A popular Chinese stage production of “The Shawshank Redemption,” a story about hope and freedom based on a novella by Stephen King, both did and did not escape China’s censors, Vivian Wang and Claire Fu report (New York Times, February 16, 2024).
To help suggest the non-Chinese setting of the story, most of which takes place in the fictional Shawshank State Penitentiary, in Maine, director Zhang Guoli used only foreign actors. Who all had to be able to speak Mandarin fluently. Tough casting job.
Various changes were made to accommodate the censors. “The Chinese version used only mild profanity. One character used the word rape, but briefly. Unlike in the movie and original play, there was no mention of homosexuality.”
The theme of freedom was played down and the theme of hope played up in publicity interviews “said Yao Yi, the show’s producer, knowing the latter would be considered sensitive.”
Yes, autocrats get touchy about suggestions that freedom is a good thing. Best not to talk about it if you wish to appease them.
“The Shawshank Redemption”—the story of a man wrongfully convicted of murder who defies prison officials’ tyranny and eventually pulls off a daring escape—has been a target for Chinese censors before. Mentions of it were briefly censored online in 2012, after a prominent Chinese dissident escaped house arrest and fled to the American Embassy. In general, the Chinese authorities have shown little tolerance for calls, artistic or otherwise, for freedom and resistance to injustice.
What has enabled the movie and now enables the play to be shown in a country ruled by the Chinese Communist Party is the fact that Andy is in prison because convicted of murders he did not commit. If he had been sent away for crusading against some vicious government policy, the censors would have banned both movie and play in about five seconds. Or rather, no one would have considered developing a stage version for China to begin with.
Has The New York Times altered a detail of its article in deference to the sensibilities of tyrants? The Times itself reports that the original headline, as published in the print newspaper, was “A Tale of Redemption and Freedom, in China of All Places.” The online headline is the more anodyne “ ‘Shawshank’ in China, as You’ve Never Seen It Before.”
