CHINA BANS TIME TRAVEL

NOT THAT I NEED YET ANOTHER reason to dislike the Chinese Communists government and control, but Interesting Facts reported that “China Banned Time Travel in TV and Movies.”

Interesting Facts recounts, “Back in March 2011, the country’s State Administration for Radio, Film & Television issued guidelines restricting the production and dissemination of TV shows and movies featuring time travel, saying that these tales ‘lack positive thoughts and meaning.’ Ignoring the fact that some of the very best time-traveling TV shows (Doctor Who) and films (Back to the Future) seem to be bursting with meaning, the administration further explained that these programs ‘casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism, and reincarnation.’ ”

Geez. I wonder what the PRC thinks of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

“At the time,” Interesting Facts continues, “this reaction appeared to stem from popular Chinese shows that tended to traipse back into the ancient past, something one film critic told The Hollywood Reporter was akin to ‘superstition’ to Chinese censors. These stories, as seen in the then-popular Chinese shows Myth and Palace, contain protagonists who go back in time and discover some form of happiness —happiness that, by extending the metaphor, couldn’t be found in modern-day Communist China. In other words, it may have been the social critique embedded within the time-travel tales that China was objecting to. The ban is still in place, and applies to both traditional television and film — but not online streaming, where several popular series featuring time travel have flourished.”

It’s curious they haven’t caught up with online streaming. Interesting Facts notes that China began the Golden Shield Project censoring internet content back in 1998. 

My Own Time Travel, in Mind Only. As SimanaitisSays readers may sense, I have long been a fan of the concept. “Time Travel” talks about some of my favorite fiction along these lines.  I had fun with “Time Machine Chats Parts 1 and 2” using such a device to have today’s personages chat with those of earlier times.

My favorite is Sir Winston Churchill and Donald Trump. As I noted, “It is to laugh. One, perhaps the world’s most articulate statesman; the other, denier-in-chief of the 2020 election results, coiner of the words ‘covfefe’ and ‘Nambia.’ ”

Other Time Travel Tidbits. Interesting Facts cites, ”H.G. Wells is credited as the father of the time-travel genre, with works such as ‘The Chronic Argonauts’ (1888) and ‘The Time Machine’ (1895), … famous satirist Mark Twain wrote ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,’ which imagines a modern man in medieval England, in 1889.”

The website also notes that China has only a single time zone; this, despite the country being larger than the contiguous United States. Everyone lives on Beijing time, GMT+8, whether they live in Kashkar (Kashi) or in Shanghai some 2500 miles to the east (roughly San Francisco to New York City).

Image from beijing-visitor.com.

 Javier C. Hernández reported in The New York Times back in June 16, 2016, “Rise at 11? China’s Single Time Zone Means Keeping Odd Hours.” As examples, he noted, “So schools, airports and train stations operate at odd hours; national exams are sometimes given in the dead of night; and restaurants stay open for dinner into the wee hours.” A fellow in Urumqi said, “I often think we must be the only people who eat dinner at midnight.” 

The PRC may ban time travel on the telly, but it sure doesn’t care about forcing temporal oddities on its people. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024