Hot off the press:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060813/ap_on_en_tv/china_cartoon_ban

Summary: Beginning September 1st, China is barring any animation not made in China from appearing on Chinese prime-time TV (5-8PM) to help Chinese animation studios.

My question: Will this move help popularize Chinese anime, or simply shoot it in the foot by highlighting its shortcomings? I say it'll hurt it; I foresee the same effect as when major media attacks music groups, violent video games, etc., and acts as unintentional publicity, thereby increasing sales. In other words, actively restricting Japanese/American/Korean/other animation from being shown during peak hours will probably make people that weren't aware of it wonder what all the fuss is about, and they start to investigate, and more converts are born.

Opinions? Sound off!

Geez that is really a harsh rule i must say... seriously to my opinion (sorry if being offensive) chinese anime arent really that nice to watch... countless times i watch and got bored of it after a while....

ok about that question... i doubt it help... many people nowadays actually watch and download animes from the net... Losing its rights to be on the Tv set is just a small infringement.... many anime fanatics will jusr resolve to getting it from the net ..whether they like it or not Chinese anime are just not as appealing as japanese anime and by that reason alone many would just go on by other means to watch it... you want prove just take a look at this community

Who says the China economy isn't communist anymore?

A total ban of imported media is a very extreme measure of protectionism, needless to say, and as history shows, extremes always get on nerves, and rebels will come, then comes massive piracy of foreign animation, and then a huge crackdown which gives these foregin media a bad name.

Woah nelly; its just at the doorstep.

chinese tv suck chinese anime suck communism suck you know communism as they said we are the people of this country we will help each other hhmm did that ever happend the chinese government is just totally curroption (spelled that wrong i think) they acctually don't care about the people they always think of them selfs and the economy at all costs

I don't know whether it will help it or not, haven't seen any Chinese anime as I remember, but I think AWOL's right. That's just gonna starts a whole boatload of more problems. I honestly don't see how they missed that factor when they announced that.

I have a better idea, why don't they just continue the great wall, except this time around the borders, then shut down all the airports.

I'm sure there are some great people in that country, pity their goverment hides the truth from them, a truth they deserve to know.

This is equivalent to admitting that their domestic products are not up to par with the Japs (Which everyone knows). Most of Chinese anime fans get their fix from the net anyway so the the impact of this is rather minimal IMO.

Ah, I knew that the Teletubbies were subverting our young children with alien capitalistic brainwashing! I knew it!

Having just returned from China in July, I must say, Chinese TV in general sucks, pardon the language. They seldomly have good programs on during "normal" viewing hours, reserving those exclusively for state-sponsored and endorsed shows. Whereas in the west we have numerous news programs during prime time, such as the trio of NBC, CBS, and ABC, in addition to the numerous cable networks, in the US, at the stroke of 7:00pm in China, every single channel, cable or broadcast, airs the CCTV 1's state-run nightly news. Great time for family diner conversation without the distraction of TV.

As for animated programming, if China blocks anime and the Simpson from TV, all the more reason for the development of piracy in that country. This past month I rarely saw any anime on any of the channels, which should be indicative of the level of control already present. I honestly think that the average TV viewer will notice little change after this ban, and the internet will just continue its rise to preeminence as the prime source of news and entertainment for the informed middle class in China.

Though it is a pity that 4 year olds in China won't be able to catch 'em all anymore.

I call it the watermelon seed principle.

Take a handfull of fresh watermelon seeds and try to hold on to them by gripping them tight. Inevitably you will lose most of them and only hold onto a few.

Quoted from the Yahoo's article.

The newspaper cited what it said was a recent study that found that 80 percent of Chinese children surveyed liked foreign cartoons and disliked domestic animation.

Perhaps, if Chinese animators/story writers learn what makes foreign anime more appealing than their own, then maybe many viewers will take interest in the shows once they get the right inspiration going. The many times I been in China, I have seen some of their anime and each time, I find myself not impressed with the art and the stories are a bit bland in my opinion.

I doubt the ban would help much. The kids can probably choose not to watch the domestic anime and if they know where to look, there is always the internet to get their anime fix...unless the government somehow stops that too.

Oh, the chinese government is already doing its best to shut down the internet. I saw it once in a newsweek article. Anyway, china is intent; no, the powerful people of china is intent on making sure the country is under they're thumb.

Quote by UltraMarine there is always the internet to get their anime fix...unless the government somehow stops that too.

Be careful what you say. This is China after all ' They might just find a way

Honestly I think it's bordering on ridiculous. Honestly if your neighbor builds a better house than you is it fair or even reasonable to demand the mayor tear down your neighbor's house and ban anyone from building one like it? I think not.

To me it sounds like the animators are having a bit of a temper tantrum and have decided to take it to the government.

What they should really be focussing on is quality not quantity. If China can actually develope something good it'll sell itself and won't need cheap (and horrifically inefective) publicity stunts.

VIVA LA RESISTANCE!

(Hope I spelled it right. I don't speak French )

Quote by UltramarinePerhaps, if Chinese animators/story writers learn what makes foreign anime more appealing than their own, then maybe many viewers will take interest in the shows once they get the right inspiration going. The many times I been in China, I have seen some of their anime and each time, I find myself not impressed with the art and the stories are a bit bland in my opinion.

Well the story side can be easily fixed since it isn't necessarily the story but how you tell it and China has a pretty rich history and lots of legends so there really should not be that much lacking in the story department. As far as the animation is concerned to each their own since each form has its pluses and minuses.

Quote by ShadowWraithQuote by UltraMarine there is always the internet to get their anime fix...unless the government somehow stops that too.

