Censor’s cleavage cuts in Chinese TV costume drama spark calls for rating system

Calls for a rating system for Chinese television dramas have grown after online backlash over censors cutting all cleavage from scenes in a popular TV drama about China’s only female emperor.

The drama, The Empress of China, also known as the Saga of Wu Zetian - renamed “The Saga of Wu’s Breasts” by social media bloggers - was pulled from the schedules of commercial satellite station Hunan TV for “technical reasons” late last month, Xinhua reported.

When it returned a few days later, the show, starring the famous Chinese actress Fan Bingbing in the title role of Wu Zetian – who ruled in the Tang dynasty (618-907) – had been conspicuously edited.

Scenes of female characters, with cleavage showing dressed in period costume, had been cropped out  – leaving only close-ups of their heads.

Mainland media said it showed it was time to introduce a rating system for TV dramas; China also has no rating system covering films released in cinemas, which are reviewed and sometimes re-edited before screening.