Those responsible for Chinese radio and television prefer that the focus is on the script, not the stars. It’s a “healthy aesthetic”.
The National Radio and Television Administration of China today urged the television industry to Eradicate “appearance worship” ea moving from a star-centric model to a “script-centric” one.
The organization’s series management promoted a symposium on “healthy aesthetics” in the context of television dramas, in which he appealed to the abandonment of trends that privilege “the primacy of physical attractiveness” of performersreported the official news agency China News Service.
The meeting stressed that television series play an important role in transmitting dominant values, disseminating traditional Chinese culture and guiding the public’s aesthetic taste, but warned that Approaches that place the physical appearance “above” other elements persist in the industry.
Among the problems identified, the organization highlighted “excessive makeup” and the use of costumes and characterizations off the personality of the characters or the narrative contexts.
In this context, the authorities argued that the Audience demand “goes beyond the simple presence of attractive actors”including “captivating” stories for its content, emotional charge and ability to transmit “cultural density”.
The regulator appealed to the characters “are of flesh and blood, with human warmth and soul” and highlighted that, from his perspective, a basic requirement is that “whoever plays a role must be credible in it.”
The state body also asked to avoid both the primacy of appearance and “traffic dependence” on the Internetalluding to the digital popularity of artists and celebrities.
In recent years, China has launched several correction campaigns in the audiovisual sector, with measures against excessive salaries of stars, inappropriate content and the promotion of certain aesthetic trends.
In 2021, the body issued a set of guidelines aimed at ending the selection of actors and guests with “effeminate aesthetics” and, alternatively, promoting “traditional Chinese, revolutionary and socialist culture”.
