Feng Xiaogang, China’s most popular movie director, complained to the Hollywood Reporter recently that it was hardly worth making films under the Chinese censorship regime.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said during a promotional visit to Los Angeles for his latest movie, Back to 1942. “It almost feels like, Okay, I just don’t want to do this anymore because they’re always there to stop me.’”
Not everyone agrees with Feng, who is best known for making feel-good comedies. Older directors say that it was much worse under the pre-2004 censorship regime. But why does China, which is supposedly trying to promote a consumer society, still feel the need...