When asked about problems that China’s opening up to the outside world has caused, Deng Xiaoping famously observed that ‘when you open the window, some flies may come in’ (打开窗户，苍蝇可能会飞进来). But some windows can be closed, or mosquito screens can be installed to prevent some of the undesirables from waltzing in too easily.
Today, there have surfaced two good examples of the government trying to keep the fly ratio low:
Transformers’ success edges out other foreign movies from China market
Transformers is an American animated TV and comic book series that was popular in the U.S., China and even your correspondent’s home country of South Africa in the 1980s. The film version of Transformers, released globally this July, was a box office hit in the U.S., and in China.
A Danwei film industry source had this to say about the box office receipts of the film:
“Probably well over 300 million yuan with all the unofficial screenings…
It has screwed up the desired ratio of domestic box office to foreign box office. This means that the foreign films in the pipeline for the remainder of 2007 have to cut way back on promotion. A bunch of promotional activities for Shrek 3 was just canceled by SARFT and the China Film Group.”
Note: see also this report from July 2007 on Chinese government website China.org.cn: Transformers Smash Chinese Box Office Records.
Typepad unblocked, Wikipedia blocked again
Ah, China’s Net Nanny! What she giveth with one hand, she taketh away with the other.
Today, Typepad blogs such as Billsdue, Silicon Hutong, Tim Johnson’s China Rises and The Useless Tree are now easily accessible on the Mainland.
But Wikipedia, whose non Chinese-language versions had been unblocked since June this year, is now completely unaccessible, at least from Beijing.