-By Warner Todd Huston
The Chinese government apparently wasn’t happy with the latest James Bond movie, “Skyfall.” Reports say Chinese censors edited many scenes and changed subtitles for others ahead of its debut this week.
One edit was made to a scene where a Chinese security guard is murdered in a Shanghai skyscraper by one of the film’s villains.
In another scene, Daniel Craig’s James Bond asks a woman if a tattoo she sports was given to her by Chinese mobsters as a result of having been forced into prostitution as a child. Craig still says this line in English, but the Chinese subtitles change the context to read as Bond merely asking the woman if she was connected to organized crime. The subtitles eliminate any thought that Chinese mobsters might force a woman into sex slavery.
All references to the film’s villain being tortured by Chinese authorities were also removed.
This isn’t wholly uncommon, of course. Chinese authorities edit many of the foreign movies it deigns to allow its people to see.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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