A month after Hunan's anti-pornography department busted a provider of indecent videos, provincial television got a rare interview with one of the officials in charge of looking through the seized material.
At first, the experience was "awkward, my face and ears turned red and my heart skipped a beat", Liu Xiaozhen, a 70-year-old member of the investigative team, said as he recalled his first day on the job.
You have to watch [the pornography] even if you don't want to watch
Liu is a member of the provincial "eliminate pornography and illegal publications" office. Such departments exist throughout the mainland, and because of their duties, officials usually keep quiet about their work.
Liu is a longtime professional. In 2008, he received a national award of excellence for writing an essay about his profession.
He and three colleagues have to examine the 700 DVDs confiscated in April, classifying them within a week as "pornographic", "obscene" or "others", he said.
The distinction will help decide what charges to press against those arrested. "You have to watch even if you don't want to watch," Liu said in the report.