The American Idol phenomenon has made its way to the People’s Republic of China and the leaders in Beijing are not very happy about it.
SHANGHAI, March 17 (UPI) — China has issued new rules to put the brakes on free-wheeling TV programs that imitate the U.S. hit “American Idol” and undermine socialist values.
“All types of competitive activities should be positive, healthy, cheerful and have a favorable influence on morality,” said the directive issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television this week.
The rules threaten programs like the copycat singing competition “Super Girl” and its planned male version, “I Love Real Men,” the South China Morning Post reported Friday.
The directive, posted on the administration’s Web site, limits the number of competitive programs and forbids them from copying others’ formats. It also criticizes the “star worship” generated by televised singing competitions.
Television stations cannot award prizes or cash, and the clothing and hairstyles of participants cannot be “vulgar,” the rules say.
Of course, there may be reasons other than protecting the morality of China that the Communist Party might be concerned about a show like this:
A Shanghai academic, who declined to be named, said authorities were worried about the way national competition programs organized large numbers of people to vote, the Post reported.
We can’t have all those people learning how to vote now can we ?
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