Will Playboy come to China?

According to an Interfax story by Adam Skuse, the report came to be relayed by our beloved Xinhua and even Sohu and Netease. Because anything that passes through Xinhua MUST be the whole gospel truth, the story became syndicated everywhere. It was like a bolt of lightning had hit the Chinese internet. Interfax's check with China's Press and Publication Administration found that "China has no plans to relax restrictions on foreign newspapers and magazines". In the meanwhile, BOCOG also rushed to clarify with Southern Daily 《南方都市报》 that is has never made any statement on foreign publications.

In the meanwhile, we really don't know what to think of these two paragraphs which appeared in a post by a supposedly well-known blogger on Southern Daily, entitled, "How long can foreigners live without porn mags?" (外国人可以多久不看色情杂志):

另外一个让人生气的地方是，当年传说中的“中国人与狗不能入内”的牌子，被用另外一种方式重新挂了出来。当时这是一种歧视，认为公园这种好东西不是给中国老百姓预备的，你们没有资格进来。现在是《花花公子》杂志这种东西不是给中国老百姓预备的，你只能沾外国人光的时候能看到。公园是个好东西大家还能理解，《花花公子》跟这个看齐，不知道是什么意思。
Another cause for anger is how this whole thing smacks of the "No dogs and Chinese allowed" sign that was placed outside parks in times past. It was an obviously discriminatory sign: The park is a good thing, and not prepared for ordinary Chinese folk, you guys have no right to come in. Now, Playboy is not prepared for ordinary Chinese folk, but you guys can take a peek when the foreigners are here. Parks are great, but how can you compare parks with Playboy?

　　除了生气以外，不免还有些好笑。其实这事不但侮辱了中国的老百姓，连带着把这些外国人都侮辱了。众所周知，很多看上去允许发行这些杂志的国家，其实社会主流价值观相当保守，没多少人没事就捧着本《花花公子》招摇过市。把这些要来的外国人士想像成离开这东西就六神无主的人，人家是不是领你的情还真难说。这简直是预先把对方想像成色情狂的做法嘛，谁听说主人事先准备了这些东西都会觉得颇为尴尬吧―――如果某人请客人到家里来，事先在客房的床头备下避孕套数只、色情光盘几张，估计客人的脸色也不会好看。
The incident is also not without its humour. Not only does it insult the Chinese, it also insults the foreigners. As we all know, many of these countries which allow the sale of porn mags are also relatively conservative. How many of them would walk around in public with a copy of Playboy in hand? For us to suppose that these foreigners would completely lose their orientation for just a few weeks without porn, I wonder what they would think. We have completely thought of them as sex addicts. If you invited a guest over to your place and prepared condoms and porn CD's by the bedside, imagine how embarrassed your guest will be.

Photo: Bai Ling on the cover of Playboy.