China is intensifying its stringent campaign to clean up their airwaves.
Lawmakers in Beijing announced on Thursday that entertainers with “incorrect political positions” shall be prohibited from appearing on broadcasts as part of sweeping new restrictions to make Chinese media a more “patriotic atmosphere” for fans, Reuters has reported.
Their message included criticism that the industry supports an “effeminate” male image, to the detriment of Chinese men, they said.
The National Radio and Television Administration of China also intends to put the squeeze on stars’ outsized salaries while encouraging such entertainment tycoons to volunteer to aid public welfare programs.
Recent Chinese celebrity scandals, from tax evasion to sexual assault, may have prompted leaders to make big moves, the Reuters report suggests, as the Communist Party’s publicity department slammed the industry for “severely polluting the social atmosphere,” they said in a statement.
Those found in violation, including artists and the platforms that promote them, will be penalized for producing content deemed “warped” or “vulgar” by the Party.
It’s this sort of behavior by celebs that fosters “chaotic” fan culture in China, they said in a separate missive issued last week, insisting that young people be further deterred from engaging in “idol” groups (see: the BTS fan “Army”).
The recent reforms have also included a crackdown on karaoke catalogs across the country, ordered last month to weed out songs containing “obscenity, violence, crime or harmed social morality,” the nation’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said — a move that some have said encroaches on artistic expression.
Others have suggested that all such new media restrictions aim to suppress “themes of freedom and democracy” — namely, Chinese cultural critic Sun Jialin. “It’s all brainwashing,” he told Radio Free Asia listeners this past July.
China’s ruling political party has the authority to censor or limit any content called into question for violating their community values — which is also the rationale for another recent move to limit the time kids spend on video games: just three hours per week, and only on weekends.