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FILM CENSORSHIP AND EDUCATIONAL FILMS IN CHINA
In the January 1931 issue of this Review was published incomplete information on Film Censorship in China, taken from an article in the Exhibitor's Herald World of Chicago (No. 3, July, 1930). The principals inspiring Chinese censorhip, the organization of the board and its working were all examined in this article, from the point of view of producers and distributors, hence the incomplete nature of the information.
Today, thanks to helpful communications from the government at Nankin, we are able to give complete information on this subject.
There is one consideration, elementary perhaps but not fully understood by producers and distributors which gives to the ruling of the Chinese government a very particular character.
It is only recently that China has awakened from a torpor resultant of its amazing civilization dating back to the Emperor Yu, founder of the Hia Dynasty, twenty-two centuries before Christ. A civilisation unequalled by the barbarous westerners and perhaps never surpassed. It must never be forgotten that the Chinese were acquainted through Lao Tse and Confucius with the moral precepts, which are the basis of younger religions, long before the Christian era.
China slept amidst her magnificent art, philosophy and literature as if exhausted from the effort of creation and thought of her fine intelligences.
Her national river, the Yang-Tse-Kiang of geographers, the Blue River of artists and popular fantasy continued to pour down from the Tibetian mountains ; and the heavy junks, laden with goods, made their way on
the stream, now smooth, now rough. But the colossal Empire slept as if never to awaken.
However the spirit of revolution was there. It suddenly revealed itself to the stupified and anxious Westerners and from disordered and confused beginnings grew into reality. Life, ceaselessly renewing itself shook the people from their sleep and awakened the national conscience. Today civilisation is renewed in a great manifestation of will. Across inevitable early errors and the enthusiasm of the masses, the future is being prepared. China cannot fail with her ancient and glorious traditions.
One side of this awakening is shown in the interest which the Nankin government has in a great modern invention, the cinema. The rules and regulations issued prove this interest and the cinematographic industry is obliged to take notice of it, for in this awakening there are unknown and possibly menacing facts.
However great China's desire to free herself from foreign influence in all spheres may be, her local cinema industry is not developed to the point of self-sufficiency and western producers and distributors should not lose sight of the following essentials :
(1) to avoid wounding the sentiments, the manner of living and thinking of a country that is throwing its weight into the world balance ;
(2) to avoid showing subjects which might give a bad impression of western peoples.
It is certainly not in showing films of the shabby side of western life that we may construct a model for the Chinese.
In no case should films be more strictly