Ok, here’s another round of China bashing by me. The Chinese government has just banned actress Tang Wei, who is of course best known for her role in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, from all media in China. The kicker here is that although Lust, Caution was understandably controversial in China, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) had already approved it for release last year after its producers cut some footage from it. It seems however that the release of even the censored version offended someone higher up in the government so it has put pressure on the SARFT and the film’s producers and this is the result.
What really angers me about this, aside from the issue of a government handing out an approval from one hand and taking it away with another, is that the Chinese government chose to ban Tang Wei and only her. Why not slap a ban on co-star Tony Leung as well? What, it’s okay to show a Chinese man having sex but it’s not okay to show a Chinese woman having sex? Why not ban Ang Lee as well? After all, no one is more responsible for what happens in a film than its director. Of course there’s the little fact that both Tony Leung and Ang Lee are internationally renowned artists and who can forget how gushingly proud all Chinese were when Ang Lee won an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain despite its very politically incorrect content in Chinese eyes.
Meanwhile, Tang Wei is just an unknown starlet who took off her clothes in front of a camera for the whole world to see, embarrassing China in the process, so it’s perfectly alright to censure her for it. Good job, China.
thats really not very important. what about the fact that falun gong members are killed for dissidence, even though they are non violent? or the genocide going on in tibet?
you know, there are important things going on in the world.
While it’s true that this issue is less pressing than those it doesn’t mean that it’s any less ridiculous a decision on China’s part and somehow undeserving of mention.
Those stances in the movies has provoke the elders officers that they could never perform.. even those young GRO by their sides challenge them to perform those stances right there and then. So it’s pretty much personal I guess whatever story they could cook up.. Get what I mean?
Too many fools fail to realize that the reason why Tang Wei is the only cast member from “Lust, Caution” to be banned in the People’s Republic of China is because she is a citizen of mainland China. Tony Leung is a citizen of Hong Kong, and Ang Lee is a citizen of Taiwan. China has a right to black list anybody under their communist regime so they can contribute to maintaining the moral standards that are being tossed away in the so called free world. Tang Wei had real sex with Tony Leung for fictional depiction, that is why she was banned, plus the political content too. Wei played a character who became a bitch to a traitor. Therefore the People’s Republic of China had the right to ban Wei because she defied her country’s standards. And of course she should have the right to sue that sick bastard, Ang Lee.
Here are some words from actor Jackie Chan:
“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” Chan said. “I’m really confused now. If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic.”
Chan is right on the money with that comment. Because after Ang Lee Made Tang Wei take off her clothes and do real sex in a closed set, this indicates that Taiwan and Hong Kong are chaotic societies when it comes to films because of the fact that sick directors like Ang Lee have these hidden intentions to place actors under such extreme dilemas that resulted in the blacklisting of Tang Wei.
So Jackie Chan, long live China. (BTW I am black).
First of all, whether Tang Wei is a Chinese national or not is irrelevant to the question of having her media appearances and performances being banned in the PRC. The PRC bans plenty of other artistic works, whether they have been produced by PRC citizens or not. If the PRC government believes that Lust, Caution is heinous enough to slap a ban on performances by Tang Wei, then it should logically also ban the other performers and cast members whether or not they are PRC citizens. To do otherwise would be hypocritical.
Secondly, you’re obviously of the opinion that governments have a role in legislating over issues of private morality. I disagree but I also realize that attempting to change someone else’s mind on this issue is pointless. I happen to also believe that citizens have no duty to be patriotic towards their countries, whichever they may be. Instead, I believe that they should be true to their moral principles. I suppose you’d disagree with that as well.
Finally, I’d also written a post on that comment by Jackie Chan. Probably the best possible reply to you is that plenty of Chinese people agree with me in disagreeing with those comments.
You can go ahead and dissagree with what I said. The problem with too many people in the West (especially Americans) is that westerners like to go around the world telling people and governments what to do and how to think. All I am saying is that the People’s Republic of China government has the right to have their rules and run things the way they want. That’s that’s their buisness, not ours. Our buisness is to be diplomatic and look out for humanity.
Yes I agree that if Tang Wei is banned by media in her native PRC, Ang Lee must be banned from entering the PRC because Ang Lee is a sick bastard. It is because of him and his integration of pornographic work in Lust, Caution why Tang Wei is suffering the consequences. How do I know that Tang Wei had real sex on Lust, Caution? It’s simple, I saw the movie, I even saw the hairs on Tony’s legs, the hard nipples on Tang Wei’s tits, Tony’s balls, and hairy genetalia. She and him were both physically naked depicting these fictional characters having real but violently gyrating sex in a closed set. That is justification for PRC media authorities to blacklist Tang Wei. However it’s not her fault, it is the fault of the director Ang Lee who has no moral conscience. It was his intention to cross the line between feature film and pornograhpy as well as using a rape scene as art to glorify and appeas the audience and give more fuel to the desires of sex offenders. A man like Ang Lee should be assasinated for glorifying rape.
You do realize that no one has to watch it (so attentively even!) if it offends them, right? Private individuals or even groups of individuals boycotting products is fine. Resorting to government intervention to ban them is not.
Yes I realize that watching Lust Caution is optional to everyone (unless you are in a chartered bus where you have no choice but to watch it if you have no MP4). However the way they handle things in China is their way, you can’t change it. At least I was able to see Lust, Caution in any theatre when I was in Korea because Korea has a more just rating system, unlike the USA where NC-17 rating blocked that movie from most American theatres thanks to American puritianists who hate sex and love violence so much. I can’t change that, but that’s how much hypocracy there is in the USA. They see a film with graphic sex and rate it NC-17, but when they show gruesome violence such as a woman’s breast being shot by a bullet with blood splattered, they rate that as R and is available in all theaters. That to me is immoral injustice in America. So don’t try criticizing China when you got Western countries like USA doing their own injustices to repress people.
As a westerner, I agree that our tendency to go around the world telling people what to do gets us into a lot of trouble. But I certainly don’t agree with Jackie Chan’s view of the world. How can you have too much freedom? Well, as an advocate of freedom he has the right to believe that if he wants. I don’t believe a government should legislate morality. Social change, for better or worse, has to come gradually from the will of the people, not from a bunch of bureaucrats implementing change because they think they’re wiser than we are. I’d rather live with the consequences of having too much freedom than too little. It’s not verbatim, but I believe Ben Franklin said that. Anyway, it’s not my country so China can rule as they wish. We should still lead by example…even though we haven’t been for a very long time.