Did China Really Ban Time Travel?

China’s latest ban: Time travelChinese Censors Crack Down On Time Travel China bans time travel! China decides to ban time travelChina Bans Time Travel Films and Shows, Citing Disrespect of HistoryChina Bans Time Travel China blocks all movies about time travel, saying it “disrespects history.

” Well, that settles it.

All these news outlets say that China bannedmovies and shows about time travel, so it must be true.

Wow China is so authoritarian! Why would they ban time travel? It’s so ridiculous I can’t believe it! It’s so ridiculous, I can’t believe it.

It’s ridiculous, I don’t believe it.

The earliest article I could find claimingthis is from the blog ChinaHush on April 3rd “No more time-travel drama”, authority saysit disrespects history “Though obviously the Chinese audience isfound of [time travel] shows, the country’s authority -General Bureau of Radio, Film andTelevision, to be exact, is not happy about this trend and calls a halt to the makingof this type of drama.

” To my knowledge there is no “General Bureauof Radio, Film and Television” Searching for that phrase in quotation marksfor the most part just returned various websites republishing the ChinaHush article So we’re off to a great start in terms ofaccuracy The CNN article claims it was banned by theAdministration for Radio, Film and Television, which actually existed, so that’s better The article claims “The authority’s decision was made onthe Television Director Committee Meeting on April 1st.

” So I looked on their website for any releasesbanning time travel, released between April 1st, when they allegedly made this decision, and April 3rd of 2011, when the ChinaHush article was published.

And I found nothing.

It’s not just that I didn’t find anythingmentioning time travel, I found NOTHING.

The State Administration for Radio, Film andTelevision didn’t release ANY documents within this timeframe I did, however, find this document, Noticeof the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television on Recording and Publicizingthe Production of TV Dramas in China in March 2011, published on March 31st Which, if it was released on March 31st, butthe decision wasn’t made until April 1st, would mean China would have had to use timetravel to ban time travel.

It contains a line which seems to have beenquoted in the NYT and Washington Post articles “casually make up myths, have monstrousand weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalismand reincarnation.

” The line in the original notice, accordingto Google Translate, is “individual reports of the phantom and cross-countrydramas, the compilation of myths and stories, the plots are weird and bizarre, the methodsare absurd, and even Rendering feudal superstition, fatalism and reincarnation” Yeah Google Translate is terrible I got one of my subscribers to translate itand they said “there are some incorrect TV dramas madeby people: the “weirdness and logic” of some TV dramas are made randomly like myths, wherethe plot is strange, the method is absurd, and even spread superstition in feudalism, fatalism and Buddhist reincarnation” Now, neither of these translations are perfect, one being by a machine and the other being by a Non-Native Mandarin speaker at midnight, but neither of them mention time travel in any way But hey, maybe it actually does ban time travel, despite seemingly not mentioning time travel in any way whatsoever That could be it, right? Well, no.

Because there is still a lot of time travelmedia in China The 2011 Chinese time travel drama Palacegot a sequel in 2012, a movie in 2013, and another sequel in 2014 A film sequel to the 2001 time travel showA Step Into the Past is currently being produced It’s not just sequels, in 2018 the timetravel show “Hello Dear Ancestors” aired In September of 2011 Ken Liu published TheMan Who Ended History, a book involving time travel In fact, time travel is one of the most popularbook genres in China Foreign time travel media also exists in China.

Avengers Endgame is the fourth highest grossingmovie in Chinese history Plants VS Zombies 2: It’s About Time wasreleased for Android in China over a month before it was released in the rest of theworld Even the state-run news mention time travel This piece even mentions Back to the Future So, did China ban time travel? No If anyone’s “casually making up myths”it’s not time travel stories, it’s these journalists.