Before this episode I always wondered why they kept making those bad transformers movies, turns out China loves em.
I think its fine if people want to make movies for the China market, but what I find alarming is copycat behavior trying to bring that sort of censorship here.
It doesn't make any sense to me why anyone should apologize or censor themselves creatively just because someone got salty about it. I find the notion limiting someones creative expression to someone else's judgement of "appropriate" to be despicably egregious.
Sure you can vote with your dollar and time by not watching something you don't like, but its the creators prerogative what to create and what not to create.
Anyone arguing the contrary on the effects of censorship has not looked into the origin of the word.
What’s kinda funny is how made fun of China was in past South Park episodes[0] and China didn’t care at all about the show, but last week’s episode was the one that set them off.
[0] “The China Probrem”: https://images.app.goo.gl/mDqxY6pSuNHtA66M8
Click the link to watch the episode:
https://southpark.cc.com/sitewide/img/messages/geoblock/gb.j...
The irony is not lost...
I never thought South Park would be America's last hope.
More discussion here:
I don't get the Winnie the Pooh meme. Is that a real thing Chinese people get upset about?
Who knew CCP would be able to censor the west with, gulp, the might dollar. The irony.
Xi doesn’t look just like Winnie the Pooh at all -- damn that is one heck of an apology LIT AF:)
Despite knowing that Chinese people and the government are trained to react poorly to mocking, and there are a long history of why such reaaction is based on factual events in the history.
People are still trying to the same thing, instead of engaging a conversation (for both parties). But people need to understand that such mocking will later be used another proof that westerners are not sensitive enough to Chinese people and government's feeling...
I am ATM plainly paralyzed by the superficial self-indulged righteousness from both parties...
So we should meme everything and see how much we can get banned from China ??
As this yet another reason the U.S. needs to rely on China in terms of manufacturing And other things. The looney tune in office's stance isn't so dumb after all.
There was a time when the fact that they’re Americans would definitely protect their right to do stuff like this, but these days I’d worry that China will invalidate some Ivanka trademarks, and the creators will find themselves under very heavy pressure from above.
There's potentially going to be more to come in Wednesday's episode given their "apology" and it may start WW3.
In my opinion this fight is important but futile at the level of individual companies. The USA as the only nation in the world with true free speech protections should make free speech a requirement in their trade negotiations. Even with Europe, we should not get certain tariff improvements until free speech goes into law that deserves the name and is equivalent to the US level of free speech.
I have to say, this is really the only way to respond to China when it comes to their no-humor censors: just come out and mock them. They don't really have any way to reply.
One wonders if there is an entire revolutionary class within China sharing South Park videos for freedom.