High-rating television show about urban life suspended
Content on corruption and affairs too realistic, reports say
He Huifeng 03 December 2009
A popular television drama about the mainland’s stressful urban life and soaring property prices has been suspended because the authorities found some of its content a little too realistic for comfort, according to media reports and several stations.
Stations now showing Snail House (whose name in English is Dwelling Narrowness) have been allowed to continue, but no other stations will be allowed to start it, either for the first time or in reruns, the report, posted on China National Radio’s website yesterday, said.
Snail House, which began in some mainland markets in July, captured national headlines because of its relevance to real life. It used corruption scandals and affairs as plot devices. Stations around the country began showing the series on different dates, and many have begun showing it again because of its very high ratings.
A Shenzhen station employee said it had been told not to rebroadcast the series. “It’s too bad, since the audience loves the series. I heard many local TV stations had planned to broadcast the drama.” she said.
Last night, a woman at Jindun Shengye Film and Culture Company, the drama’s producer, appeared resigned to the ban. “We haven’t received any official notice, so we don’t know exactly how it will turn out,” she said. “We could offer a better and cleaner version if need be.”
Beijing TV became the first to black out Snail House on November 22. The station first denied it had been ordered to stop showing it, saying the recording of the episode scheduled for that day had become damaged. But mainland media soon began hinting that central authorities had banned it.
Also, an internet user nicknamed Jingxincaiqing had sent a complaint to the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (Sarft), saying some scripts had discriminated against hepatitis B patients. In the first episode, the main character says: “If you don’t wash your hands, you will have hepatitis B. If you have hepatitis B, no one will hire you.”
China National Radio reported yesterday that Sarft had replied to the man yesterday morning promising authorities would review Snail House and order cuts as necessary.
There are 120 million hepatitis B carriers on the mainland, which equals almost 10 per cent of the population. In recent years, many hepatitis B carriers have protested that employers and organisations discriminate against them.
Such was the popularity of the series that many mainlanders living in areas where the drama was not broadcast had turned to illegal internet video websites to download the series, mainland media reported.
Mainland media said there were more than 1,000 websites available to let people download the series or watch it online. But many of these websites are linked to various Trojan horse viruses, the report said. The authorities now warn the public that downloading Snail House from these websites could result in rampant spread of a computer virus.
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High-rating television show about urban life suspended
Content on corruption and affairs too realistic, reports say
He Huifeng
03 December 2009
A popular television drama about the mainland’s stressful urban life and soaring property prices has been suspended because the authorities found some of its content a little too realistic for comfort, according to media reports and several stations.
Stations now showing Snail House (whose name in English is Dwelling Narrowness) have been allowed to continue, but no other stations will be allowed to start it, either for the first time or in reruns, the report, posted on China National Radio’s website yesterday, said.
Snail House, which began in some mainland markets in July, captured national headlines because of its relevance to real life. It used corruption scandals and affairs as plot devices. Stations around the country began showing the series on different dates, and many have begun showing it again because of its very high ratings.
A Shenzhen station employee said it had been told not to rebroadcast the series. “It’s too bad, since the audience loves the series. I heard many local TV stations had planned to broadcast the drama.” she said.
Last night, a woman at Jindun Shengye Film and Culture Company, the drama’s producer, appeared resigned to the ban. “We haven’t received any official notice, so we don’t know exactly how it will turn out,” she said. “We could offer a better and cleaner version if need be.”
Beijing TV became the first to black out Snail House on November 22. The station first denied it had been ordered to stop showing it, saying the recording of the episode scheduled for that day had become damaged. But mainland media soon began hinting that central authorities had banned it.
Also, an internet user nicknamed Jingxincaiqing had sent a complaint to the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (Sarft), saying some scripts had discriminated against hepatitis B patients. In the first episode, the main character says: “If you don’t wash your hands, you will have hepatitis B. If you have hepatitis B, no one will hire you.”
China National Radio reported yesterday that Sarft had replied to the man yesterday morning promising authorities would review Snail House and order cuts as necessary.
There are 120 million hepatitis B carriers on the mainland, which equals almost 10 per cent of the population. In recent years, many hepatitis B carriers have protested that employers and organisations discriminate against them.
Such was the popularity of the series that many mainlanders living in areas where the drama was not broadcast had turned to illegal internet video websites to download the series, mainland media reported.
Mainland media said there were more than 1,000 websites available to let people download the series or watch it online. But many of these websites are linked to various Trojan horse viruses, the report said. The authorities now warn the public that downloading Snail House from these websites could result in rampant spread of a computer virus.
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