China Bans Time Travel

[3113]

Stories of Time Travel, that is.

If you're living in China right now and want to enjoy a nice quiet evening on the sofa watching the classic 1960 film version of "The Time Machine," you may be out of luck. The New York Times recently reported that China's State Administration for Radio, Film & Television has issued new guidelines as to how TV shows should treat the issue of time travel, saying that shows that involve rocketing through time and space lack meaning and promote an unhealthy belief system.

The Times reports that a press release in Chinese says that these shows "casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation."

http://abduzeedo.com/files/posts/back-future/back-future-6.jpg

At first, I thought this was crazy. Then I read their reasoning and ya know what? They're right--not in banning the stories, but in what they think about them. Time travel stories almost always have weird plots, use absurd tactics, promote feudalism (time travelers often go back to save kings or be kings and glorify feudalistic times), superstition, fatalism (either nothing can be changed no matter how hard the time traveler tries, or the Time Traveler makes things happen the way he knows they happened, or he does change things and the results are awful) and reincarnation. I honestly can't argue with their criticism of most time-travel movies and/or television shows. .

I still like the first Back-to-the-Future movie though More here.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I figure there must be some Chinese bureaucrats with too much time on their hands . . .

 

[3113]

I figure there must be some Chinese bureaucrats with too much time on their hands . . .

Clock watchers, I'm sure.

 

[Owlwhisper]

.....

 

[Verdad]

One of my favorite T-T stories is "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" by Alfred Bester. 1959 Hugo Award for best short story. I think it's a stitch. Maybe if the Chinese admins read it they'd lighten up a little.

That was a good one! I remember that story.

3, have you read any Harry Turtledove? He mostly writes alternate history, but he's also written my favorite time travel story. More precisely, two of them: “Forty, Counting Down” and its companion piece, “Twenty-One, Counting Up.” I won’t give any spoilers, but these two, besides being just deliciously perceptive and funny, also avoid all the pitfalls you identified.

 

[litfan10]

One of the most memorable works I read as a kid was Ray Bradbury's "Delicate Sound of Thunder" a great time travel story. I got to read it again in college in my Sci-fi course.

 

[oggbashan]

I suspect that there is a political motive - Time Travel stories can postulate a China before or after the Communist Party and could be a way of making comments on the current governmental system.

Perhaps the Chinese Communists have read George Orwell's 1984.

Og

 

[vrosej10]

Time travel is a terrible problem! I don't know about your neighbourhood but the youngsters here pop in and out with no respect for the timeline....

 

[3113]

I suspect that there is a political motive - Time Travel stories can postulate a China before or after the Communist Party and could be a way of making comments on the current governmental system.

I'd say that quite obviously it is political, as every such ban is; thought control is thought control. And it doesn't take a "1984" (which isn't about time travel) communist style government to enact such bans in an attempt to do so.

Consider all these many years that the U.S. had bans on books with certain amounts or kinds of sex.

But political or not, I still think the criticism of typical time travel stories, at lest on film, is valid.

 

[rgraham666]

Hey! China is a great place to do business, so who cares what they decide to read and watch?

That's sarcasm, folks. Mostly.

 

[PennLady]

They should ban "Time Cop," and not just for time-travel reasons.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Guest they won't be watching any Doctor Who in the future.

 

[Handley_Page]

Given the quantity of impossible moved, legends and other tricks that seem to permeate our Chinese fare, I'm surprised that they think Time Travel is worth particular exclusions.

 

[PennLady]

Guest they won't be watching any Doctor Who in the future.

And that's just so sad...I want my next season!

 

[Mrtouf]

I guess that means repeats of Heroes are out too. Not that there will be a huge outcry if it doesn't get aired.

 

[vixenfurry]

Time travel is a terrible problem! I don't know about your neighbourhood but the youngsters here pop in and out with no respect for the timeline....

I guess that means repeats of Heroes are out too. Not that there will be a huge outcry if it doesn't get aired.

really? no fair! i want that power! lol

and hey. i liked that show for like the first two seasons. then i just stopped watching it because it got too confusing. lol

 

[sdineen]

tyffyt

If i was a multi millonare I;d write a time travel story in which Lin Bao wins just to tick off the prc

 

[3113]

Guest they won't be watching any Doctor Who in the future.

And that's just so sad...I want my next season!

Next season is coming up this month--any time now in fact--and I suspect that Chinese fans (assuming there are such) have already seen it. Really, before we start feeling too sorry about the sort of shows those in China might be missing, we should remember that China is the all time leader of pirated movies, television shows etc. Anything that can be pirated, they pirate for almost nothing, reproduce in bulk and sell very cheaply but still at a profit to billions of people.

So all they're likely missing out on is new and original Chinese shows on their televisions featuring time travel. I'd feel sorry for Chinese television writers, but I know too many American television writers and the draconian rules producers and egotistical executives put on them. I think U.S. tv writers would prefer the Chinese government and its bans to all the hellishly petty, mercurial and absurd demands they have to meet in order to get their stuff on American television. This ban is like a walk in the park by compare.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Next season is coming up this month--any time now in fact--and I suspect that Chinese fans (assuming there are such) have already seen it. Really, before we start feeling too sorry about the sort of shows those in China might be missing, we should remember that China is the all time leader of pirated movies, television shows etc. Anything that can be pirated, they pirate for almost nothing, reproduce in bulk and sell very cheaply but still at a profit to billions of people.

So all they're likely missing out on is new and original Chinese shows on their televisions featuring time travel. I'd feel sorry for Chinese television writers, but I know too many American television writers and the draconian rules producers and egotistical executives put on them. I think U.S. tv writers would prefer the Chinese government and its bans to all the hellishly petty, mercurial and absurd demands they have to meet in order to get their stuff on American television. This ban is like a walk in the park by compare.

Indeed, when last there, I brought back a suitcase full of bootleg dvd's...most that hadn't been released in the states as yet.

At $2 USD a piece I figure I made a killing.