Go Princess Go and other web dramas pulled

Source: China Real Time, WSJ (1/21/16)
China’s Censors Pull More Web Dramas, Including Hit Rom-Com
By Lilian Lin

A scene from the Web drama “Go Princess Go.” Le.com

The offending dramas were taken offline earlier this week by China’s Web regulators. Most of the shows had been adapted from popular Chinese novels, including some dark detective dramas.

People close to Chinese video sites Le.com (formerly known as letv.com) and iqiyi.com told China Real Time that the dramas were taken down for being too vulgar, bloody and superstitious. Le.com said in a statement on Thursday that it took down one of the dramas as requested by the “relevant department” and would resume streaming the show after “optimizing” part of its content. A spokeswoman for iqiyi.com declined to comment.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), China’s top media regulator, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

One of the dramas, the recent smash hit “Go Princess Go,” is about a modern Chinese man who accidentally travels back to ancient times and becomes a princess. The show, which had been viewed more than 2.4 billion times on Le.com as of last week, quickly generated buzz on social media for its outside-the-box plot and for its inclusion of some sexual scenes and language, both of which are rare in traditional Chinese television content.

Another of the shows, “The Lost Tomb,” is an adaptation of a fantasy novel series about tomb raiding and had been streamed by iqiyi.com. The Web drama had been highly anticipated thanks to the novel’s solid fan base as well as to Li Yifeng, the fresh-faced actor who plays the lead character.

The show’s script had been significantly changed from the original novel in order to please China’s censors. As tomb raiding is considered illegal behavior, for instance, the lead treasure hunters in the show later submit their raided treasures to the government. Iqiyi.com said the drama was produced at a cost of 5 million yuan ($760,000) per episode, a record for Chinese Web dramas.

The shows had helped to draw in paid subscribers to the video streaming sites, including nearly 30 million yuan ($4.56 million) in revenue from paid subscriptions to Le.com in about a month, according to the company. Paid subscribers are given instant access to all of the show’s episodes rather than of having to wait for each weekly update.

Encouraged by the success of original Web-first dramas in recent years, major Chinese video companies are revving up their efforts to produce such content in order to attract more viewers, especially among the younger generation.

Chinese Web dramas are commonly deemed as enjoying looser censorship compared with content on TV and the silver screen. They often feature more sexual, violent and other content that is deemed by traditional broadcasters to fall in the no-no area.

Internet users are mourning the recent move, which has become one of the trending topics on Chinese social media. “Why do Chinese people like to watch pirated content? Because the legal versions are always banned,” wrote one user on China’s Weibo microblogs.

–Lilian Lin. Follow her on Twitter @LilianLinyigu.

China’s online censors are ringing in the new year by pulling offline a handful of popular Web dramas – including a gender-bending romantic comedy that has been viewed more than 2.4 billion times.

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