No sex, drugs, witches or gays: China bans ‘morally hazardous’ content from TV

What do teenage romance, extra-marital affairs, reincarnation and homosexuality have in common? They’ve all been banned from Chinese television dramas.

Crime shows that reveal police strategies and tactics have also been banned so that criminals can’t use the information to ‘up their game’.

The government’s ‘General Principle of Television Drama Production Content’, released in December, serves as a “professional guideline” for industry experts, according to Li Jingsheng, chief of television drama under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

It requires producers to actively produce content advocated by the administration and stay away from prohibited content.

Such prohibited content includes storylines seen as promoting superstitions, like spiritual procession, reincarnation and witchcraft.

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It also includes content deemed as promoting promiscuity, or as pornographic or that displays “abnormal sexual relationships or sexual behaviour” such as homosexuality.