China plans reality check on ‘too entertaining’ TV shows

A new order issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, (SARFT), refers to shows that are vulgar or “overly entertaining.”

It singles out programmes dealing with marital troubles and matchmaking, talent shows, game shows, variety shows, talk shows and reality programming.

SARFT says such shows must be largely phased out by the beginning of next year by the country’s 34 satellite TV stations, to be replaced with news and cultural programming. The order also bans the use of ratings as the sole criteria for whether to broadcast a particular show.

The changes aim to “meet the public’s demand for varied, multi-level, and high-quality viewing,” said the order, published yesterday.

“Satellite channels are mainly for the broadcast of news propaganda and should expand the proportion of news, economic, cultural, science and education, children’s, and documentary programming,” the order said.

The order follows a Communist Party meeting last week that asserted the need for strengthening social morality and boosting China’s cultural influence abroad – a recognition by the party that it is losing its power to dictate public opinion.

The crackdown coincides with a bout of national hand-wringing over a lack of public ethics, highlighted by the death last week of a toddler who was struck by a vehicle and left for dead by passers by. Officials believe the promotion of “core socialist values” – a phrase meant to counter calls by liberal Chinese for “universal values” – will bolster social cohesion in the face of rising materialism.

It’s also no secret that Communist Party dislikes the “popular vote” selection method used in many such programmes, fearing people might start to ask why no such vote exists in the political sphere.

SARFT said television programmes and other cultural products should be “refined and inspiring”.

One of the most infamous moments in China’s populist programming came last year, when the Beijing model Ma Nuo appeared on Jiangsu TV’s If You Are the One dating show and made the materialistic comment that she would “rather cry in the back of a BMW” than ride on a bicycle, when choosing a rich man over a poor one.

But the big success of last year was on Shanghai TV’s China’s Got Talent – a competition won by Liu Wei, a piano player who lost his arms in an accident at the age of ten and triumphed with his performance of James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful, played using his feet.

According to the new SARFT regulations, satellite channels as a whole can show no more than nine of the restricted programmes each night between the prime time hours of 7:30and 10:00, with individual channels limited to two programmes each not exceeding 90 minutes in total.

They must also show at least two hours of news programmes between 6am and 11:30pm, with at least two news programmes running for no less than 30 minutes each in prime time.

The new rules emerge from an ongoing push for media to be both politically docile and relevant to a Chinese audience, according to David Bandurski, editor of the China Media Project website at the University of Hong Kong. Heavy restrictions on content may ultimately doom that to failure, he said.

“They can’t have it both ways. That is the real conflict. This is not really about culture at all, it’s about politics,” Mr Bandurski said.

The new restrictions also contain a strong commercial element in that they stand to favour central government broadcaster CCTV, which has been struggling for viewers despite its monopoly on nationwide terrestrial television. Authorities last month had already ordered leading competitor Hunan Satellite to suspend broadcasts of the hugely popular American Idol type singing contest Super Girl, allegedly for running over time.