经济学人双语版:电影与电视 删减血腥镜头(上)



2016-3-2 11:02



经济学人:电影与电视 删减血腥镜头(上)

Film and television

Blood and cuts

Unusually, some Chinese want more censorship

A FLYING dagger stabs a Japanese soldier in the heart. Another fighter has his neck slit by a Chinese secret agent. Others are shot at close range, gassed or drowned. Like war dramas everywhere, “Royalty in Blood“, a 36-part television series about the war between China and Japan from 1937-45, is pretty gory. Yet unlike elsewhere, the on-screen violence is not just for adult viewers. It is aired each week at 7.35pm, the most popular television-watching hour, when even very young children in China have yet to go to bed.

All films and TV shows are vetted by a government committee. Oddly, however, China has no ratings system to denote a film's suitability for certain age-groups. It has no TV “watershed“ either, as many countries do, dividing the day into family-oriented programming and late-night viewing with more adult content. Violent TV dramas are sometimes shown on public transport. Ticket sales at cinemas increased nearly 50% in the first 11 months of 2015 on the previous year to reach $6.3 billion, a total surpassed only by America. Yet questions are often raised about whether films are safe and appropriate for children, who can watch any of them.

The government does not want ratings or a watershed because it does not want to be seen to be permitting sex and violence for anyone. Its constraints on what may appear on screen represent a laundry list of the state's anxieties. Content must not “endanger“ China's unity, security or honour. It also should not “twist“ history, feature explicit sex or gambling, advocate “the supremacy of religion“ or “meticulously describe fortune-telling“. Playing up violence is prohibited, in theory.

But to attract adult audiences, makers of film and TV entertainment often like to push the boundaries of what the Communist Party regards as good taste. And even the prudish standards of the censors are sometimes flexible enough to allow content that might shock children, who are just as impressionable in China as anywhere else. In apparent response to demand from anxious parents, a handful of cinemas in the far western province of Xinjiang introduced their own unofficial ratings in 2014.

Censors' shockability has varied over time. The first Communist-era on-screen kiss was a peck on the cheek in “Romance on Lushan Mountain“ in 1980, the year that Richard Gere appeared naked in “American Gigolo“, among the first Hollywood films to feature full-frontal male nudity.
随着时代变迁，中国审查者们的尺度也在不断更改。在第一代共产党时代，屏幕上的亲吻仅是1980年《庐山恋》中出现的嘴唇轻轻一触脸颊，而同年Richard Gere的裸体已经出现在了《美国舞男》中，那是第一批男士裸体正面出现的好莱坞电影之一。（译文来源于译生译世）


1. censorship n. 审查制度；审查机构

N-UNCOUNT Censorship is the censoring of books, plays, movies, or reports, especially by government officials, because they are considered immoral or secret in some way. (官方对书刊、剧本、电影或新闻报道的) 审查

The government today announced that press censorship was being lifted.

2. a 36-part television series 36集电视连续剧

3. gory 血淋淋的；残酷的

ADJ Gory situations involve people being injured or dying in a horrible way. 血淋淋的

...the gory details of Mayan human sacrifices.

4. watershed

N-COUNT If something such as an event is a watershed in the history or development of something, it is very important because it represents the beginning of a new stage in it. 分水岭; 转折点

The election of Mary Robinson in 1990 was a watershed in Irish politics.

5. prudish adj. 装正经的；过分规矩的