China Bans Avatar

[Ericb]

Forget Avatar; sign me up to the Confucius biopic with Chow Yun-Fat.

Me too. Though it's actually curious that the chinese government might give this a thumbs up, because Confy would have a thing or two to say about how they've been ruling their people.

Piracy saves the day!

Thank you piracy! =D

Confuscious believed in service to the state, no big suprise a film about him is big with the government.

He also believed in a state rule based on virtue, while being strongly opposed to coercion as a form of crowd control.

So, it actually is a big damn surprise that the guvners down at China are supporting a biopic about him.

OR OR OR, GET THIS, follow me with this one.

it could be JUST a movie? Huh anyone? Thought so. . .

Well, not that I'm making Avatar as some form of revolutionary catalyst for gathering the masses in protest. Because I really think it's just a kind of pretty (but far too colored) film with good acting and a narrative which is extremely predictable.

But any vehicle for human expression which worries a government enough that they go about banning it in their own country doesn't seem to me like "just" something.

Just so I'm making myself clear, this is actually referring to art as a whole, not Avatar.

It's such a shame. Looking out for the good of everyone and valuing equality is an admirable goal; unfortunately, the creation of government necessitates an inherent inequality in order to institute any control. Then, instead of true communism, you get glorified fascism.

That seems about right.

 

[breadlord]

Amidst concerns that Avatar's themes of forced eviction and relocation in order to support industry would spur social unrest,...

How crap, how many times did the government watch it to feel the need not to share? Is it really that good of a movie? (I haven't seen it yet. Because it's not The Last Airbender.)

 

[internetzealot1]

One step closer to insurrection. I wait for that day.

 

[DarkPanda XIII]

.........

They believe forcing foreigners from a home (which is a tree) relates from people being dragged out of their homes and such.....

...*shrugs* Okay, I have nothing to say on this one.

 

[mikecoulter]

I think China can ban all they want now. Nobody cares anymore. Apart from maybe the Chinese.

 

[Dommyboy]

Are there any Escapist members here that are Chinese?

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Saw it last night. It was visually amazing. It was well acted and directed.

The script, however, was insultingly stupid and the movie was an hour too long. Utterly cliche, utterly predictable. If you know the basic premise, the you already know 90% of the movie's plot points. The other 1% aren't important.

 

[Vianyte]

Coming from China, this isn't really surprising.

 

[Beatrix]

Funny, especially since you'd expect it to be 'tuned' to strike a chord with the American foreign policy rather than China's domestic policy.
At least that's what I was reminded of a lot (even though I'm not American).

 

[Pendragon9]

China: WAHH! They made an offensive movie! I hate them! Ban them all!

Australia: Yeah, and they make violent video games too!

*cue both of them making out in a bridge closet hours later*

 

[theultimateend]

I'm pretty sure more people than just China have suffered from forced relocation. Really its just a bit short sighted for one blogger to claim that only the Chinese can identify with forced relocation.

Wouldn't the government not want to ban it anyway to prevent drawing even more attention and try and at least deny the parallels, even if they are there.

exactly what i was thinking. i was like "uh..wtf? how short sighted and ignorant are you?" if i remember right, someone correct me if im wrong, wasn't it based off of the american indians being relocated?

and i agree on part two, banning it is just bringing even more attention to it, since its not a worldwide sighting now and once again china is frowned upon

It is essentially the film Pocahontas Live Action-ed and in 3D.

 

[Starke]

Jeez, why dont they just ban everything and be done with it.

Then we would make one thread entitled "China bans everything, including gaming, eating and having sex" and all the uneducated fucks could spend there time debating politics in that thread. Seriously, half you people have no fucking idea what your talking about and still feel the need to shout about your opinion like you are the all knowing all mighty.

But sir, it is the god given right of the 'merikas ta gabble incoherantly 'bout everthin' possible on tha' internets with absolute conviction that our uninformed opinion is absolutly correct. Don't you go confusin' us with yer facts an' logic.[/snark]

What really disturbed me was the guy who was saying "[banning Avatar] is what's wrong with socialism. The government has too much power." Or thereabouts.

 

[benbenthegamerman]

Jeez, why dont they just ban everything and be done with it.

Then we would make one thread entitled "China bans everything, including gaming, eating and having sex" and all the uneducated fucks could spend there time debating politics in that thread. Seriously, half you people have no fucking idea what your talking about and still feel the need to shout about your opinion like you are the all knowing all mighty.

well, you have to have a permit to have intercourse in china, procreation or not.

and you have to get it every time you want to have recreational or procreational sex.

 

[Scumpernickle]

China is on a roll. First WoW, now Avatar!

 

[FROGGEman2]

I went to China in August and the full movie was playing in a videostore. They have pirating ninjas there.

They'll be fine.

 

[Sevre]

I hope they try to ban Avatar from the interwebs.

 

[Wicky_42]

You should know that at that time, Hitler's party was called NSDAP for a reason
(National Socialist German Workers Party) DUH!

Democratic People's Republic of China.

Hmmm...

Thank you, Graustein! It NEVER fails to amaze me how little some people know about huge historical events. Some Americans like to rag on about censorship in Australia and China, and yet that can look so ironic when they start spouting propaganda and Fox News quotes in place of history and politics.

Socialism is still a terrible system. Any country in which the government has that much power will inevitable have something go wrong, probably involving peoples individual rights being violated for the supposed "good" of the many.

Wow... so, since Fox News is probably your source of info on politics, could you tell me what Socialism actually is? Which countries are actually socialist?

Did you know that the picture you were referring to has only Communist and Fascist representatives on it? And that those two political systems aren't socialist? No? What, prey, would be a good system of government? One where the government doesn't look after its people, serving mainly to ensure business have free reign to exploit the populace to the max? Without any socialist aspects, that's pretty much what you'd get.

The UK's NHS is a socialist system of free healthcare, paid for by the masses through taxes. Because of opinions like yours, Clockwork, the US has, for some reason, demonised this idea as some sort of public sponsored murder racket ("If Steven Hawking was British, he would have been killed", shouted your headlines. How fucking stupid can you get?). Now, does that make your system or the socialist system a 'terrible' one?

I reckon "being told the truth" should be made a human right.

 

[The Austin]

there's no freedom in China, a Dictature remains what it is. just look at China's 4000 years History only emperors and Tyrans...

this pic is a good example:

Spoiler

I really pretty ****ing tired of people equating socialism with mass murders.

You do have to understand though, when socialism has had such a rocky past that people are going to think of all the horrible things it was involved in.