Results tagged “stateadministration”

It’s shaping up to be a bad week for the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (the catchily acronymed SARFT) – and it's still only Wednesday. Recent events surrounding bans of video sharing site Tudou and then actress Tang Wei (汤唯) seem to suggest that SARFT is slipping into farce.

By Kenneth Tan and David Feng

• Japanese investigators have found 'no abnormality' at the dumpling factory in Hebei Province at the centre of a food safety scare in Japan after hundreds of people suffered from pesticide poisoning from eating the dumplings. Traces of pesticide were found on the outside of the dumplings and not in the fillings, leading investigators to point to "deliberate poisoning, rather than accidental contamination". This idea, however, has been rejected by Chinese experts.
• The world's most powerful music labels — Universal Music, Sony BMG (HK) and Warner Music (HK) — have taken Baidu to court in Beijing for not removing links they say infringe on their copyrights. In a related ruling in December, the three firms lost their case against Sohu and Sogou. Meanwhile, Google is preparing to crack China open in the digital music arena. It is in talks with Universal to offer music downloads here. EMI and Sony BMG may join the deal.
• A statement from China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Information Industry has clarified that the controversial new rules requiring online-video companies to be state-controlled don't apply to already-established Web sites, offering hope to privately-owned video startups such as Youku and Tudou which have raised tens of millions of dollars from venture capitalists.

A new directive by the Chinese censorship board, also known as the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), has banned producers of erotic movies, including their directors and leading actors, from participation in domestic film awards. Violators may be banned up to five years from the movie industry and recalcitrant studios may even have their licenses revoked. Xinhua quotes a report by the Beijing News that details exactly what kind of content SARFT frowns upon:

The SARFT asked nationwide studios not to produce films with footage of hardcore activities, rape, whoring, obscene sex exposing human genitals, or sex freaks, the newspaper said. Vulgar conversations, nasty songs and sound effects with sexual connotation were also restricted.

Starbucks Corporation, the world’s biggest coffee shop chain, recalled 250,000 children’s plastic cups made in China after receiving reports of the cups breaking and posing a choking hazard.

People who have made the news this week

Are there any Living Buddhas among the enlightened readership of this blog? You have been informed: With immediate effect, all your reincarnations must receive government approval, and if not, they will be deemed "illegal or invalid" by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA).

Editor's Note: Sorry, forgot to send these out last night in our rush to get to the Sonic Youth show.

• Leading Chinese Enviro Activist Detained
  "In the meantime,here, from today’s Wall Street Journal, is another thing all those green minded local officials are doing: locking up irksome environmental activists"
• China to keep 2008 Olympics 'dry'
  "Beijing will use aircraft, missiles and cannons in what could amount to a massive umbrella over the city to keep athletes dry during next year's Olympics, state media reported on Friday."
• U.S. knew about China's anti-satellite test, chose not to act, says N.Y. Times
  "U.S. intelligence knew about preparations for January's test in China of an anti-satellite weapon but the U.S. government chose not to intervene because of insufficient leverage with Beijing, The New York Times reported on its Web site Sunday."
• Speeding, Overloading Blamed for Road Tragedy
  "The guardrails on each side of the bridge were only ten centimeters in height, far lower than the minimum height of 46 cm required by law, Li Yizhong, Minister of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), said at the scene of the accident."
• Beijing to destroy its oldest Peking Opera house
  "The Guanghe Theatre, which sits in Beijing's historic Qianmen quarter, will meet the wrecking ball, making way for the capital's "remorseless" onslaught of modernisation, Xinhua news agency reported."
• Foreign banks offer tea,insurance to lure Chinese
  "For those Chinese rich enough to open an 80,000 yuan ($10,350) account, Citigroup Inc and Standard Chartered are now promising an alternative to the long queues at China's big state lenders."
• Doing business in China: Popular Shanghai restaurant falls prey to joint venture dispute
  "The lights at Renren Restaurant now are dim all the time. The once thriving cafe has fallen prey to a dispute between the Hong Kong company represented by Ho, a Canadian citizen, and its mainland Chinese partners, who want him out."
• Top 40 blogs according to Zhuaxia stats
  Chinese blogs. Keso is No. 1.
• China delays climate change plan indefinitely
  "China has delayed indefinitely its national 'action plan' on climate change, which was due to be released on Monday after exhaustive consultations among ministries in Beijing and provincial and local governments."
• Shanghai signboards call for Chinese
  "The all-English signboards are catering to a false admiration for anything Western. Some people tend to think it's a high-end shop if the name is written in a foreign language," said Huang Anjing, an editor of a local monthly journal, Yaowen Jiaozi.
• 9 Tough Tricks, and a Title for Shanghai
  "This year’s world bridge championships are in Shanghai beginning Sept. 29. And one week ago Shanghai won the Chinese Contract Bridge Association Open Teams championship, beating Qinggong in the 96-board final, 239 international match points to 211."
• Image damage
  "Xuhui District People's Court ... ordered the Shanghai Normal University to compensate 9,000 yuan (US$1,166) to Francesca Manganelli [who] said the institute used her photo without her agreement in an advertisement for student recruitment in June 2005."
• 非常真人's photo-comic blog
  "非常真人，非常娱乐 (Very Real People, Very Entertaining) is a blog that posts short, amusing photo-comics of every day life in Beijing."
• China Yields to Inquiry on Pet Food
  "China .. has given American regulators permission to enter the country to investigate whether Chinese suppliers exported contaminated pet food ingredients to the [US] earlier this year, leading to one of the largest pet food recalls in American history."
• China aims to further tame Web
  "Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday launched a campaign to rid the country's sprawling Internet of 'unhealthy' content and make it a springboard for Communist Party doctrine, state television reported." This happens every week, no?
• China molten steel tragedy highlights lax industry
  "Lax safety measures, unsuitable equipment and 'chaotic' conditions have been blamed for the deaths of 32 steel workers engulfed in molten metal, Chinese investigators announced, warning that such failings were common."
• Letter from Beijing: Enemy of the State
  "Jianguo was arrested and tried in the summer of 1999, and I remember with perfect clarity the moment I learned what had happened."

