No, that's not a misprint.
In an apparent response to two young girls who committed suicide in an effort to time travel, China has banned all Television themes dealing with time travel. China's economic growing pains have come at a high cost - with reports of that workers who make our beloved I-pads have been forced to sign 'no suicide' pledges.
From the article.
China Daily didn’t say what TV series is believed to have inspired the girl’s note and time-travel desires. In most of China’s time-travel dramas, characters visited earlier eras through non-fatal means, such as looking in the mirror, possessing certain antiques or attaining zero gravity by means of a magical material.
Nor was a longing for time travel the only factor in the Fujian tragedy. The China Daily report also said that one of the girls who committed suicide was fearful of going home because she had lost the remote control to her parents’ garage.
the consequences of this Orwellian ban raises interesting questions about the effects China's economic ambitions on her people.
more below...
More on the children:
The children, both 12, drowned in a pond near their homes in the Fujian city of Zhangzhou last week, leaving behind a suicide note in which one girl indicated her death was motivated by dreams of traveling to space and of shooting a film with the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the report said.
Recalling debates in the U.S. about the link between violent video games and shooting incidents like those at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech, the China Daily report claims that incidents such as this one are what prompted the government’s move last year to ban all television series based on time travel.
A newspaper in southeast China reported on a survey that found 14 out of 16 elementary school students thought time-travel was possible. An earlier version of this post mistakenly identified the survey subjects as middle school students.
What does this say about average citizen's living conditions?
and it's not just the children.
Shows that explore traveling to earlier eras have inspired extremes among Chinese citizens, the China Daily story said. A woman in northern Liaoning province paid 1,800 yuan, or $285, to a friend who claimed she could help the Liaoning woman escape to an ancient era. After her friend suddenly disappeared with the money, the Liaoning woman reported the incident to the police, the report said.
I think this is a question we are all asking - is the race to money and material wealth at the cost of our environment and happiness worth it?
I can understand how the Chinese censors are banning these shows in an effort to save lives - but it sounds like 1984 to me.
the article hints at this as well:
Some media experts in China dispute the theory that TV-inspired suicides sparked the government’s ban, noting that it was more likely that officials disagreed with the themes of the shows, which centered on escaping discontent in the current era to journey back in time to a better life.
I personally love shows of time travel - recently I watch a movie with an interesting theme -
"in Time" with Justin Timberlake and Olivia Wilde - where people pay for everything with time.
It's an apt social commentary and when a society is so unpleasant that people are willing to commit suicide to escape to a more idealic period, then there is something wrong with that society - or even the entire economic model.
Your thoughts?