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The Big [Censored] Theory

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Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#471

Post by delecti »

ginger2016 wrote: post #369
MichaelCollins wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> lack confidence with women Aren't all the male characters in the show this way? Is the show doing "Character who is Indian male lacks confidence with women" ? Or is it doing "Character lacks confidence with women because he's an Indian male" ? There's a world of difference.

Asian men historically have been desexualized. The show is relying on that stereotype. https://youtu.be/2k82hIqd1Os

I think the butt of the joke regarding their ineptitude with women is their being nerds, not their individual demographics (Indians, Jews, or Autistics).

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#473

Post by astrange »

archi42 wrote: post #368
sltkr wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I'm mostly offended how stale and unoriginal a lot of these jokes are, but I can definitely see why the censors took offense at some of them. For example, the joke about the Chinese restaurant ("I'd be more concerned about what they're passing off as chicken") plays off of the stereotype that Chinese people eat dogs and cats, and the “passing off” remark implies that the Chinese restaurant owners are decep…

Just today I saw part of a BBT rerun on German TV: The guys camp out in some lodge, together with the lodge's owner. That owner is also a brilliant(?) scientist, living alone in the lodge. I think he is from Germany, but that might differ depending on the localisation. He and his wife send each other cards once per year, for their respective birthday. Well, turns out most years, because this year he forgot it (Sheldo…

The rabbits bred for meat also make good pets:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdAi5Y8DDoNyX-4qcEcd-5w

On the other hand, there's apparently a problem where pet stores are selling similar giant guinea pig breeds as pets, but they're too wild and don't have the temper to enjoy it.

https://www.cavyhouse.org/%22Cuy%22.html

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#475

Post by astrange »

okasaki wrote: post #73
RajT88 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. It seems to have had the effect of removing pieces of reality. I had a conversation once with a Chinese national, about an article about LGBTQ+ people in China. "There's no Gay people in China" (me, points at a picture of 2 young Chinese men in the article) "They're from Hong Kong. There's no Gay people in China." OK then! (This was quite a while back, I suspect the same conversation today would play out diff…

What a bizarre and ridiculous view to form based on one conversation. I'm sure you can find plenty of people in the west who believe stupid things. Does that mean that western countries are "removing pieces of reality"?

I've heard this from Chinese lesbians too. They aren't out in China, but other people are completely incapable of noticing they're gay, and other women won't admit they're gay to them even if eg they have just had sex.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#476

Post by delecti »

neither_color wrote: post #416
Animats wrote: post #394

What's more striking is what comes out of China's domestic entertainment industry. There are far too many historical costume dramas. Those aren't as heavily censored as modern ones. More modern content looks like it was censored in accordance with the US Television Code of the 1950s. ("The code prohibited the use of profanity, the negative portrayal of family life, irreverence for God and religion, illicit sex, drunk…

What's interesting is in the US that kind of censorship is attributed to the most mainstream religion but China is officially atheist and does the same. Whenever people tell me that it's only one religion standing in the way of equal rights for disadvantaged groups I remind them that there's an atheist superpower that's even less permissive except for on reproductive issues(although, in their case they do regulate it…

There's definitely a tendency to oversimplify authoritarians by criticizing them for other aspects. American right-wing authoritarians are bad because they're authoritarian, but get criticized for the Evangelical tone through which they enforce it. Likewise with Chinese authoritarians getting criticized for being communist while they do authoritarianism, rather than for the authoritarianism itself.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#477

Post by kelnos »

koonsolo wrote: post #377
ALittleLight wrote: post #10

I can see how this might backfire. You notice a censored jump and start to feel the itch of curiosity as to what it concealed. I had to watch several of the censored scenes whereas I would have never just randomly watched clips of the show. Also, love the presentation on this page.

The cuts are mainly obvious because of the sound glitch. I think when they would have a better crossover of the audio, it would be way harder to notice.

There were also one or two clips where they cut off someone midsentence where they didn't really have to; just waiting for them to finish their sentence to start the cut would have been fine. Very low-effort job all around. But I suspect that if you grow up with this sort of thing, you just assume that it's normal, possibly just how foreign shows are made. You might not think anything is wrong until someone points it out, and shows you the uncensored version. But how many people in China would have access to an uncensored version?

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#478

Post by kelnos »

tuatoru wrote: post #268
concordDance wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems untrue. Do more than a fraction of a percent of Chinese people watch the uncensored versions of things?

Not on a regular basis, perhaps. The glitches serve to remind them daily that their government is manipulating them. The dilemma that China's leaders have is that they need an educated workforce, capable of logical and critical thinking, but they can't stop that workforce thinking critically outside work.

> The glitches serve to remind them daily that their government is manipulating them.

I suspect that the vast majority of Chinese viewers barely notice, or just assume that there was some sort of problem with the source material when it was imported into their country. Most probably don't make the connection that portions have been censored, because this is just what they've grown up with, and seems normal.

I think you both under- and over-estimate Chinese people in this regard. Certainly they are well-educated, but they've been raised culturally very differently than you or I. It's not impossible to be smart and know how to think, but also close off your mind to certain classes of criticism because you've been raised to value unity and harmony above other concerns.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#479

Post by astrange »

ricktdotorg wrote: post #455
astrange wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a TV actor speak in their natural accent might be mocking them, if it's normal to have them fake a different one. eg David Tennant uses his Scottish accent for jokes in a show where he normally sounds English

> David Tennant uses his Scottish accent for jokes in a show where he normally sounds English may i ask that you clarify this point? tennant made a personal choice NOT to use his native/normal scottish accent for Dr. Who. he discusses this with Jodie Whittaker (also someone with quite a strong native accent) in an episode of his podcast, he TL;dr said it didn't feel quite right for him to use his native accent for th…

I was thinking of this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOW1Wjb_oEI

Though I have to admit the reason I think of him when it comes to doing accents is his American accent that's supposed to be NorCal but sounds like it's everywhere else at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gp9K-rMdxg

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#480

Post by kelnos »

sangnoir wrote: post #408
tuatoru wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not on a regular basis, perhaps. The glitches serve to remind them daily that their government is manipulating them. The dilemma that China's leaders have is that they need an educated workforce, capable of logical and critical thinking, but they can't stop that workforce thinking critically outside work.

I'm itching to give a counterexample, but that'll ignite a flame war. I'll cowardly insinuate it instead: you know the country I'm talking about.

I mean, seriously. I'm American, and the US primary school system is clearly designed half as day care, and half as a factory for teaching US citizens how to think like US citizens are "supposed" to think.

We also forget that, in the mid and late 1900s (or, like many of us, just weren't born yet), many (though not all) of the same kinds of censorship were present in American TV, and to some extent movies as well.

I do find the Chinese version to be more insidious (and more dangerous, given current surveillance and content-blocking technology), and much of it probably is, but I do think some of it is just unconscious nationalism and "othering" on my part, as much as I try to stamp out that kind of thinking in myself.

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