Cleavage-cropping mainland censors trying to redress Tang dynasty's sexy norm, say experts
Although censors are cutting back on cleavage shots on mainland TV amid a clean-up of cultural works, historically China was tolerant of decolletage displays
Shapely breasts, often more ample than Mother Nature bestowed, are objects of desire and status symbols in China these days.
Posters featuring buxom women touting the benefits of boob jobs, herbal supplements, creams or other methods to boost one's bust are frequently seen by anyone getting into a taxi or a lift in Beijing. "The happiest women can expose their proud, vital curves," says one advertisement. "Autologous fat breast enhancement can create a legendary breast."
It's a far cry from the time, a century ago, when many Chinese women bound their chests and feet in an effort to attain a more ideal femininity. Given such a shift in mainstream aesthetics, it came as a surprise to the public when a highly anticipated period TV drama, The Empress of China, also known as Legend of Wu Meiniang, was yanked off the air in late December, apparently because its 7th-century courtesans were showing more decolletage than government watchdogs found appropriate.
Days later, the 80-episode series, featuring A-lister Fan Bingbing as Empress Wu and produced at the extraordinary cost of nearly US$50 million, was back on Hunan TV after some surgical procedures, so to speak. But the censors' scalpel was hardly subtle: medium shots that previously showed the plunging necklines of women of the Tang dynasty (AD618-907) had been hastily converted to extreme close-ups that often cut actresses off at the neck.
Producers of the show announced via social media that "technical problems" were to blame for the hiatus, and even Xinhua could not elicit an official explanation from the tight-lipped State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), which polices China's airwaves. But the news agency noted that "many viewers speculated" that the suspension was due to the "revealing costumes", which led online commentators to dub the show's female characters "squeezed breasts".
The re-edited version has been met with derision, with critics rechristening the programme "The Legend of Big Head Wu". Viewers took to the internet to voice their displeasure, noting not only that ample breasts were au courant during the Tang era but also that the trims, which left hands and most other body parts below the chin on the cutting room floor, also made the action more difficult to follow.