This episode may have gotten them a little nervous.
Posted on 08/14/2006 6:42:47 AM PDT by markomalley
D'oh! China has banished Homer Simpson, Pokemon and Mickey Mouse from prime time. Beginning Sept. 1, regulators have barred foreign cartoons from TV from 5 to 8 p.m. in an effort to protect China's struggling animation studios, news reports said Sunday. The move allows the Monkey King and his Chinese pals to get the top TV viewing hours to themselves.
Foreign cartoons, especially from Japan, are hugely popular with China's 250 million children and the country's own animation studios have struggled to compete. Communist leaders are said to be frustrated that so many cartoons are foreign-made, especially after efforts to build up Chinese animation studios.
The ban hasn't been formally announced, but newspapers already were criticizing it Sunday as the wrong way to improve programming.
--snip--
TV stations have been told to limit foreign programming, stop showing scary movies in prime time and have their hosts dress more conservatively and use fewer English words on the air.
Most cartoons on China Central Television, the national broadcaster, are Chinese-made. But more freewheeling local broadcasters show everything from "The Simpsons" to Japanese, South Korean and European cartoons dubbed into Chinese.
Film studios have been pushed to merge in order to create big, well-financed competitors. Officials have set up 15 animation centers to nurture the industry, invoking communist guerrilla vocabulary by dubbing them "production bases."
"The reason for the regulation is clear. It is to protect domestic cartoon production," the Southern Metropolis said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Wait a second...250 million children? In a nation of a billion? Doesn't that strike you as improbably low? I wonder if they're talking about a particular age group. Or if the "one child" policy has been hugely successful.
This episode may have gotten them a little nervous.
I wonder if the fact that "The Simpsons" is animated in South Korea has something to do with it.
Were we to take a similar approch, it would be very difficult to find anything marked "Hencho En China" at your local Wal-Mart or Home Depot.
"Worst. Country. Ever."
Should have been banned from US primetime. Go ahead flame away, the Simpsons is idiotic, disrespect and obnoxious.
China's approach to copyright seems similar to what America's was long ago.
Chinese will still see episodes of the Simpsons. They just won't be aired in prime-time anymore.
Wonder how cheap a DVD of Simpsons in Chinese will go for.
And those darn kids won't stay off your lawn eather.
And if this seems odd, the Clinton Administration had customs agents making sure that bootleg beanie babies weren't being brought into this country in large numbers.
Beanie Babies: Washington's latest tempest in a teapot
http://www.cnn.com/US/9807/10/beaniegate/
July 10, 1998
Web posted at: 11:01 p.m. EDT (0301 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On a hot summer day in the world's most powerful nation, at least some of its leaders found their attentions preoccupied by thoughts of ... Beanie Babies.
A spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, America's tough-talking trade negotiator, admitted Friday that Barshefsky had run afoul of an American trade law when she returned with President Clinton from China.
[snip]
At the request of Ty, the U.S. Customs Service has placed a limit of one Beanie Baby per family for people re-entering the United States.
"And those darn kids won't stay off your lawn either."
And this has to do with what?
I'm afraid that one child policy has been more effective than our worst nightmares....
"Like it or not it's an American cultural institution."
Ummm, I wouldn't take it that far.
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