How Long Until “Game Of Thrones” Is Banned In China?

Game of Thrones on CCTV
HBO's Game of Thrones arrived in China last week, but the fit-for-CCTV broadcast was so rigorously edited to conform to some "public morality" that one netizen hilariously called it "a medieval European castle documentary." But amid all the articles about this development, we may have lost sight of a more amazing fact: Game of Thrones -- a show about political wrangling, skulduggery, sabotage, dissolution, sex, etc. -- was allowed to air on Chinese TV. It took two whole days before we got this Ishaan Tharoor post on the Washington Post, titled:

Florentijn Hofman’s Rubber Duck Arrives In Taiwan To Ridiculous Fanfare

Rubber duck in Taiwan 2
Florentijn Hofman's rubber duck is the goldmine that will never be depleted. Deflated, maybe, but never depleted. This we know because his rubber duck arrived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on Thursday ahead of Typhoon Usagi -- that storm that's killed 33 people in southern China and southeast Asia so far, i.e. around where Taiwan is located -- and attracted half a million spectators.

Other China-Related “Empire State Of Mind” Parodies You Might Enjoy

Taiwan State of Mind
The talk of the day has been Mark Griffith and Andrew Dougherty's brilliant music video Beijing State of Mind, a tribute to this city of ours, set to the beat of Jay-Z's famous homage to New York. The Brooklyn native's Empire State of Mind has, of course, inspired countless spin-offs, about Chinese cities other than Beijing, too.