Pirate DVDs mock Chinese government's 'Geisha' ban

BEIJING - China's decision to ban Memoirs of a Geisha may have Hollywood crying foul, but the DVD sellers flogging pirate copies on the streets make a mockery of the government's efforts to control what its citizens see.

After initially clearing the film for distribution, China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television reversed its decision last week over fears the film, which features Chinese actresses playing Japanese geishas, would spur anti-Japan sentiment at a time relations are already at a low.

But the decision hasn't put a crimp in illicit supply lines. One vendor produced a copy from his sidewalk display in seconds.

"It's a good copy," he said, offering it for 7 yuan ($1.28). "Of course it's been banned, but it doesn't really matter. All of my supply is pirated," he said, adding that he himself enjoyed the movie immensely.

Another hadn't even heard of the government decree.

"I don't have it in yet, but I should be able to get you a copy in about two days if you like," he offered.

His shop is one of several in an area of Beijing's university district known as "Book City" for its selection of textbooks, software -- and DVDs. Most sell standard Hollywood blockbusters and a good deal of pornography.

But more discerning buyers simply write the titles they are seeking -- however obscure or out of favour with the government -- on a slip of paper and pass it to the vendors they know and trust.

Within a week, they usually have their film.

As a result, most urban Chinese are exposed to movies that go far beyond the handful of American films the government approves for distribution each year.

In the case of Geisha, some speculate that outrage over the film by bloggers led the government to pull the plug. China is still grappling with the consequences of last year's wave of anti-Japanese street protests related to World War II atrocities.

One blogger, still bitter over Japan's 1931-45 occupation of parts of China, said Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, who plays a poor fisherman's daughter sold into a geisha house in Kyoto in the 1930s, had betrayed her country by taking the role.

Fear of further outrage made authorities cautious.

"I don't think the government is thinking about the plot too deeply ... their main concern is they don't want to attract new protests," said Liu Ning, a commentator on Japan.

China propaganda tsars have a long history of censorship.

Chinese director Jiang Wen's Devils at the Doorstep, which won the 2000 Grand Jury prize at Cannes, about Japanese soldiers in a Chinese village during the occupation, also fell foul of the censors.

So did Fruit Chan's Durian Durian, because of its portrayal of Chinese prostitutes, Stanley Kwan's Lan Yu, which was based around the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, and many others domestic and foreign films.

But they too, are readily available on the shelves of DVD shops, rendering government censorship so abstract that most don't even know which movies have been banned. Few seem to care.

"We all just watch pirate copies," said 27-year-old Xiao Wang, making his way down a snowy street lined with DVD shops.

"And if we can't get them in the stores we can always download them from the internet," he said.

- REUTERS