MCLC: CCTV slams anti-Japanese war drama

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Han Meng <hanmeng at gmail.com>
Subject: CCTV slams anti-Japanese war dramas
***********************************************************

Source: SCMP (4/11/13):
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1212279/state-broadcaster-cctv-slams
-anti-japanese-war-dramas

State broadcaster CCTV slams anti-Japanese war dramas
By Ernest Kao

A Chinese peasant brutally “karate chops” the enemy in half with one swipe
of his “iron palm”.

Out on the battlefield, a Chinese soldier destroys an incoming fighter
plane – by tossing a hand grenade into the sky.

In another scenario, a James Dean-lookalike who wears sunglasses, a
leather jacket, slicked back hair and rides a motorcycle, portrays a
revolutionary warrior during the Sino-Japanese war.

These are some of several bizarre plots featured in China’s huge array of
anti-Japanese war dramas – 200 of which were produced in 2012 alone, by
some accounts [1]. Over half of the 300 new TV shows approved for
production last year featured a revolutionary theme.

But barefaced nationalist propaganda can get stale quickly. State-run CCTV
News aired a feature on Wednesday criticising the rise in “crude and
shoddily produced” anti-Japanese war dramas [2], which were neither
patriotic, historically accurate nor educational.

“I believe there should be a clear bottom line to these anti-Japanese war
dramas, as they should not go as far as to insult the intelligence of
audiences,” Ni Jun, associate professor at the Central Academy of Drama’s
Cinema and Television Department, told CCTV.

“The history of the Sino-Japanese war was one of great tragedy and
aggression. It is worth remembering as an important piece of history, not
something to be spoofed”.

Anti-Japanese films and TV dramas have been on the rise in China, in part
due to the territorial row over the Diaoyu Islands, but also because the
genre itself has always been popular.

Ni said producers heavily exploit the anti-Japanese and revolutionary
themes because they are deemed “politically safe” and tend to draw high
ratings.

But an increasingly media savvy public has become more critical of the
ludicrous plots of TV dramas’. The industry is beginning to respond
accordingly.

Shi Zhongpeng, a 23-year-old actor who started off his career in costume
dramas, told CCTV he had spent most of the last few years playing Japanese
soldiers in more than 30 anti-Japanese dramas.

At Hengdian World Studios [3] in Zhejiang, said to be the world’s largest
film studio, more than 60 per cent of the 30,000 film extras working on
site each year have played a Japanese soldier in such dramas, the CCTV
segment pointed out.

Award-winning actor Chen Daoming criticised the mainland's anti-Japanese
war dramas [4] last month for being “entertainment-oriented” content which
distorted history and misled young people.

After online complaints flooded in ahead of a debut broadcast on Sichuan,
Guizhou and Henan primetime television last month, a scene from an
anti-Japanese TV series Ready to Fly was nearly cut after beingcriticised
by many as unrealistic and “ridiculous” [5].

The scene portrayed an attractive Chinese heroine with martial arts
training who uses only a bow and arrow to successfully fend off a group of
Japanese troops trying to rape her.

Links:

[1] 
http://www.reuters.com/video/2013/03/19/anti-japan-dramas-turn-serial-in-ch
ina?videoId=241714966
[2] http://video.sina.com.cn/p/news/s/v/2013-04-11/080962284929.html
[3] http://www.hengdianworld.com/Item/341.aspx
[4] http://english.sina.com/entertainment/p/2013/0304/567976.html
[5] 
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1200083/ridiculous-rape-scene-may-be
-cut-anti-japanese-war-drama