Chinese Censor Cartoons in Primetime

I know, the acronym for the title of this post is CCCP. How Ironic!!

China has found it in their best interest, and in the interest of their homegrown animators to ban the Simpsons and Mickey Mouse prime-time TV. The goverment cited worries of the effects of foreign cultures on Chinese Children. The prime time slot in China is between 1700 - 2000 (5pm-8pm for those of you who don't read military time). State run media has previously announced a ban on programs that mix animation and live characters. This means that the Chinese children will never find out who framed Roger Rabbit, or be taught by the show "Blue Clues." Maybe this is a good thing afterall, I mean I never liked those shows, and lets not even start on Barney or the Teletubbies. Hmm... so at least the communist party is showing that they have taste!

Okay, back to the story.

There are around 250 million children in China. That is just about the total population of America. Japanese anime dominates the market suppressing the local animation studios, but who can blame the Chinese children for liking the creative minds of the Japanese while the Chinese are putting out cartoons that either directly copy or parralel traditional stories such as Journey to the West, and the Adventures of the Monkey King. The main concern is the fact that it seems as if the Chinese government is forcing Chinese goods upon the people. The Chinese animation studios have yet to come up with something like Mickey Mouse or Pokeman. Though the announcement has yet to become official, this is not the first time that the Chinese have put limits of foreign shows. In 2000 limits were put upon Japanese cartoons, and in 2002 they mandated that 60% of the primetime cartoons had to be government endorsed propaganda in cartoon form. Oops! Did I write that, I meant, 60% of primetime cartoons had to be Chinese.