TV dramas, films and talent shows produced by private tech companies started to take off, while ratings and ad revenues of state-owned television stations tumbled.īeginning in 2016, the government started to censor web videos with the same criteria it had been using for television. In the mid-2010s the Chinese government’s grip on the country’s entertainment sector began to weaken after decades of control over who could star on TV and what sort of stories could be told. The rise of effeminate male ‘traffic stars’ To me, it’s no coincidence that the ban has come during the intense national campaign against China’s domestic big tech giants, which the government increasingly sees as a threat to its ability to keep tabs on its citizens. However, as someone who studies China’s queer cultures, I’m also attuned to the way pronouncements made by the Chinese government often cloak a hidden agenda.