From February until August, Chinese TV "golden hours" (5-8pm) programming is going to go on moral diet, shedding excess and unwanted sex, violence, and moral degradation. This we learned from a Chinese report as well as Asia Times Online, where they quoted official Wang Weiping on the matter:

"The country's satellite TV stations should only screen ethically inspiring TV series during prime time," Shanghai Daily quoted Wang Weiping, an official from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

In an attempt to woo audiences many broadcasters have allowed reality TV shows, crime series, featuring heavy dose of violence, as well as shows with explicit sex scenes to feature prominently on Chinese television.

A week ago, we told you about The Departed's bad odds for finding its way into Chinese theaters — censors, reportedly, didn't like a plotline that had Chinese government officials (or people working for government officials) trying to purchase advanced military computer hardware. Well, now we learn that "[d]istributors for Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated crime thriller The Departed are negotiating with Chinese censors to edit out some of the politically sensitive scenes." But wait, SARFT is saying its primary problem with the movie is violence:

For more del.icio.us links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day.

Somehow, the world of -ists managed to make it through the week despite news that Jen & Vince broke up.

From this report (in Chinese) we learned that the State Administration for Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) is thinking about limiting the number of family dramas involving adultery themes during prime time television hours. Though the exact stipulations have yet to be revealed, it seems that the motive behind doing this is for the children, who might think that having affairs is okay or worse yet, become cynical and lose their faith in love. And that would be sad because as Auden put it, we must love one another or die and just about everyone can agree that dying sucks.

The rules state that all dogs which enter public areas without a proper reason such as medical treatment or a public performance can be killed by public security bureaus or other units entrusted with the task.

We wonder what 2Pac would have thought about this:

Remember what we told you about Mission: Impossible III holding its world premier in Shanghai next month? Um, yeah -- that's not happening anymore. So all you people camped out in front of the Grand Theater can go home now. The Shanghai Morning Post reports:

Following the sensational success of Super Voice Girls (Chaoji Nu Sheng or 超级女声), Hunan Province Satellite Television Station planned to organize another American Idol-style TV program called -- surprise, surprise -- Super Voice Boys (Chaoji Nan Sheng or 超级男声), the TV station announced the news to media cheerfully in early September. However, Xinhua reports (in Chinese) the plan was called off by The Central Propaganda Department and The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. (Whew.) The official line is Super Voice Girls had a lot of "negative" inside stories involved with both the judges and the candidates when it started to become popular. Rumors of blackmail swirled while contestants were labeled concubines and, of course, lesbians (not that there's anything wrong with that).