Although homosexuality was decriminalised in China in 1997, and scrapped from it’s list of mental illnesses in 2001, same-sex marriages and domestic partnerships remain forbidden in China, and in 2005 Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning tale of two cowboys, Brokeback Mountain, was banned from Chinese cinemas despite the director’s reputation in the country.
But times could be a-changing, as Seek McCartney, a film centred around a gay relationship between two men becomes the first of its kind to pass the Chinese censorship test and been approved for public screenings. Chinese singer Han Geng and French actor Jeremy Elkaim play the film’s protagonists, and director Wang Chao made the announcement on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter (which is also censored) saying it is “a small step for the regulator and a big step for filmmakers.”
However, some LGBTQ activists are warning not to speak too soon as it doesn’t necessarily herald the beginning of a new era in China. Fan Popo, an activist and filmmaker told the Associated Foreign Press, “The fact that this film can be released in theatres doesn’t mean gay films in the future will be able to released in China, China’s system for evaluating films is still very unstable, because the rules are very unclear. It depends heavily on the individual censor’s whims.”
As well as their disapproval of sex, nudity, violence, monsters and ghosts, the Chinese government only allows 34 foreign films onto it’s screens in order to protect their own film industry. So if you want to be in with a chance of showing at the world’s second-largest box office, only to the US, looks like you’re gonna have to play by their conservative rules for now.
Credits
Text Felicity Kinsella