[continued from previous message]   
      
   streaming platform allowed a 42-second kissing scene in the Chinese   
   drama Because of Love to air.   
      
   Penny and Leonard are kissing on a couch.   
   The Big Bang Theory: Season 2 Episode 15   
   A female character and a male character are kissing under the shower.   
   Because of Love: Episode 12   
   Similarly, a naked back in season three, episode 21 was cut while in a   
   show called Stealth Walker (2021) on Youku, the nude back remained.   
      
   Dr. Elizabeth Plimpton is taking off her pajamas.   
   The Big Bang Theory: Season 3 Episode 21   
   A woman with a naked back under shower.   
   Stealth Walker: Episode 1   
   Such unequal treatment is bizarre. According to the governmental   
   guidelines, imported productions have only one more forbidden content   
   category to consider than national ones — the imported productions must   
   not show anything that would do harm to minors’ physical and mental   
   health. The remaining forbidden content types, including nudity,   
   violence, and promoting the negative parts of society, are the same for   
   national and imported productions.   
      
   As there are no legal roots, this may come down to self-policing by   
   Chinese companies, who actually make the cuts and seek official   
   approval before releasing the show. The self-policing can be rather   
   relaxed, but that may result in multiple rounds of months-long   
   scrutiny.   
      
   Here is where things get especially interesting — to avoid the rabbit   
   hole of scrutiny, streaming platforms may go overboard to censor   
   themselves to make sure a video can pass the national censorship   
   authority’s review on the very first try. And that often results in   
   inconsistency, even in a national show itself.   
      
   The TV show Marvelous Women streamed a very controversial scene last   
   year, in which a real cat dropped from a table and landed on the ground   
   on its back. It was meant to show a cat being poisoned, but after it   
   was aired, netizens suspected that the crew might have killed an actual   
   cat, instead of using CGI.   
      
   Missy is talking about putting down a dog due to illness.   
   The Big Bang Theory: Season 1 Episode 15   
   A cat drops to the ground after being poisoned.   
   Marvelous Women: Episode 32   
   The scene was removed after the resulting controversy. Notably, it was   
   not removed ahead of time through censorship. Meanwhile, a three-second   
   line was cut out of The Big Bang Theory because the character mentioned   
   the mercy killing of a dog.   
      
   These acts of censorship not only limit the impact of foreign-based   
   productions, they also help the Chinese government maintain control.   
   That is why Facebook and Twitter are banned in the country, as well as   
   Netflix, HBO, and others. The government wants to have final say on the   
   messages reaching the public.   
      
   This approach could severely limit the quality and types of shows that   
   are produced in China. Infernal Affairs (2002), a classic Hong Kong   
   crime movie, reshot a different ending for the Chinese mainland and   
   Malaysia. The new ending was considered a clunker, but perfectly   
   aligned with China’s “main melody” perspective that justice always   
   wins. The Departed (2006), an Oscar-winning remake of Infernal Affairs,   
   is not allowed to air in the Chinese mainland, even though its ending   
   also highlights justice.   
      
   The movie was also remade into a namesake Chinese TV series in 2016,   
   developed by a Chinese mainland production team. That TV series is only   
   rated 6.1 out of 10 on China’s IMDb while the 2002 movie version has a   
   9.3 rating and the American version has a 7.3.   
      
   Hong Kong-based journalist and author Nury Vittachi shared a similar   
   experience in a New York Times opinion piece, describing that a crime   
   story he co-wrote with a Chinese director had to be rejiggered multiple   
   times, finally resulting in an “implausible tale” that involves noble   
   detectives of Chinese origin in order to pass the authorities’ review.   
      
   “The rules kill creativity,” Vittachi added.   
      
   When the Netflix-produced Korean show Squid Game went viral and won   
   awards worldwide, many Chinese netizens were asking on social media —   
   when can a Chinese TV show be recognized in that way?   
      
   I can’t blame the sites for not importing more big-name TV shows, or   
   the domestic studios for not producing similar content. For some, even   
   if the show or concept is popular as hell, it just isn’t worth the   
   hassle.   
      
   Even though China has been trying to boost its cultural soft power for   
   years, it’s unlikely that the dream of making a worldwide popular show   
   will come true any time soon. To appeal to a global audience, the   
   government would first need to be more tolerant of the kind of material   
   it removes from TV-14 sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory.   
      
   Data and Methods: I watched the first 100 episodes of The Big Bang   
   Theory that stream in the U.S. and on Youku, side by side, and tracked   
   206 missing scenes from the Youku version. The sample videos   
   demonstrated above are all picked out from the pool of missing scenes.   
      
   The first scene is an original cut from Youku. The censored version of   
   other scenes are based on timestamping the Youku version and then   
   programmatically skipping using the original scene.   
      
   In order to figure out the reason for the video censorship, I   
   categorized the missing scenes into seven categories.   
      
   (1) Sex: scenes include conversations with sexual descriptions, body   
   parts, and relevant keywords, such as “coitus” or “have sex.” Scenes   
   that demonstrate two characters’ kissing for several seconds or show   
   partial nudity will also be included in this category.   
      
   (2) LGBTQ+ and atypical heterosexual relationships: scenes in which   
   characters mention things like the LGBTQ+ community or romantic   
   encounters with family members or inanimate objects. Scenes   
   demonstrating kissing or other physical intimacy between two characters   
   of the same gender are included as well.   
      
   (3) Disrespect: scenes include dialogues that could potentially defame   
   Chinese culture, China’s society, Chinese people, or even Chinese   
   restaurants in the U.S.   
      
   (4) Illegal actions: scenes in which characters mentioned anything that   
   is illegal in China, including murder, drunk driving, and egg freezing.   
      
   (5) Religion: scenes in which characters said anything that could   
   potentially offend habits or beliefs of a religion.   
      
   (6) Unhealthy addictions: scenes in which unhealthy addictions came up   
   in a conversation, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, and gambling.   
      
   (7) Miscellaneous: scenes that do not belong to any one of the former   
   six categories.   
      
   To see the clips and such:   
   https://pudding.cool/2022/08/censorship/   
      
   --   
   Let's go Brandon!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)