Recently two trends seem to be clashing inside China’s culture: the trend toward liberalization, and the trend toward Party doctrinal purity. As the Party gears up for the celebration of its 90th anniversary, China has been clearing programming off television to make way for “Red TV”. They are “encouraging stations to focus on more wholesome programming.” Or, more realistically, “to tune into a wholesome diet of patriotic propaganda glorifying the party ahead of the 1 July anniversary” (see BBC News). Banned so far: soap operas, spy dramas, crime shows, time travel shows (“a ‘frivolous’ approach to history”), immoral dating shows (banning fake participants, morally-provoking hosts/hostesses, and sexual innuendo), foreign cartoons from 5pm to 9pm (only Chinese cartoons allowed), shows using a regional dialect rather than official Mandarin, and costumed “ancient dramas” (e.g. of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon variety). Instead, Beijing recommends 40 shows dramatizing the development of the Party.
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