SARFT to restrict historical costume dramas

The State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) is to restrict the number of costume dramas broadcast on Chinese television in an effort to raise the quality of the genre and combat historically inaccurate or misleading programmes and storylines. First signs of the move came in March when Wang Weiping, Deputy Director of SARFT's TV Drama Department indicated at an industry conference that there was a real need to restrict the number of historical costume dramas and that historicity was a genuine problem. At around the same time, SARFT was handling permits for future television dramas and it is understood that more than half of those rejected were historical costume dramas.

In recent weeks the Chinese press has widely speculated that this attitude is about to be enshrined in policy expected to be published in September. Wang Weiping has declined to confirm the reports, but has nonetheless again defended the logic behind such a hypothetical policy.

SARFT is concerned about two things in particular. First, the quality of historical costume dramas has become so poor that prices have tumbled, audiences have started to turn off or turn over and the entire genre is being discredited as a result. Second, and related to this drop in quality, historical accuracy has all but been thrown out of the window. Consequently, SARFT says that many, if not most, contemporary historical costume dramas are potentially dangerous for young or uneducated viewers as they can only lead to historical confusion and misunderstanding.

The ban is expected to restrict satellite television channels to broadcasting just two historical costume drama series per year and CCTV's channel one and eight, which traditionally show a lot of historical dramas, will also be subject to new restrictions. Although there has been some move away from historical costume dramas recently on the part of television stations, the move is nonetheless causing concern among historical costume drama actors and producers who fear for their work and careers.

Last year China produced in total 976 television drama series in 15,800 episodes which produced Rmb19.85 billion in advertising revenues, around half of all television advertising revenue. However, this overall figure to some degree disguises the plight of historical dramas, which have been decreasing in popularity both at home and also overseas where they have been pushed hard by popular Korean drama exports.

CMI - 22/8/06