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. First off, there were attempts to mash Tudou due to alleged pornographic content on the site – as we reported a few days ago.......

By Kenneth Tan and David Feng Not good news: Tudou may be in for a squashing by the Chinese mainland authorities, specifically, the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television. A Sohu IT report claims that the presence of porn -- a big no-no on the Chinese Internet -- was all that it took for the potato (which is the Chinese translation of "tudou") to be squashed. The squashing is long-term and has no set......

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......

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......

2,000 sex-related ads dropped from Chinese television and radio [People's Daily] About 2,000 advertisements adjudged to be sexually suggestive have been dropped from television and radio broadcast across China over the past two weeks, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said on Wednesday. Work on Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail to start by end of 2007 [AFP] Work on a long-awaited high-speed rail linking Beijing and Shanghai is expected to start by late 2007,......

People who have made the news this week Zhang Huimin, 8, runs her way to the Olympics 2016 Little Zhang Huimin, who stands at just 1.25 meters tall and weighs a mere 20kg, has run from Sanya, Hainan all the way to Beijing, wearing out 20 pairs of shoes and covering a staggering 3,560 km in 55 days. That's an average of 1.5 marathons per day! Her goal is to win the marathon at the......

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). Thank Buddha for SARA because the latest regulations are all for the convenience of all the future Living Buddhas yet to come. As it tells us: It is an important move......

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......

Shanghai-made Ferris wheel applies for Guinness World Records "It is 25 meters taller than the London Eye, currently the tallest observation wheel in the world, and only cost one-eighth the price to build." Probably very safe. Six feared dead as Beijing subway tunnel collapses "A contractor had tried to conceal the collapse from authorities by sealing off the site and confiscating the workers' cell phones, it said, citing rescuers." Chinese director receives official approval......

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......

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......

AsiaPundit » Blog Archive » iPhone Now Available in China "Even though the official Asian launch date for the Apple iPhone is not until 2008, users of the China’s Taobao auction site can already buy the ‘revolutionary’ phone. No wonder Taobao could beat eBay in the China market ..." (tags: china iphone gadgets tech taobao) Syphilis epidemic raging in China, says study - Yahoo! News "Syphilis, virtually eradicated in China under Mao Zedong, has......

Somehow, the world of -ists managed to make it through the week despite news that Jen & Vince broke up. -Chicagoist had fall on their mind as they made squash and fudge, read "House of Leaves" and ">tried to figure out what's next for the Cubs. Not fall related, but still of utmost concern, the whole skinny black pants thing. -Torontoist fought off an evil scourge of raccoons and went to go see who would......

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......

They are slaughtering dogs in Nanjing in the name of rabies prevention and public order: City regulations ban owners from bringing their pet dogs to public places and disturbing other people. 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. However, officials from the police bureau said the......

We wonder what 2Pac would have thought about this: A spot check of imported alcohol samples conducted in four cities found that nearly 60 percent of them were counterfeit, Xinhua news agency reported today, citing the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. The administration inspected the quality of several imported alcohols, including Remy Martin, Hennessy and Martell, in Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hangzhou. ... An official of the administration said they mainly inspected brands that......

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: Tom Cruise has cancelled the global premiere of Mission Impossible III on April 22 as well as the first public showing in May, Shanghai Morning Post reported today. Though Paramount......

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.......