The Distance Between Chinese Dramas and Chinese Communist Party
the subtle side of Chinese drama censorship
I'm constantly conflicted when I recommend C-dramas online.
Just like with K-dramas, when a Chinese drama resonates with me, I enthusiastically tell people around me to watch it.
I gush about character arcs, performances, the music, the clever use of tropes. Every word I write or say online is imbued with my affection for the story. I'm an enthusiastic endorser, an avid cheerleader. I use my tiny presence on the internet to push this story I like in front of more people.
All the while, I know that all of these stories had to first go through a process of vetting by the government of China.
The censorship conducted by the Chinese Communist Party is somewhat misunderstood. They don't just remove scenes and themes from stories according to their current social and political mood, they also add and modify the stories to support the Party's vision for the country.
When I'm watching a well made Chinese drama about a woman in her 30s navigating a relationship with a much younger man or two gamer boys becoming friends across time as they enter true adulthood, I don't want to think about the CCP vetting these stories to ensure nothing they say runs counter to the Party's policies.
I don't want to think about Uyghurs in detainment centers, suppression of protests, disappearance of activists, actors, and business leaders.
I just want to watch a story unfold that strikes a chord in me. I don't want to think about the politics of the country which the creators of these dramas have no control over.
But dramas aren't isolated from politics.
And because of the stranglehold of the CCP on the movie and drama industry, every piece of work they produce is injected with a little bit of the government's propaganda.
It could be something quietly omnipresent in every drama, like the unusually high level of citizen trust in all government bodies.
Or it could be something the writer is forced to change major plot structures to accommodate.
For instance, in the 2021 drama, You Are My Glory - a romance drama full of wonderful couple moments - you have this secondary track of the male lead's career in aerospace.
He talks about how Chinese aerospace is 30-40 years behind the US but "it won't take them 30-40 years to catch up".
And sure enough, as the romantic relationship evolves over a decade you see his project to launch a deep space explorer slowly taking shape.
And this is something Chinese aerospace is actually planning to do over this next decade.
The climax of the 32 episode drama is the successful launch of this deep space explorer at around about 2030.
This is not a coincidence.