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China's crackdown on pretty boys and temple temptresses
Following a crackdown on the entertainment industry, China’s male celebrities are looking more masculine these days.To get more latest entertainment news, you can visit shine news official website.
Once known for his Korean pretty boy image, Chinese singer-songwriter Huang Zitao recently posted a photo of himself at the gym with his six packs in clear view. Chinese actor Wang Yibo, who shot to fame after starring in a period drama, has cut his hair short. Chinese singer Cai Xukun, a talent show alum, now has a beard and flexed his muscles for a magazine shoot. It seems that many erstwhile pretty boys are transforming into masculine men to dissociate themselves from the “effeminate” image that Chinese officials have recently banned.
Early this month, the Chinese National Radio and Television Administration unveiled a plan to promote “correct” beauty standards across all platforms to “resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal esthetics”. On 18 September, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio and Television released a statement saying that it has tightened the guidelines on drama production in terms of casting, performance style, costume and makeup so as to put an end to “effeminate” aesthetics. Participation in publicity events promoting this aesthetic style is also prohibited.
The derogatory term niangpao (娘炮, lit. girlie guns, meaning “effeminate, sissy”) is used to describe effeminate men. China Women’s News once banned the use of this term because of its sexist nature. Early in 2018, public opinion had also turned against the rising trend of effeminate celebrities in the entertainment industry.
Back then, a China Central Television programme “First Class of New Semester” targeted at primary and secondary school students had invited several young male pop idols to appear on the show as guests. Some parents complained that the idols did not look masculine enough, and became worried that this would affect their child’s perceptions of male/female attractiveness.
State media Xinhua News Agency then published a commentary under the name “Xin Shi Ping” (, a homophone and acronym for Xinhuashe Shishi Pinglun , Xinhua’s current affairs commentary section), criticising the trend of effeminacy in the entertainment industry as a perverse culture and cautioning that the negative impact of this culture on the younger generation cannot be underestimated.
However, a WeChat article posted by the commentary section of the People’s Daily offered a different view. It said: “To equate manliness with appearance is a simplistic approach.” It also rejected the use of derogatory terms like niangpao and bu nan bu nü (, lit. not male not female; to look neither like a male nor a female).
Compared with the situation three years ago when there were differing views, various state media are now on the same page as the ban on effeminate aesthetics has been made official. On 27 August, Guangming Daily attacked the film and television industry for casting pretty boys as the protagonist, making characters who should be manly and strong waifish and weak instead. The piece further suggested that pretty boys would stoop to hyping up scandals and instigating fan disputes to raise their popularity.
Clearly, officials have lumped the trend of effeminacy with the like economy and a disorderly fandom culture, asserting that the worship of pretty boys is the reason for the chaos and problems in the entertainment industry.
China changes ending of Minions movie
But unlike the original movie, the Chinese version does not end with Gru and his mentor Wild Knuckles riding off into the sunset.To get more news about chinese movie, you can visit shine news official website.
Instead, Wild Knuckles is jailed while Gru "becomes one of the good guys".
Posts and screenshots of the film, shared on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, showed censors had added a series of subtitled still images into the credits sequence.
In it, they explain that Wild Knuckles was caught and locked up for 20 years after a failed heist. He also discovers a "love of acting" and sets up a theatrical troupe.
Gru, meanwhile, "returned to his family" and being a father to his three girls became his "biggest accomplishment".Others said Gru's alternate ending conveniently promoted China's three-child policy, as the country tries to raise its birth rate. The subtitled stills were also widely compared to PowerPoint presentation slides in quality.
DuSir, a popular movie blogger with more than 14 million followers on Weibo, called the changes "outrageous".
In an article, he questioned why only Chinese people needed "special guidance and care".
"How weak and lacking judgment do they think our audiences are?" he asked.
Despite this, the movie - the fifth instalment in the series - went on to find success at the box office, reportedly grossing a pandemic record of about 21.74m yuan ($3.2m; £2.7m) on its opening day in China, according to entertainment site Deadline.
It is not the first time a popular foreign film has had its ending altered for China, which has some of the world's strictest censorship rules.
Earlier this year, a version of 1999 cult American film Fight Club released on Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video had its original ending - where the protagonist blew up several skyscrapers - removed and replaced with a message saying that authorities had won and saved the day.
The changes sparked a backlash, even prompting responses from director David Fincher and author Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote the 1996 novel the movie was adapted from. Human Rights Watch described the new finale as "dystopian".