BEIJING/SHANGHAI - Even before the new coronavirus, people working in Chinese entertainment had been calling the industry’s struggles their “bleak winter” - as tighter censorship, a crackdown on tax evasion and new government restrictions strangle opportunities for work.
“We expect quite a lot of cinemas will go bankrupt. Actors and actresses may have to cope with a lack of work, but for cinemas, the rent and management cost burden will crush them.” The makers of the martial arts comedy Enter the Fat Dragon made a similar move, with video streaming service iQiyi Inc announcing a fee-based online release.The virus-induced gloom comes at a time when the world’s second-biggest movie market has been in dire need of a shot in the arm.
Content offensive to “core socialist values” has been banned since 2017 - part of efforts, under President Xi Jinping, to tighten controls on society which have also included clamp-downs on activists, internet regulation and the rise of government surveillance. Other movies are just not getting made. Beijing Enlight Media and Beijing Jingxi Culture had both planned 23 movie releases in 2019 but Enlight only released 11 while Jingxi Culture had just nine.
Nor is censorship expected to let up anytime soon as the Communist Party will be celebrating the hundredth anniversary of its founding in 2021.