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Chinese artists walk a tightrope when trying to create content acceptable to Beijing’s standards while attempting to seek success among Western audiences. More than one artist who has gained recognition in the West has been punished by Chinese censors, with Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye being the most recent case.

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival featured Lou’s pseudodocumentary "An Unfinished Film" as an Official Selection, and it drew positive reviews. However, the film hardly has any chance to be publicly screened in China.

“An Unfinished Film” is about a film crew’s 2020 experience at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan.

The fictional plot follows the members of a film crew as they attempt to reshoot a movie, then are forced indoors as the city goes on lockdown.

During this time, the wife of an actor, a member of the film crew, was about to give birth. She tried to rush out of the hotel but was beaten by the security guard.

In the movie version, the wife of Jiang Cheng, the main character, was about to give birth. Desperate to be at the hospital with his wife, Jiang tried to break through the blockade but ended up in a huge scuffle with the security guards. Jiang was beaten up and forced to stay in his hotel room until the lockdown ended in Wuhan.

In the end, the actor, the director and other members of the fictional crew had to stay in the Wuhan hotel and could contact each other only by mobile phone.

The film included many real-life video clips that went viral during the lockdown, including a child crying and chasing his mother who was put on a bus to a makeshift hospital, and residents singing in a locked-down community in Wuhan at night.

Reaction to the film

The film stirred strong emotions among some viewers at the Cannes Film Festival.

After the film's screening, someone in the audience shouted, "Lou Ye, you are the greatest director in China!"

Another person who watched the film posted on the Chinese social media site Weibo under the name Wu Ke Feng Gao, "In the second half, sobbing was heard everywhere in the theater. The audience in the back row said that everyone was crying for themselves. ... To me, this is the greatest Chinese film in the past decade."

But Zhao Liang, a former Chinese film critic living in the United States who requested to use a pseudonym to avoid retaliation from the Chinese government, had a different reaction to Lou’s film.

"This is a suicidal movie,” he told VOA.

"Lou Ye can't [work in China anymore]; he has killed himself in front of the Chinese government," Zhao added.

He said, "He filmed the pandemic, which is very sensitive to the Chinese government and is a subject that cannot be touched. The Chinese government has destroyed all the files related to the pandemic in the hospitals, as if COVID-19 never happened. All the files on the lockdown and all the records at the time, whether in the government, hospitals or neighborhood committees, have been destroyed.”

Lou Ye, the West and Chinese censors

Over the course of Lou’s more than 20-year career, Chinese officials have banned and censored much of his work. Only four of his twelve films have made it to big screens in China.

In 2000, his film "Suzhou River" won the Golden Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands. However, because Lou participated in the foreign film festival without official approval, the Chinese government banned the film in China and punished Lou with a two-year prohibition on filming.

In 2006, the Chinese government placed a five-year filming ban on Lou for entering the film "Summer Palace" in the Cannes Film Festival without approval. The film was set during the taboo Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations and included explicit sexual content.

In 2019, Lou said in an interview about making the banned film, “A Cloud Made of Rain in the Wind,” “Directors should be able to make movies without being threatened by censorship and express themselves freely. This is a right granted by the Constitution. … The censorship system has made the Chinese domestic audience a second-tier audience, a second-rate audience, because they simply cannot see what they should see, what they have the right to see."

The plight of Chinese artists

Kong Ming, a former Chinese art critic living in the United States who requested to use a pseudonym to avoid retaliation from the Chinese government, told VOA that in an already competitive industry, Chinese artists have very few options to exercise their creativity.

"Chinese artists actually have nowhere to escape," Kong said. "Even if you give up the Chinese market, you will no longer have the soil for your creations."

Other artists who have faced Chinese censors include internationally renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his often provocative art. He experienced detention and violence at the hands of Chinese police when living in China.

In 2019, music by contemporary Chinese folk singer Li Zhi disappeared from all music streaming platforms in China. His personal Weibo and other social media accounts were also shut down.

An official reason was never given for the disappearance of Li’s music.

Many of his works touched on the taboos of the Chinese government, including the suppression of the 1989 student movement at Tiananmen Square. During the COVID-19 White Paper Movement, he also posted photos of himself holding white paper.

In April, although Li toured major cities in Japan, attracting tens of thousands of Chinese fans, Kong said the tour in Japan was just a one-time phenomenon.

"China has tightened up its grip in all aspects. Li's case has definitely alerted the government. In the future, any musician who wants to hold a concert abroad will need a permit," said Kong.

It is tough for Chinese artists to find success both in China and the West, analysts said. One rare exception is Liu Cixin, the award-winning science fiction writer of The Three-Body Problem. The popularity of the trilogy has led to television adaptions in China and on Netflix about an alien race’s invasion.

"Some individuals may be able to break through the ban, but it is very rare. How many Chinese artists are there in New York? Whose career is actually growing? Almost none,” Zhao said.

In addition to the threat of censors in China, Chinese artists face challenges if they try to expand their careers overseas, Zhao said.

"First of all, the cultural gap is still severe," he said. "Lou Ye can only shoot Chinese themes, which are also very limited. Overseas audiences care little about Chinese themes, and it is difficult to integrate. It is very difficult for Chinese artists to be truly recognized in the West."

He said the creative soil overseas is extremely barren for individual Chinese artists, there is no support structure, and they lack funding.

"There are a few capable people, but they are all very depressed when they arrive in the United States. When they live in the U.S. they don't interact with each other, and it's impossible for them to come together," he said.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

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