Another Chinese TV series gets skinned alive

ARE THAIS MORE politically astute than Chinese – or just less cowed? The Twitterverse here is currently awash with chatter about limitations to freedom, corruption scandals and other such serious issues, but China’s Weibo is largely focused on cleavage, and we don’t mean ideological divisions.

Specifically, people are fuming after the authorities “adjusted” scenes in the series “The Investiture of the Gods”, seen on Shenzhen TV, in which female cleavage was, uh, noticeable. 

Actresses whose bosoms were too bare for the censors didn’t actually find themselves on the cutting room floor, writhing but unseen. Somehow, though, the camera angle was altered, Heavenward, as if they’d all just said to rude male gawkers, “Hey, I’m up here!” So viewers got a lot of creepy facial close-ups instead of exquisite boob time. 

The series is based on the life of Su Dahi, the favoured concubine of King Zhou, last monarch of the Shang Dynasty (1600 to 1046 BC). That was a period of global warming, so people wore smaller clothes. In chilly modern Shenzhen, though, cleavage is a bust with the people who manage morality. 

This was the second time in the last few months that the Chinese censors have found television too provocative. The big-budget series “The Empress of China” was a hit until it mysteriously vanished from the air on December 12, only to reappear soon after with crucial changes made: bigger clothes. 

Fan Bingbing, one of the stars of the “X-Men” franchise, plays Empress Wu Zetian, concubine to a Tang emperor until she seized the throne herself and proclaimed the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. Powerful lady, but she also tended to show off way too much of her chest.

“People feel like they’re being treated like children,” adult blogger Jin Ge was quoted as typing by the BBC. Thousands concurred, saying the government was abusing it power (again). Both TV series carried on, of course, but the message has gone out to producers: no more boobs.

Some of the Republican presidential candidates in the US might be watching the proceedings admiringly, and more than a couple of prudish Thai leaders too. 

 

 

Pac-Man pals short-seated

 

Time to stop hitting Manny Pacquiao – hitting him up for tickets to his big fight with Floyd Mayweather, that is. The Pac-Man tells television network GMA 7 that he too is in search of more tickets for the welterweight world championship bout in Las Vegas on Monday, but at the moment he has none left to give away.

The Filipino hero will personally have no problem getting into the MGM Grand in Vegas, obviously, but he says the people behind his unbeaten rival Mayweather are in charge of ticket distribution as part of their zillion-dollar deal. They gave Manny a batch, he gave them all away, and he’s not expecting to get any more. “I’m still searching for some more,” he tells the Philippine Daily Enquirer. 

Presumably his pals who absolutely, positively have to be at history’s highest-paying boxing match are telling Pac he’d better come up with the goods soon. Because the cheapest seat the Inquirer could find on offer in Vegas costs $4,175. That’s a cool Bt135,000.