my opinion even the most
zealous Chinese sociologists or cross-cultural pundits wouldn't take up
that issue, ever. If anything, I would say Brokeback Mountain's biggest
obstacle in China is market. Despite the halo surrounding a big-time Golden
Globe winner and front-runner for Oscar, the theme of the movie wouldn't
find too many sympathizers in China -- not so much because of bias or
social taboo but for general lack of interest by the public in anything so
serious and tragic, especially at this time of year.
i agree with uleewang above - you're spot on.
Whoa, toooooo much information.
I don't think he's degrading Chinese people with these photos. Seems to me
like he's just into erotic art, photos and poetry and stuff. He seems to
almost worship this China babe of his. She appears alot in his freewebs
blog too. And from reading his freewebs blog, it seems as he has been with
this girl for at least four years.
I don't think he's degrading Chinese people with these photos. Seems to me
like he's just into erotic art, photos and poetry and stuff. He seems to
almost worship this China babe of his. She appears alot in his freewebs
blog too. And from reading his freewebs blog, it seems as he has been with
this girl for at least four years.
I don't think he's degrading Chinese people with these photos. Seems to me
like he's just into erotic art, photos and poetry and stuff. He seems to
almost worship this China babe of his. She appears alot in his freewebs
blog too. And from reading his freewebs blog, it seems as he has been with
this girl for at least four years.
sorry about the multiple posts. I some trouble with the computer stalling
and I kept having to press post. Just delete the last two posts.
I guess that I'm just a traditionalist, if he's been with her for so long,
then why isn't she Mrs Anthony-Jones.
wow you do sound like a "traditionalist". why should MAJ or anyone else
necessarily get married? Why can't they just stay as a couple in a de facto
relationship? and don't you think that by saying a white guy shouldn't take
erotic photos of himslef with a Chinese girl that you are being a bit
racist? if people conclude from that that a CHinese girl must be a "whore"
then that says more about those people I think. if she was photographed
with a Chinese guy would that make a difference to the way people perceive
it? If so why?
by the way, sorry if I seemed a bit harsh in my above comment, it's just I
thought you were a bit more liberal.
No worries, in generally I'm quite liberal compared to a lot of people from
my country. I have no problems with race or interracial relationships, I
support gay unions and am not homophobic, and I don't pretend that nudity
and sex are always intertwined, but I was raised with a strong set of
morals when it came to sex and marriage.
I see. so you want to see MAJ's "wing wang". Me too. Actually, I've been
hoping he swings both ways, in case I ever run into him one day.
One more thing, if you read MAJs freewebs travel bog, the one on Shenzhen
Kitsch, he talks about Chinese history of homosexuality, and that's why I
was thinking he might swing both ways. That, and because he does seem to be
a bit of a vanity man, posting up so many photos of himself. What he writes
is actually really interesting. Have you read any of it? Do you know of any
sites where he has posted up his address or phone number of internet
address, cause he doesn't allow comments on any of his sites so I can't
contact him in any way.
"there does still seem to be somthing strange about a liberal who endores
marriage so strongly"
I've read a little of what he writes, but I tend to avoid his posts because
I disagree with him on a lot of things, and he spent a lot of effort bad
mouthing my site and making up stupid things about me being anti-CCP (I
pretty much never mention the CCP, ever). I also don't have all that much
time to read travel diaries etc.
"You might as well just say that Brokeback Mountain ought to be banned
cause it offends Chinese culture"
Ok, fair enough. But not all individual Chinese are prudish about sex, as
the number of Chinese sex blogs and diaries goes to show, like the
Guangzhou girl who blogs explicit details about her very active sex life,
where she sleeps with a different guy almost every day! Not all Americans
are relgious conservatives either. Only roughly half of us!
I can't comment about MAJs internet behavior except to say that he plays
with words, like Orwellian doublespeak, and he treats blogs and cyberspace
as a non-real world that's open to pranks and that's something not to be
taken too seriously. He obviously stirs other bloggers up to fill in office
time, as he says. He is a cyber jerk, as you say, but what makes him
interesting is that he happily admits to being so, and that's because I
guess he doesn't take any of it seriously. But his travel writings are more
interesting cause he writes them for a different audience, his family and
friends he says in his intro, and what he says in them is progressive and
at times really interesting. You check them out, they'll give you a very
different impression of the guy.
Ok last comment for tonight. You say he writes fiercly pro-CHina essays for
China Daily, but go read his travelogues. He is at times fiercly critical
of China, specially in the Shenzhen Kitsch II one. Evidence I guess, that
he writes crap for China Daily merely to shit stir China bloggers. His real
views can be found on his travel writings, his shit-stiring pranks on China
Daily.
I just looked MAJ up on the CHina Daily, and read a few of his articles,
all of which I had already read on Letters from China blog, where I first
heard about MAJ. The Hong Kong guy who runs that site published all of MAJs
CD articles on his site as well. Actually, I found myself agreeing with at
least half of what he says in them articles. I have also read the
Fantabulist thread on Peking Duck site, and that's how I became interested
in MAJ by the way.
Oh and just one more thing I need to get off my chest. You say you are
tolerant and accepting of homosexuals, and yet you say that families and
therefore marriage is important for societies health, and this is why you
judge MAJ so harshly saying he ought to have married this girl by now, as
if to say he can't be sincere unless he legally binds himself by signing a
marriage contract.
