Angry Chinese Blogger

Angry Chinese Blogger: The news and views about China that the big media can't, or won't, tell you

The is no single truth

Menu: Home

Cannes, it rhymes with Bans.

« H E News and Politics :: Human rights and personal freedoms :: News and Perspectives :: Sino-European :: email
posted Friday, 8 September 2006

Once again it's that time of year (OK, so its a bit after that time of year). Bringing with it the three familiar certainties the Cannes film festival: Good movies, star studded parties and retribution from the Chinese government.

This year it is director Lou Ye's turn to face Beijing's wrath.

High Treason

For the crime of submitting his latest film "Summer Palace" to Cannes, without approval from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television - the government run agency that is in charge of audio and video censorship in China - Renowned Chinese director Lou Ye has been banned from film making in for 5 years.

Nai An, "Summer Palace"'s producer, has also been banned from making films for the same length of time.

Prior to its release, it was reported that Summer Palace would not be screening at Cannes because Lou did not wish to harm his chances of releasing the movie domestically.

Summer Palace

Sumer Palace is a complex love story about a young country girl name Yu Hong who enters into an intense relationship with a fellow student during a time of great social and political upheaval in Mainland China.
  "I opened my photo album today.
I saw a picture of Zhou Wei.
My heart raced again.
One look at him
and I felt the joy and the pain.
Staring at his face
I asked myself,
On such a calm and open face,
all rectitude and resolution,
how is it that I couldn't see a trace,
not a shadow, that could make me doubt?

Why is it that no matter what this man had said to me, or what he had done to me, I do not really care, my heart still belongs to him?"

Summer Palace 		 

According to Lou, the film was partly autobiographical, and reflects on his own experiences as a student in Beijing during the time which Summer Palace is set.
  "I wanted to tell this story, because in 1989 I was myself a student at Peking University and was involved in a romance"

Lou Ye, Director, China 		 

Explanations?

Officially, Chinese authorities maintain the Lou was banned from film making for disseminating a movie that had not been granted official approval for distribution, while Chinese censors maintain that they refused to allow the film to be submitted to Cannes on the grounds that Lou had used an experimental soft lens technique which Beijing did not believe met quality requirements for a film representing China.

Unofficially, however, observers believe that the ban may have more to do with the fact that Summer Palace was set against the backdrop of the pro-democracy and pro-reform movements of the 1980s, which culminated in the government backed extermination of student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

The film also included a number of 'intimate' scenes, which would not have helped matters.

Technicalities?

According to media reports, Summer Palace was submitted twice to Chinese censors. Both times the film was rejected on technical grounds. The first time the film was rejected after claims were made against its technical quality, and the second time censors refused to view it because it was not submitted on the correct type of physical medium.

Total Censorship

As is traditional, Lou's punishment received little recognition in China, where the government frequently acts to suppress news about banned movies or directors in case that news encourages people to discuss the film, or to question why it was banned.

In accordance with this ban, Chinese stores have been warned 'not to stock' Summer Palace, and media outlets were restricted to only printing approved versions of events and approved reviews of the film.

Take 2

Lou was previously banned from film making for 2 years in 2000, after his film Suzhou River angered Chinese authorities.

Suzhou River was screened at the 1999 Rotterdam International Film Festival, where it won the Tiger award and at the 2000 Paris Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix award.

(Open entry to view Poll)
Why does Beijing ban media outlets from producing independent articles about banned films and directors?
To protect banned films and directors from criticism
To protect the reputation of the Chinese film industry
To prevent directors from spreading propaganda to support their films
To prevent the media outlets from showing pornographic or violent scenes from banned movies
To prevent the public from finding out how many films are banned each year
To prevent the issues raised in banned films from being openly discussed
To prevent the process of censorship from being openly discussed
All three of the above

tags:                  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit


View Comments/Add a Comment (6)


1. sarah left...
Saturday, 9 September 2006 7:52 am

I vote for all of the above. And by the way, Cannes rhymes with Ban. The "s" is silent. French pronunciation is weird that way. Good discussion and thank you for the update.


2. Dana left...
Saturday, 9 September 2006 2:04 pm

This policy of censorship on the part of the Chinese government is outrageous. No government should have control over the distribution of the works of an individual.


3. China Law Blog left...
Monday, 11 September 2006 9:50 am :: http://www.chinalawblog.com

China bans articles on its banning of films for the same reason it bans films. It wants to keep things from its people. Plain and simple.


4. China Law Blog left...
Monday, 11 September 2006 9:53 am :: http://www.chinalawblog.com

China bans articles on its banning of films for the same reason it bans films. It wants to keep things from its people. Plain and simple.


5. The Humanaught left...
Tuesday, 12 September 2006 1:16 pm :: http://www.thehumanaught.com/blog

I hadn't heard that "quality of film" was an issue for being banned - what an abnormal system. How can film in China be expected to evolve or compete if all they're doing is using status quo standards from other countries' film industries? Bizarre and close minded. Consider me unsurprised though.

As this is Lou's second offence, I'll be surprised if he doesn't start making movies abroad. It's sad that China has to force some of their best artists to go abroad to find creative freedom - especially over opinion and information that really just needs to be accepted and owed up to, so the Chinese people can move forward.


6. The Angry Chinese Blogger left...
Tuesday, 12 September 2006 4:39 pm :: http://angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com

'Officially', Beijing first turned down Summer Palace because they felt that the audio quality of the film was poor, and that the experimental soft focus lense techniques that Lou had used were not of a sufficiently high quality for it to be allowed to represent the 'China brand name'. Unofficially, the fact that they refused to even view the film after Lou had reedited it tells a slightly different story.

As for working overseas. Lou would have to leave China to do that, and it's far from certain that Beijing would allow him to do that. They've confiscated directors passprts before to stop them attending awards and they've banned directors from working with foreign film companies before too.