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China bans scary movies

Monk2400
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Posted Feb 15 2008 - 03:29 PM: Subject: China bans scary movies	#1
China bans scary movies WTF??? http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=15867744-bf07-4f4d-b59f-f3e2538a161d I like Chinese culture, traditionally, Chinese thinking, religion, and of course, Chinese hotties. But this Communist state is out of control! I know we get s distortd view in the west, but man they seem like they want to destroy all remnents of humanity and eliminate all the intrsting aspects of culture that define and diffrntiate the Chinese people. And owing to their increasing economic prosperity, will we all not soon be compelld to do what this corrupt govenrmnt wants? Free Tibet! Stop the persecution of Falun Dafa! Continue screening ghost stories!!!!! When will the people wake up ovr there? Its hard to image that people would want this level of restriction in their lives. Or welcome it. This form of communism is one of the greatest evils evr unleashd on the world. What say you? 8)
Listen well, o' unbelievers: Round tha clock, tha Monk don' stop! "My prayer is not to live in fear but to have faith in God and pray that your actions will be timeous and effective." --Nico Uys --- Sow, sow, sow your dope, gently near the stream...merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is good with green! A substructural paraconsistent turbo polar robot

libertygrl
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Posted Feb 17 2008 - 10:34 AM:	#2
it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the kind of thinking that could convince itself that this tactic could at all be effective.
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Monk2400
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Posted Feb 17 2008 - 11:21 AM:	#3
Its especially strange since ghosts and such are a traditional part of Chinese culture.
Listen well, o' unbelievers: Round tha clock, tha Monk don' stop! "My prayer is not to live in fear but to have faith in God and pray that your actions will be timeous and effective." --Nico Uys --- Sow, sow, sow your dope, gently near the stream...merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is good with green! A substructural paraconsistent turbo polar robot

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Posted Feb 18 2008 - 09:35 PM:	#4
strangely, reincarnation without permission is also banned in china for living buddhas: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2194682.ece
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Paul
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Posted Feb 18 2008 - 11:57 PM:	#5
If you make everything illegal, one of the resulting joys is selective prosecution. If you don't like someone, you can bet they've broken the law. At any rate, banning horror movies is just a more exaggerated version of the "think of the children" legislation we get all the time in the west. If we can attempt to outlaw video games to protect kids, or blacklist websites by pretending it protects kids, then China can save its most timid children from the scary stories which have kept them awake at night. And save the adults too, of course, since the adults are considered as children too in need of the moral guidance and protection of the state. The same thing plays out in theocracies as well, the state offering its humble services to protect the people from immoral influences, and coincidentally exercising the necessary complete control of the people to implement the protection. Midnight_Monk wrote: owing to their increasing economic prosperity, will we all not soon be compelld to do what this corrupt govenrmnt wants? I take it "prosperity" has been redefined to mean "hopefully as rich as Mexico by 2020 if everything goes perfectly" and "compelld to do what this corrupr govenrmnt wants" means to the same extent China currently does everything the U.S. and E.U. want. At any rate, their form of government puts upper limits on their economic prosperity. Once labor prices are equal, there's a competitive advantage to doing businss in a country with less draconian laws. I could never work there, I wouldn't be able to reach the websites of all my customers as they'd be filtered. Edited by Paul on Feb 19 2008 - 12:12 AM

kpi
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Posted Mar 10 2008 - 12:29 AM:	#6
I think you just don't like who's running china. You should probably just state it that way though. Also back it up with reasonable facts.

