HONG KONG (AP):
CHINA'S DECISION not to release the United States film Memoirs of a Geisha is the latest example of movie censorship in the communist country, despite free-market reforms and increased openness.
Analysts say Chinese leaders are likely to ramp up ideological controls as their citizens are exposed to more outside influences.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, the distributor for 'Memoirs,' said this week that Chinese censors rejected Memoirs of a Geisha, which stars two of China's leading actresses - Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li - as rival Japanese entertainers.
China has yet to explain the decision, but there's speculation the government feared the film may whip up more anti-Japanese sentiment and hurt Sino-Japanese relations.
Many Chinese are still pained by Japanese atrocities in China during World War II, and they view Zhang and Gong's roles as an insult to national pride.
Memoirs isn't the first Hollywood production that China has frowned upon. One frequent area of contention is unflattering portrayals of China's rule of Tibet in movies like Martin Scorsese's Kundun (1997) and Seven Years in Tibet (1997), starring Brad Pitt.
RUNNING AFOUL OF CENSORS
Many of China's prominent filmmakers have run afoul of censors at some stage in their career.
Jiang Wen's Devil on the Doorstep winner of the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival - also came under fire over its Japanese content when it was released in 2000.
It's the story of Chinese villagers who take care of a wounded Japanese soldier during World War II until deciding to trade him for food.
Zhang Yimou's 1994 film To Live, was banned because it deals with the ultra-leftist 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when millions of people suspected of opposing the communist government were persecuted. Tian Zhuangzhaung was reportedly outright banned from filming after screening The Blue Kite (1993) - also about the Cultural Revolution - at Cannes against government orders.
Domestic films face even closer scrutiny than imports. While foreign movies must be screened by censors, domestic and co-productions must submit their plots, besides the final product, to China's Film Bureau for approval.
China's censors take cues from the ruling Chinese Communist Party's powerful Central Propaganda Department, which sets the ideological agenda for the country and keeps news and media content in check.
Chinese politics scholar James Sung of the City University of Hong Kong said the department is sensitive to criticism of the party, especially revered leaders like Mao Zedong, and topics relating to its history.
GRIP EXPECTED TO TIGHTEN
Sung expects China's rulers to tighten, not loosen their grip precisely because they are opening up the country's economy, a move that also lets in Western and other foreign cultural imports that may contradict the Chinese government's message.
"Now that China has joined the World Trade Organisation, it steps onto the world stage more frequently. Once you participate in this platform, others can also influence you," Sung said, referring to China's new membership in the global trade body, which requires it to allow more foreign competition in its markets.
On top of censorship, China has also set an annual import quota of about 20 foreign films.
Beijing-based media consultant Wang Ran said the Chinese government encourages self-censorship by not spelling out its specific content preferences.
Intentionally or not, Zhang has veered away from political topics, making martial arts epics like Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).
Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan said he obliged when Chinese censors asked him to delete scenes set in the Cultural Revolution from his recent movie Everlasting Regret, the life story of a Shanghai beauty.
"Now everyone is placing a great emphasis on the China market, and this market happens to have these limitations or regulations. So you have to work with these things," he said.
