Holding back the East China Sea with a mop
Those freedom loving commissars in the 'People's Republic' of China have come up with another corker: "scrutinising all foreign music available on line in an attempt to clamp down on music which offends 'public morals or fine cultural traditions'" (As found in the 'graph, paper edition only).
I think that the commissars are going to have their work cut out, to put it mildly. I believe that hundreds of CDs are released every week, and there is quite a long tail of previous work for them to go through.
Starting with public morals, where to start? Maybe the Red Guards assume that 'bad things' only started in the 1970s, but they will have to start rather earlier than that. I suspect that Lucille Bogan's 'Shave 'em dry' might set a few alarm bells going, and that is from 1935. Link to the lyrics here. If drugs are an issue too, I could offer up the Memphis Jug Band's 'Cocaine Habit Blues' from 1930. There's a free download available, anbd is recommended.
'Fine cultural traditions' is a pretty nebulous concept, but I suppose it has been kept loose deliberately. Any other nominations for undermining Beijing, or alternatively, what might Blair / Brown seek to ban under similar legislation? Widening things out a bit, I suspect that dictionaries of quotations will be culled of most of the entries for Dr Johnson, with "The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!" first to be red penned.
I think that the commissars are going to have their work cut out, to put it mildly. I believe that hundreds of CDs are released every week, and there is quite a long tail of previous work for them to go through.
Starting with public morals, where to start? Maybe the Red Guards assume that 'bad things' only started in the 1970s, but they will have to start rather earlier than that. I suspect that Lucille Bogan's 'Shave 'em dry' might set a few alarm bells going, and that is from 1935. Link to the lyrics here. If drugs are an issue too, I could offer up the Memphis Jug Band's 'Cocaine Habit Blues' from 1930. There's a free download available, anbd is recommended.
'Fine cultural traditions' is a pretty nebulous concept, but I suppose it has been kept loose deliberately. Any other nominations for undermining Beijing, or alternatively, what might Blair / Brown seek to ban under similar legislation? Widening things out a bit, I suspect that dictionaries of quotations will be culled of most of the entries for Dr Johnson, with "The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!" first to be red penned.
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Yes lucky we don`t have damned state interference in the arts isn`t it. Now how do I get my film to qualify for subsidies again........( Boris )?
In order to qualify as a British film,( TO THE EU) you have to show that your effort is in some way an emanation of our national culture, and you need to score 16 out of a possible 31 points for "Britishness". So you can get four points, for instance, if at least two of the three lead characters are "British characters", and only one point if one of the three lead characters is a "British character". You may ask yourself what the hell a "British character" may be. Is Dick van Dyke a "British character" in the Hollywood musical Mary Poppins, even though he speaks in an accent unknown to the rest of the human race?
We seem to have our own way of doing much the same thing . We are supposed to be free though .
I find the most amazing thing here about this information is the way that 'Communist' China increasingly sounds like the Emperor government of the 19th century.
Clearly even maoism has been unable to tame 4000 years of Chinese cultural superiority over the rest of the world (they were right to do this for about 1/2 the time admittedly).
An interesting note for them to catch-up on though; when the old Emperors used to admit any foreign visitor they were expected to bring gifts and give due supplication. For the Emperor ruled the whole world and all people were his subjects. I estimate this tradition will resume by about 2008 - at the Olympics.
Oh, they're always coming out with this type of announcement. I think they're mainly for domestic consumption, to intimidate the Chinese citizenry,but trying to contain Chinese people in the world of computers is like trying to contain a cat in a roomful of birds.
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