Foundinchina.com

China’s petty film authorities have done it again. Timesonline today reports that Lust, Caution star Tang Wei has been blacklisted (unofficially, of course) because Ang Lee’s film is considered to “glorify unpatriotic behaviour.”

This action has been taken despite – or possibly because of - the films popularity in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Ang Lee is widely celebrated in China for the many international honours bestowed on his films and their actors: ‘This is our boy’, they cry, ’And we Chinese can show you western types a thing or two about film-making.’

Beijing clearly don’t mind Ang Lee collecting a few gongs and statues on their behalf, but have no inclination to allow the Chinese public to judge his award-winning films on their artistic merit. Instead, they censor, ban, and blacklist their home-grown talent in the great tradition of petulant state interference. 

Thanks to the internet and widespread piracy, banning a film has little or no effect on who gets to see it in China these days. They’ve tried many times before, as in the recent cases of Lost in Beijing  and Brokeback Mountain. Keep up the good work, boys.

The targeting of actors strikes me as being especially nonsensical and childish. I confidently predict more success for Tang Wei, at which point I hope she gives a defiant finger to the clowns who are compromising artistic expression by telling people what they should be watching.