As a gay man myself, I know all too well that homophobia is largely the
result of the ideology of the family. MAJ talks about this in his essay on
Shenzhen kitsch II and I found that he is spot on about this. It's one
reason why I like the guy, though I know he can sometimes be a cyber jerk
too. Marriage is an anachronism, it belongs in the past, when men wanted
theor women to bind themselves to them legally through marriage contract,
as though they were possession. And as ideology is "naturalizes" as MAJ
puts it, monogomous heterosexual unions and by doing this it implies
homosexuality and bisexcuality as unnatural and therefore deviant.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinions.
Amibguous answer! I didn't accuse you of being from America or China
because you said you were from Europe earlier above.
oh and for the record I think MAJ has sometimes behaved like a cyber jerk,
specially in the way that he tried to paint blogs like this to be hate
sites but I said already that i think his arguments about ethnocentrism
were fair enough and i agree with much of what he says there. He also
behaved in bad form by using richard's real name, his full name and that's
just not good form. all i'm saying is that he's not as bad as people say
and he's written some really interesting things as well and in many ways he
seems to be very progressive and leftwing. i like his attitudes towards
homosexuality and towards china , what he says on his blog about china. and
his views about nature of the internet and using roleplay is interesting
and with much merit even though many bloggers like yourself object to the
dishonesty of it.
I studied in Europe (lanugages and history) for a short time, and I
worked/lived/studied in Britain for several years, so I know the attitudes
there pretty well, but it takes more than this to make me come from there.
I've lived, worked and studied on the Mainland for quite some time, but
this doesn't make me a mainlander either (fortunately).
ok ACB that's a good point, and reason enough to be objectionalbe about the
use of multiple peronas but i think MAJ maybe doesn't take blogs all that
seriously and his Dr Anne charcter was kind of fun and amusing for many
readers as well for a while. On a more serious forum i can see that using
multiple personas to support ones own arguments is bad form.
News for you! MAJ has put his guest book back up on his freewebs site which
means i can chat to him now. I have so many questions to ask him be
interesting to see how he responds to me. I've asked him for his email
address already and ive asked him hopw he feels bout you. hope you don't
mind but i want to see how he really feels about you and your site, see
whether the hatred is mutual.
Na! He's removed it again. I did leave a comment though as I said above.
strange.
It's irritation rather than hatred, he doens't play by the rules.
Out of curiosity, why Japanese?
Simple! You have left too many hints, like the use of the word "kawiiness"
(cuteness in Japanese), you have lots of photos of hanami (cherry blossoms)
and you are into anime! And people can post comments here using Japanese
characters. It all adds up! The reason you attack (or are sensitive) to
white guys being with asian girls, and the anti-americanism (maybe you're
from Yokosuka or Okinawa!)
actually, i tell a bit of a lie. I did post a comment on MAJs guest book,
and i did ask him how he felt about you and his site. That was earlier this
afternoon. He replied about 30 minutes later saying that he used to find
your site a "curiosity" and that he assumed you were Japanese from your use
of the word "kawiiness" but I hve not been able to find this word anywhere
on your blog. He also mentioned the anime and the hanami photos and he said
something about how he can also tell from your writings, that your are a
generation X girl from Japan. Your views he said were generally sound but
sometimes conmfused and inconsistent and that you were typical of the kind
of writers criticised by Kanzaburo Oe, postmodern writers like Banana
Yoshimoto and Murakami Haruki, the sort of writers he says are vacuous and
yet popular. He prefers Oe and Kobo Abe is his favorite he said. The
earlier generation of Japanese writers he says are far superior to the
generation x postmodern writers, but he said you typify that generation in
both writing style and in ideological inconsistency. He also said he used
to live and work in Japan and that he had a Japanese girlfriend for a few
years and that he can tell you're probably japanese. I wanted to alert you
to this but for some strange reason he has deleted his guest book again.
oh and I nearly forgot. he said you are probably "nice enough" in reality
but that he doesn't really know much about you and that he can't read your
blog from where he is and I can't really remember thn erest. he did go on a
bit a length though. And he didn't leave me his email address like i asked
which is a bit disappointing. maybe he's a bit scared of me! he he he
...or maybe he's angry with me for discovering his chinaeros.blog.com porno
site he he
While I would love to be able to pretend that I am have read 吉本 and 村上, or
even 大江 健三郎, I can't. I know of them, but I've never read anything by them
that I was not forced to read. I did study litrature for a while, but I
more of a popular fiction person.
If it's about MAJ, I guessed a long time ago.
i just noticed that you called me Dr Anne in a comment you made to me on
the Peking duck which suggests to me that you think i am just another MAJ
creation. Sorry you think like that. I wont comment here again but i just
want to say that i enjoyed the discussion i had with you here anyway but im
offended and annoyed about being taken for being someone else. i thought i
had found a friend here but it seems i was mistaken. ivan and richard
accused me of being MAj too. So sad that people cant mention MAJ without
being accused of being MAj. Guess it says something about human nature.
Anyway thanks for the discussion and i won't pollute your site again.
I enjoy debate and discussion, even in the third persons, just so long as
it is with one person per name. ROland is a good chat.
ok. one last respone then. Roland is Roland. Roland Donaldson to be
precise. and you can track me down and will see that im not in shenzhen,
close to 5 hours away by train in fact. you people are just incredible, the
way you treat guests with such suspicion and mistrust