Gaining govermnent approval

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the opening up and shutting down of pop culture imports from the West.

In China, foreign-culture imports are carefully watched and vetted. No organized initiatives, no serious advertising, no creation of media fads or buzz can take place without party approval. Fads are pushed, experimented with, and sometimes abandoned if their popularity becomes too great or worrisome.

They mention that jazz dried up after it lost official approval. The Jazz Bar in Xiamen apparently had to stop playing jazz and imported a Filipino cover band because they had no business. I’m not sure why bad Chinese techno nightclubs are not frowned upon more; maybe the techno is a mind-control device. Quick, someone play it backwards and tell me what it says.

The other thing is sports.

China’s national in-line skating champion Liu Min says he was a member of a club in Shandong when a sports ministry official selected him to train seven years ago for in-line skating. “I was a martial-arts fanatic for a long time, until I was chosen for training. I’m really glad that happened,” he says.

There is a windsurfing scene in Xiamen, but I’m told not to bother mentioning it on What’s On Xiamen, because the instructor is only allowed to coach those who have been ’selected’ as having competitive potential. I guess the rest of you guys might as well stay at home and hit the books, since the ‘fad’ of extreme and water sports is bound to fade (the Chinese government knows that sports like skateboarding emphasise aggressive independence and freedom, don’t they?). Why not just concentrate on something that will always be valued — good exam results.

As I’m writing this, I’m beginning to see very close parallels with another country, this desire to ‘guide’ social trends and fads. No prizes for guessing.

• 15 Jun 2005

• Thinking