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Posted Mar 10 2008 - 12:23 PM:	#7
hi kpi, which reasonable facts are you referring to? MM has a link to the news article which is the basis for the opening post... peacelib
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Monk2400
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Posted Mar 11 2008 - 09:31 AM:	#8
kpi, welcome to the Couch! kpi wrote: I think you just don't like who's running china. You should probably just state it that way though. Also back it up with reasonable facts. haha...now there's a challenge! How can I back up a like/dislike with 'reasonable facts'? If I say I like or dislike something, it can be as simple as a knee-jerk reaction. Such preferences are not usually subjected to rigorous research or analysis. Nor need they be. And whether or not I 'like' who's running China is not at issue. But, when I hear of this sort of repression, I do find myself reacting to it. WHy? Because I'm an idealist who thinks culture should be utterly free of all forms of restriction, and I see this repressive way of thinking (as suggested by the movie banning story) as poisonous, because it's very likely that it may one day (if not today) pose a threat to the kind of freedom I would like to enjoy (even if I don't enjoy it today). I feel the same way when I hear about this kind of idiocy here in North America. But the difference is the China has a much bigger army. cheers, 8)
Listen well, o' unbelievers: Round tha clock, tha Monk don' stop! "My prayer is not to live in fear but to have faith in God and pray that your actions will be timeous and effective." --Nico Uys --- Sow, sow, sow your dope, gently near the stream...merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is good with green! A substructural paraconsistent turbo polar robot

kpi
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Posted Mar 19 2008 - 11:54 AM:	#9
..lib I was reffering to sources. Recently in china the stand off containting the tibetian bhudist monks in the hotel was solved. How can we view this story and how do we understand it based on that coverage. All I'm saying is we need valid sources. Also makeing statements that don't contain those, does two things; draws your attention to the issue and puts a subconscience bios on your standpoint. And how the general populous views that stand point even on a small level. ...midnight, I thing the cultures view on a subject is whats socially acceptable. The statement you made on the subject is personal. However the medium you did it on is not. If you believe society views should change then the statement you make on a shared medium are and should be based on fact... Unless we are just doing this for fun.. In that case very cool post, great info, nice communicating with you. Also lets see how this chineese thing goes maybe they will figure out something. Right or wrong we will see.

Monk2400
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Posted Mar 19 2008 - 02:03 PM:	#10
kpi wrote: ...midnight, I thing the cultures view on a subject is whats socially acceptable. The statement you made on the subject is personal. However the medium you did it on is not. If you believe society views should change then the statement you make on a shared medium are and should be based on fact... Unless we are just doing this for fun.. In that case very cool post, great info, nice communicating with you. Also lets see how this chineese thing goes maybe they will figure out something. Right or wrong we will see. Yes, my statement was personal to be sure. That's my knee-jerk reaction to the article. The thread itself is an invitation for people on this forum to explore the topic, first by having a look at the article, then responding. If they want to go beyond that and show us what the 'facts' are, all the better. But on what facts can I base my opinion that society should change? The facts are my appraisal of the situation vs. it's reality (i.e., the appraisal of the situation by countless other people). Maybe banning scary movies is good for China. I wouldn't want such a law hampering my creative expression though, so I wouldn't support a similar motion in my neighbourhood. If we want to talk about 'facts' we might speak about how repression of a valid outlet of human cultural expression only creates a stronger underground market for the thing repressed, which in fact raises--not delimits--its value. OTOH, I don't feel myself bound by any particular standard of factual reporting, solid and rigorous reasoning, or truth-seeking when presenting posts in general. Certainly, this forum in particular is a creative, expressive medium where the 'facts' are in fact the way we each individually feel and perceive the world (and speak about it to others). The only fact I present here is the article itself. And that by way of a jumping off point for discussion. In another forum this article sparked a discussion on how some of us westerners just don't understand the Chinese and their culture, and contrasted that lack with the reality that we also engage in forms of censorship with our media. I agreed on that point, but maintained my position, namely, that even if we too do it, it's still 'wrong' in my eyes. My argument might go like this: Nature is what it is. It doesn't hide anything from us--neither brutality nor beneficence. Nor should we, if we are not afraid to face it, hide these things from each other. Least of all in the realm of the purely symbolic, the realm of culture, through which we find the most thorough expression of our humanity in the shared communication of ideas. To deny some topic or some form of expression is to deny some part of our humanity, our existence. But this is flawed and self-destructive, because we are what we are, and our culture, stemming from our nature, reflects a seamless whole, that cannot be isolated and divided into separate and diversely weighted units. Off the top of my head cheers, 8)
Listen well, o' unbelievers: Round tha clock, tha Monk don' stop! "My prayer is not to live in fear but to have faith in God and pray that your actions will be timeous and effective." --Nico Uys --- Sow, sow, sow your dope, gently near the stream...merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is good with green! A substructural paraconsistent turbo polar robot

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