Be careful what you say. This is China after all ' They might just find a way

Well there is no doubt that the state control of hte media is an issue but after hearing that the modern/young generation can pretty much blow past those "controls" easily I don't think the communist party is going to have its way on that front.

Agreed with AWOL on this one.

Sounds like pretty a asinine idea.

Quote by EternalParadox
As for animated programming, if China blocks anime and the Simpson from TV, all the more reason for the development of piracy in that country. This past month I rarely saw any anime on any of the channels, which should be indicative of the level of control already present. I honestly think that the average TV viewer will notice little change after this ban, and the internet will just continue its rise to preeminence as the prime source of news and entertainment for the informed middle class in China.

Though it is a pity that 4 year olds in China won't be able to catch 'em all anymore.

agreed. now that you mention that piracy rating in China is rather high.. being a ralatively big country and at their current rate of controling piracy... this is just seen as an opportunity for piracy distributers to increase their income... unless of course on the sideline that the chinese governmnet had that in mind..

merged: 08-15-2006 ~ 12:59pm

Quote by DarkIzaakOh, the chinese government is already doing its best to shut down the internet. I saw it once in a newsweek article. Anyway, china is intent; no, the powerful people of china is intent on making sure the country is under they're thumb.

geez i got to get hold of that newspaper article... i really want to know how the hell they plan on doing so?
China is after all a communist country... thus their government has to follow suit to the cummunism principle even though they may disagree with it..

I dont see how it will help them at all. I suppose if studios have proposed new ideas and are going to launch new titles durning this 'ban' you might get a few people to watch it. But even then, it would seem like they're just watching it because there's nothing else on. It probaly wont have the same sort of following as foreign anime does. Others just might not watch TV at all (or at least not as much) and look towards manga and other forms of written story to get their fix.

don't really care....it's their business....

i went to china over the summer. nice place but i must say there tv is NOT worth talking about. VERY poor effects in there real time shows. i couldn't understand what they were talking about, but i didn't have to. And there "cartoons" ugh, i try not to remember. but i was happy to see they had US shows like mib. this is a real bad idea.

Did you know: the most recent branch of LucasFilms was intended to be situated in China, but it was changed to Singapore all thanks, and I REALLY mean thanks, due to the instant piracy of Star Wars III even before the movie came out.

Quote by Hiraku-San
merged: 08-15-2006 ~ 12:59pm

Quote by DarkIzaakOh, the chinese government is already doing its best to shut down the internet. I saw it once in a newsweek article. Anyway, china is intent; no, the powerful people of china is intent on making sure the country is under they're thumb.

geez i got to get hold of that newspaper article... i really want to know how the hell they plan on doing so?
China is after all a communist country... thus their government has to follow suit to the cummunism principle even though they may disagree with it..

I'm not too sure about them wanting to constrict the internet, but they've sure tried to control it.
I believe that they want to keep China China; and not to be influenced by the strange foreign cultures. At the same time, they'd probably want chinese to be a universal language in the process.
The scary thing is that they're capable of it.

Communism equals stability in China. As far as I know, the only good TV in China are the DVD you get. So basically, for the tiny percentage of Chinese citizens that even care about TV animation, the ban doesnt do much anyways

what, the kids care about their cartoons? not so much. they study too much to have much cares about what they watch on tv. seriously, its not a stereotype...most of the kids study like mad back there...

talk about banning the trivial things in life, I can only see nothing but shortcomings as you say, it makes no difference, people in China have a variety of ways of access to anything else being shown in the world, and there is a market and suppliers willing to dedicate all their resources to the ever booming crowd of entertainment demands. (even Desperate Housewives was shown far earlier in China before anywhere else in Asia) It is relatively nothing but censure, but since it is moved by the market forces, I reckon this movement won't do much harm in the long run, as long as their is a demand, there will be various providers through other means for the demands to be fulfilled, practically the DVD entertainment industry is growing almost endlessly, and I see no stopping of this growth anyway, if there is demand, this small banment will only lead to the Channel's own little demise in time.

It's natural that they are worried about the pop culture bombing their own traditional culture, but banning them is not really enough. Even if they really serious, they can't really stop DVD distribution and Internet video download because it's so popular in every country. I don't know about the TV show in China. Maybe if some of the member here is Chinese or happen be in China, they can type in here.

Wow, it looks like most people agree with me so far. I hadn't even thought about the piracy angle though:

Quote by EternalParadoxAs for animated programming, if China blocks anime and the Simpson from TV, all the more reason for the development of piracy in that country.

Quote by AWOLDid you know: the most recent branch of LucasFilms was intended to be situated in China, but it was changed to Singapore all thanks, and I REALLY mean thanks, due to the instant piracy of Star Wars III even before the movie came out.

I hadn't heard of that; guess you learn something new every day.

I think if the "media control" trend continues to a total TV and Internet ban of non-Chinese media in China, we could start to see illegal copying and black-market distribution of foreign material becoming large-scale business, i.e. something akin to America's Prohibition Era. It's not too hard for me to picture; I personally got approached by some guy in Manhattan peddling $5 CD's (obviously burnt). It's not a big leap to imagine corner store owners in Shanghai (or wherever) having an "under-the-counter" stash of Chinese-subbed movies, anime, etc. ("Come see me after hours, friend!") Granted some probably already do, but it would be a much more common thing if the Chinese government tried throttling TV and Internet exposure to such material entirely.

BTW, for those curious about the Chinese "constriction of the Internet":
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0922/p01s02-woap.html

first thing is to realize that with the majority of "common young people", tv and media is far less important to them and far less significant than with media in the US.