Yanxi Palace: Why China turned against its most popular show By Andreas Illmer
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-47084374
Shortly after the piece was published, Yanxi Palace and Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace were pulled from state-run TV channels.
The shows are, however, still available on iQiyi, the place that Yanxi Palace was initially produced for and was first shown.
Rival versions of history
“It’s not the first time something like this has happened,” Prof Stanley Rosen, a China specialist at the University of Southern California, told the BBC.
“But I would say the censorship is certainly getting worse.
“Yanxi Palace was seen as promoting incorrect values, commercialism and consumerism; not the socialist core values that Beijing wants to see promoted.”
“For those who are overseeing those productions there should always some educational value or some promotion of Chinese cultural values or some sort of historical narrative that matter,” explains Manya Koetse, editor-in-chief of What’s on Weibo, a website tracking Chinese social media.
Prof Zhu Ying of the Film Academy at Hong Kong’s Baptist University told the BBC. “Censors tend to turn a blind eye to entertainment programs of frivolous nature.
“But that’s only until they become too popular and threaten social norms, morally and ideologically. Yanxi is a perfect example of such a show.”
Too successful abroad?
Another problem might have been the attention Yanxi Palace received from international audiences.
“It could be that the show became too popular outside China,” says Mr Rosen. “It’s a contradiction of wanting to succeed overseas but also wanting to control the message.”
Beijing wants Chinese culture to be promoted outside of China but showing the values that the authorities want to see portrayed. CONTINUE AT SITE
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