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Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

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Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#161

Post by douche »

gambiting wrote: post #160
schoen wrote: post #61

Something that might be comparably shocking is the extent to which Chinese investors and government representatives influence the content of Hollywood movies that depict or refer to China. There were some news reports about this in the last couple of years; I sat next to a Hollywood studio executive on a flight last month and (rather than arguing about copyright policy) commiserated about this issue. He confirmed tha…

I work in the games industry and we had to remove "Taiwan" as a country option if we wanted to release our game in China. There's a lot of push if you want to release anything on the market there.

The whole One China policy is incredibly dumb. Out of the last 120 years, Taiwan has actually been part of the mainland Chinese state for all of 4 years, 4 years in which they were in fact controlled by the same government as currently exercises sovereignty there today.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#162

Post by joncrocks »

Inconel wrote: post #98
xnull2guest wrote: post #82

In the United States, it is illegal to portray the assassination of a president. Handling topics of National Security, such as Pearl Harbor, must be screened and if needed edited by National Security personnel. Close partnership and collective ownership of media production facilities has given us movies with fake narratives like the Jessica Lynch story, Zero Dark Thirty, etc.

Assassinating the US President is a pretty standard device plot in many action movies and TV shows. In fact, if you had to judge Americans by our movies, you'd probably think we're all obsessed with killing the President. Also, I could be out of the loop but I don't think the Pearl Harbor attacks are matters of national security any more.

Attempting assassination yes. That is a very common plot device.

By the president actually getting assassinated, i.e. it being successful?

That's a bit harder to find.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#163

Post by igravious »

PakG1 wrote: post #152
anigbrowl wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That third link is fascinating - not just for he insights into how Chinese censors indirectly guide producers, but also for the lack of ironic detachment and self-awareness shown by the American analysts, eg Red Dawn, a remake of a 1980s action movie about a Soviet invasion of the United States, was originally shot featuring China as the antagonist invading the United States. According to Mr. Shiao, however, the Chin…

A 'Captain Phillips' executive identified the tone of the film as a source of discomfort for censors, particularly “the big Military machine of the U.S. saving one U.S. citizen. China would never do the same and in no way would want to promote this idea.” I was watching Argo on my Chinese IPTV streaming service in Shenzhen with my Chinese roommate and my roommate was blown away by the idea that the movie was based on…

Those six were no ordinary citizens, they were diplomats.

Argo is a deeply troubling film. From the one-dimensionality of the Iranians to the complete lack of historical context ignoring prior US meddling and interfering in internal Iranian affairs[1]. The involvement of the CIA in the production[2]. The historical inaccuracies of the film[3]. The timing of the release of the film given Iranian-Western relations over its nuclear program.

For me Argo is basically unwatchable US patriotic screen-fodder bordering on propaganda.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'état#Unite...

[2] https://www.amazon.de/CIA-Hollywood-Agency-Shapes-Television...

“Argo and Zero Dark Thirty are only the latest film productions the CIA has influenced in the 15 years since the Agency opened its official liaison office to Hollywood […]”

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film)#Historical_in...

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#164

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #118
krapp wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet every time Hollywood adapts a Japanese property they seem to be unable to find any Asian actors in California to portray any Major roles.

Likewise, when japan does live action versions of their anime, they are unable to find Caucasian actors to fill roles that are obviously Caucasian. Tamaki Suoh in Ouran Host Club obviously has blonde hair and blue eyes in the anime, but in the live action becomes completely Japanese! Perhaps they just couldn't find an actor that looked the role?

> roles that are obviously Caucasian

Are they? Anime characters do not seem to be bound by typical (or even possible) hair and eye colours. Couldn't such characters be, well, ethnic Japanese people who happen to have an unusual hair colour? That seems to be the general assumption.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#165

Post by elcapitan »

There was an interesting talk on the economics of internet censorship at 33c3, you can watch it here: https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8170-the_economic_consequences_o...

One aspect I found interesting was the hypothesis that states like China use censorship also as a strategic tool to strengthen their own business (Baidu vs Google for example).

