China Censors Male Artistes Who Wear Earrings

Jing Boran and Xiao Gui’s ear piercings were pixelated in recent variety shows.

China’s broadcasting authority, The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), is known for its strict rules over viewer censorship. In the past, they have already limited and selected the number of foreign, historic, and Korean shows allowed in China. In September, it was reported that NRTA put an “effeminate ban” on the entertainment industry, which limits “effeminate” celebrities from making appearances on television and public appearances. Recently, censorship was enacted further by the blurring of male artistes’ earrings in shows to avoid the “girly male” look.

The talk began when a netizen noticed on television that one of the male artiste’s ear was blurred in which many guessed it was for covering his piercing. Aside from earrings, NRTA is also considering blurring dyed hair and tattoos. A Weibo user posted various edited pictures and noted that the broadcasting authority didn’t want male artistes to wear earrings on variety shows. As a rule, televised and online shows that display piercings will be censored.

This topic sparked much controversy and debate online. Many netizens began looking at past shows to spot the censorship of earrings and noticed indeed that there was a blur on many male artistes’ ears because they have not received the notice of this new rule yet.

Many shows have to use heavy editing to meet censorship requirements. For example, Hong Kong artiste Tianyo Ma (馬天佑) went on a variety show on Hunan Television with pink hair, but after editing, he was seen with black hair on screen.

Even Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) and William Chan (陳偉霆), who are usually seen with piercings have now removed their earrings in promotional events and television shows. Their managers responded “Don’t worry, these two artistes are both so manly. We aren’t worried about the change!”

Source: On.cc  

This article is written by Hailey for JayneStars.com.