Censors wipe off inapproriate content from China’s screens

BEIJING: Many Chinese millenials spend a lot of time watching videos of sports and entertainment; research firm Analysys International says more than 70 per cent of China's mobile-video users are under 30 and nearly three- quarters of them watch at least one to two hours of video everyday. Consciously or otherwise, many pay little attention to politics.

Their indifference is being shaken up now. Under President Xi Jinping's more assertive guidance, the Communist Party is trying to instil patriotism and reinsert ideology into public life. Instead of American TV situation comedies, Beijing wants Chinese youth to watch revolutionary-themed series and other politically inspiring fare.

The effect is unsettling for many young Chinese — and for the online companies building businesses catering to them.

“It feels like the government is yelling into your ears about its existence every day now,” says Gloria Liu, a 23-year- old law graduate student in the northeastern city of Changchun.

Liu, views herself as patriotic, like many of her generation. She's also a fan of South Korean pop culture, especially the K-Pop band EXO. She taught herself Korean and uploaded subtitled shows and media coverage of the band on Bilibili. Now, she says, the website no longer allows uploading of these videos.

While she can still use circumvention software to bypass government internet filters to access videos on Korean sites, it isn't the same experience as watching the shows with other fans and messaging each other in real time on Bilibili. In the past, she didn't blame the government for the nuisance of internet controls, or for her disappointment when K-Pop stars couldn't attend promotional events in China after the recent missile- defence dispute.

When Ms. Liu travelled abroad as a college student, she would explain to people that China was becoming a better country. “Now I feel like I was lying to myself,” she says.

Frank Guo, a marketing executive at an online- game company in the southern city of Guangzhou who studied in Ireland, says he doesn't understand why the government doesn't trust people to be responsible for their own viewing behaviour.

Like Liu, Guo thought the government was a remote force.

“Now it's infiltrating every detail of your life, including what entertainment you watch,” he says.

Earlier this year, Chinese video websites pulled popular South Korean music videos and TV dramas after Beijing clashed with Seoul over its deployment of a US missile- defence system. Last month, after meeting with regulators, social-media sites deleted many entertainment and celebrity-gossip accounts.

The real blow came last week when video- streaming sites Bilibili and AcFun — popular among teenagers and young Chinese — removed most of their US, UK, Japanese and South Korean movies, TV dramas and shows to comply with what they say are regulatory requirements.

On social media, young people said they were “shocked” and “confused” and “powerless” when they found out their bookmarked videos on those sites had disappeared overnight.

Bilibili says all of its film and TV content is being reviewed to ensure it meets regulatory standards and that foreign films and TV shows comprise only about 10 per cent of all content. AcFun says the company is making changes based on the regulator's guidance and its site won't carry any illegal or inappropriate content.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television didn't respond to a request for comment.