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#166

Post by xiaoma »

xiaoma wrote: post #71
unchocked wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm under the impression that Taiwan is Nationalist China.

It's not. Taiwan is fully democratic, has elected a president from the Democratic Progressive Party and has very few people who self-identify as Chinese.

Everything I wrote above is true. Here is more detail:

Ruling party: Taiwan's president is indeed from the Democratic Progressive Party. [1]

Self identification: More than 80 percent of respondents self-identified as Taiwanese, compared with 8.1 percent who identified themselves as Chinese and 7.6 percent who identified as both. [2]

Fully democratic: Not only does Taiwan have open elections and tolerate political demonstrations even the US wouldn't, but people have had referendum powers since 2003. This power was used stop the building of casinos in Penghu despite the moneyed interests pushing for them: [3]

1) http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35336411

2) http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/05/28/20...

3) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-15/casinos-r...

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#167

Post by Intermernet »

nradov wrote: post #148
gbog wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American film industry is also a huge propaganda machine which is aimed at consolidating western cultural dominance over the world, expect it's not western culture anymore, it's just the U.S. Entertainment industry. In the movie and cartoon sectors only the Indians, the French and the Japanese can have a tiny slice of the cake, the Chinese have nothing. So it's the only survival path for them as an original form…

Nonsense. Since around 1970 the American film industry isn't aimed at anything more than making a profit (with an occasional bit of art for art's sake). Any propaganda effect is entirely incidental.

I'm not sure about the veracity of these two articles[1][2], but there seem to be a lot of instances where the US government have provided assistance, and indeed applied pressure to Hollywood. I wouldn't call that "entirely incidental".

[1]: http://www.globalresearch.ca/lights-camera-covert-action-the...

[2]: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/nov/14/thriller-ridley...

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#168

Post by RyanHamilton »

int_19h wrote: post #156
throwaway122916 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of US movies that go the other way - praising the US military/portraying conflicts in good vs evil way. Example is Battle Los Angeles (2011) and American Sniper (2015). So such things are in effect "soft propaganda". In China, to protect themselves against such soft influence, they enact regulations. Letting people watch all US movies without a filter is effectively letting US set the cultural standar…

> Letting people watch all US movies without a filter is effectively letting US set the cultural standards and values. No, it's letting the people set the cultural standards and values, by deciding what to watch and what not to watch.

> letting the people set the cultural standards and values, by deciding what to watch and what not to watch. If you believe that is how things work I think you may be being naive. "deciding" would depend on film budget (hire stars / pay for special effects), contractual agreements with vendors e.g. tv stations to play that content and advertising. How many people truly decided to have coca cola, mcdonalds and wear nike trainers....or did they do what advertising told them to.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#169

Post by retSava »

anigbrowl wrote: post #79
schoen wrote: post #61

Something that might be comparably shocking is the extent to which Chinese investors and government representatives influence the content of Hollywood movies that depict or refer to China. There were some news reports about this in the last couple of years; I sat next to a Hollywood studio executive on a flight last month and (rather than arguing about copyright policy) commiserated about this issue. He confirmed tha…

That third link is fascinating - not just for he insights into how Chinese censors indirectly guide producers, but also for the lack of ironic detachment and self-awareness shown by the American analysts, eg Red Dawn, a remake of a 1980s action movie about a Soviet invasion of the United States, was originally shot featuring China as the antagonist invading the United States. According to Mr. Shiao, however, the Chin…

Can you tell me/us a little about that youtube link? I looked at it and it's all in chinese/mandarin so can't really understand much. A small skip forward showed Gorbatjev and Yeltsin in some kind of parlamentiary setting and the audience laughing loudly. I'm very curious now.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#170

Post by s_kilk »

schoen wrote: post #61

Something that might be comparably shocking is the extent to which Chinese investors and government representatives influence the content of Hollywood movies that depict or refer to China. There were some news reports about this in the last couple of years; I sat next to a Hollywood studio executive on a flight last month and (rather than arguing about copyright policy) commiserated about this issue. He confirmed tha…

It's also the only reason Donnie Yen's character exists in Rogue One.
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