Sex and the City has never once been broadcast on Mainland Chinese TV or legally distributed on DVD.
But as evidence of the power of pirated DVDs as agents of spiritual pollution, China already has a handful of magazine columnists and bloggers modelling themselves on Carrie Bradshaw, and there is at least one bar in Beijing named after the show. Not even Baixing Taxi or ‘Common People Taxi’ magazine is immune from the Sex and the City craze. The May issue of this publication, which is placed in most of Beijing’s taxi cabs, had a large coverline devoted to the four Manhattan girls.
The Chinese version says ‘Sex and the City Fashion Show’.
The ‘Fashion Show’ consists of images of four models accompanied by captions that say things like: “I’m always being asked out on dates, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be interested.”
You go girl.