"Just like China, meats and fish are popular in Britain," begins this video called "A Taste of Britain," by CRI's Stuart Wiggin and Wu Tong. "But in order to make that meat and fish taste extra special, it has to be complemented by other ingredients. Britain only has one such ingredient." Can you guess what it is?
There was a Dutch website called Beautiful Agony that asked people to upload videos of their orgasm face as a "multimedia experiment." This was done in the name of art. There was a video we watched in high school biology of a live childbirth, PBS Nova's The Miracle of Life. This was done in the name of science. Now there's a reality show on Shenzhen Television, "Laiba Haizi" (Come On, Child), that shows the faces of women in labor. This is done in the name of...
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:
When Chinese video streaming sites pulled down all episodes of The Big Bang Theory on orders from China's official censors, it angered fans across the country -- and also, it turns out, the show's creator, Chuck Lorre. The following is what Lorre wrote on one of his "vanity cards" that appeared at the end of Big Bang's May 1 episode (as noticed by the Wall Street Journal):
Even Chinese television execs know when too much is too much, apparently. "China's television regulator has ordered a crack down on dramas about the country's battles with Japan during and before World War Two and demanded they be more serious, state media said on Friday, following viewer complaints about ludicrous storylines," Reuters reports.
Anybody watch Happy Camp (快乐大本营), Hunan TV's flagship variety show? Turn on the TV because it’s probably airing right now. The show inexplicably has five hosts. There's He Jiong, unarguably the Ryan Seacrest of the show, then the charming Xie Na, and then three others who stand nearby and occasionally say and/or hold something. Every once in awhile, just to remind us he's still there, host Du Haitao steps into the frame and cracks a one-liner.
Authorities approved 303 new TV shows last year, according to Economic Observer, with more than half carrying a revolutionary theme. Would it surprise anyone that out of those, the majority expressed anti-Japanese sentiment?
Today is World Health Day, and to commemorate, the creative, slightly mischievous folk over at Durex have just released this commercial featuring Mike Sui -- he of the many dialects -- in a dinosaur costume.
Also making an appearance is Wushu World Champion and Jet Li stunt double Alfred Hsing -- he's the muscly man -- who we last saw producing this funny, dark, disturbing kung-fu video.
How did you enjoy the season debut of Game of Thrones yesterday? (No spoilers, please.) Enough to watch its opening cinematic co-opted by baijiu brand Jian Nan for a commercial?
The video is a few months old, but it was just posted on That's Beijing yesterday, with RFH writing:
ot sure what explains the Game of Thrones connection, other than that Chinese history is too long, often unwieldy, tortuously complicated, filled with names you cannot remember and most of the last few hundred years is to be found in the Fantasy section.
