JANUARY 2, 2015 7:33 AM January 2, 2015 7:33 am
In “The Empress of China,” Fan Bingbing portrays Wu Zetian, the only woman in Chinese history to rule in her own right.
When the highly anticipated television show “The Empress of China” was abruptly pulled from Chinese airwaves just days after its premiere on Dec. 21, many speculated that the reason might have had less to do with technical problems, as the show’s producers claimed on its official microblog account, than with one aspect of the show that was, well, impossible to miss: the plunging necklines and tightly squeezed bosoms.
That speculation was confirmed on Thursday evening when the show, a palace drama set in the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-907) and featuring the actress Fan Bingbing, who also had roles in the Hollywood films “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “Iron Man 3”, resumed. Although the story line appeared to have been unaltered, it was clear that the show’s aesthetic had undergone a major transformation. The ample chests that once filled television screens were suddenly nowhere to be seen.
The online reaction among the show’s loyal fans has been nothing short of outrage.
“I really hate SAPPRFT!” wrote one user on Sina Weibo, referring to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, China’s top broadcast regulator. “The show was so beautiful! It’s the Tang dynasty — the characters are supposed to have plump bosoms! Now you’ve cut it so all that’s left is a big head. Thumbs down.”
Another user wrote: “I really had no idea that 21st-century people could be this conservative. They’re not even as open-minded as people from the Tang dynasty one millennium ago.”
Revealing décolletage is only the latest target to come into the cross hairs of China’s entertainment censors. In the past, the regulator cracked down on television shows that depicted time travel (thought to “lack positive thoughts and meaning”), adultery and one-night stands, and, most recently, wordplay and puns, which are thought to be “contradictory in spirit to the continuation and enhancement of outstanding traditional Chinese culture,” according to regulators.
Nor is it the first time that the authorities have stepped in to disrupt the screening of a television show or film. Minutes after the midnight premiere of “Django Unchained” in 2013, the Quentin Tarantino film was suddenly pulled from theaters, ostensibly because of objections to graphic scenes involving nudity and bloodshed that censors had apparently overlooked earlier. And, just last month, the premiere of the Chinese director Jiang Wen’s new film, “Gone With the Bullets,” was postponed at the last minute, also for reasons that are thought to be related to racy scenes.
