Chinese censorship the talk of Berlin after Zhang Yimou film pulled from festival – and no wonder
- The Berlin International Film Festival looked like being a celebration of Chinese filmmaking; the withdrawal of Zhang Yimou’s One Second changed that
- With no explanation for the shock decision, international commentators had reason to focus on censorship amid tightening government control of the arts
Barely a week ago, the media in China were eagerly anticipating this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.
Films by three directors from China – Zhang Yimou, Wang Xiaoshuai and Wang Quan’an – were selected for the official competition; in addition, the Global Times highlighted that Wang Lina’s The First Farewell (a Uygur-language feature) and Xiang Zi’s A Dog Barking At The Moon (a drama revolving around a gay man) were also to feature at the festival. The story in the Communist Party-controlled tabloid was no doubt intended to deflect widespread international criticism of the Chinese government’s so-called re-education camps for ethnic minorities, including Uygurs, in Xinjiang, and its clampdown on communities who do not conform to conventional sexual norms.
Shock in China after Cultural Revolution film pulled from Berlin festival
At the same time European film executives and commentators see the Chinese film industry as occupying a position of strength. In Berlin they were watching as the Chinese box office broke records over the Lunar New Year holiday, helped by the success of The Wandering Earth, a domestically produced sci-fi action blockbuster.
However, this positivity went by the board when organisers announced on Monday that director Zhang’s One Second had been pulled from the festival for “technical reasons”.
Its producers have since maintained an eerie silence over the status of Zhang’s film, which is set during the Cultural Revolution in China, and officials declined to address the issue publicly.
There has been plenty of speculation about why Zhang suffered this enormous slap in the face: having directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the veteran filmmaker – whose nickname is guoshi, or “National Teacher” – has long been considered part of the establishment.
Did the film not obtain the right permit to be shown overseas? Or was it censorship? We may never know.
The media in Berlin began speculating that Wang Xiaoshuai’s So Long, My Son – a film about the impact of China’s one-child policy, and which makes fleeting references to the Cultural Revolution – would be the next to be withdrawn.
Some gave renewed attention to the cancellation – without any explanation – of screenings of another Chinese film, Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung’s juvenile delinquency drama Better Days, three days before the festival opened on February 7.
When the cancellation was announced, it raised barely a ripple: this was partly because it was competing in the festival’s youth-oriented Generation competition rather than for the main prize, the Silver Bear. Greater significance was attached to it’s non-showing after One Second’s late withdrawal from the festival.
Lou Ye’s two-year struggle with censors to get a screening licence for The Shadow Play, which is showing as part of the festival’s Panorama programme, was also highlighted, as was the fact that Wang Quan’an, who spent years in the wilderness after he was caught paying for sex in 2014, could only return to directing films by taking the reins of a Mongolian production.
For years, Chinese film bosses have complained about the way the international media has zeroed in on their censorship regime instead of focusing on the Chinese film industry boom.
In public, officials have repeatedly stressed the significant strides they have made on this thorny issue; the Film Industry Promotion Law enacted in 2017, they said, was the fruit of official efforts to establish a clear legal framework for film censorship.
All the fuss about Zhang’s One Second may be forgotten if Wang Xiaoshuai or Wang Quan’an win a major prize at the Berlin festival on Saturday.
But with official control over Chinese filmmaking (and the arts in general) tightening, the international media has more reason than ever to draw attention to censorship in China.
