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The Thought Police are active again !

Courtesy of Reuters...

Fox TV Channel Pulls Charlie Chan Series from Air

Tue July 1, 2003 06:39 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bowing to complaints from Asian American groups, cable network Fox Movie Channel has dropped a summer-long festival of decades-old movies featuring the Chinese detective Charlie Chan.

In a statement on its Web site on Tuesday, Fox Movie Channel said it has "been made aware that the Charlie Chan films may contain situations or depictions that are sensitive ... as a result of the public response to the airing of these films, Fox Movie Channel will remove them from the schedule."

Fox said the Chan films were made "at a time where racial sensitivities were not as they are today." A Fox spokesman had no comment beyond the Web site statement.

The campaign against the series came from groups that included San Francisco's National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) and Washington, D.C.-based Organization of Chinese Americans.

Eddie Wong, executive director of NAATA, said the groups objected to many aspects of the films. Chan, for instance, shuffled as he walked and spoke in sayings that sounded like they came straight out of a fortune cookie, Wong said.

He said that while he understood that many people liked the Chan films and that Chan was a good character who pursued criminals, the movies still reinforced negative stereotypes.

"Unfortunately, what is pleasurable to some is painful to others," Wong said.

Charlie Chan movies were made over several decades starting in the 1930s. The first versions put out by 20th Century Fox film studio were popular but have been criticized in modern times for their stereotypical depictions of Chinese people.

The character was mainly played by Swedish-born actor Warner Oland, beginning in the 1930s.

The Fox Movie Channel, which originally began as fXM:Movies from Fox in 1994 and changed to its current name in 2000, reaches some 20 million U.S. households on cable TV systems. Fox is a unit of News Corp. Ltd. .

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jht ... ID=3022832

Bleah. Why not just stick a disclaimer at the beginning stating, "The following program contains racial attitudes and depictions common to the era in which it was made. Fox Movie Channel does not endorse these, and is presenting this program strictly as an example of popular entertainment from this era. Viewer discretion is advised."

But no, we've got to lock it up in a back room and pretend it never existed. Isn't society better served by being aware of where we came from than pretending everything's great and always has been?

Ryan

I agree Ryan.

What gets to me, too, is that this is an excellent example of racism, in itself, by people trying to set an example to others. I don't think they "get it" ! All this asian group is showing people, is how "powerful" they are, at the price of showing everyone how stupid they are.

As a film fan, these things have been collector's lists for years, wanting a release. Here Fox remasters them for digital playback, and now they are going to be taken off the pending release list. A BIG disappointment to alot of film fans.

Of course, the funny part of this whole thing is how the Thought Police decry the state of modern cinema -- "All this sex and violence and naughty language, they should make movies they way they used to in the Good Old Days!" But then we can't watch the old stuff either, because of all the racism and sexism.

Maybe we can watch test patterns. (Just not the one with the Indian head on it.)

Ryan

This is interesting !

Ok, so we will ALL hold our noses and fall, promptly, asleep during the special indoctrination....oooops....introduction, and post-film Propaganda Lecture, from our Political Case Officer, Comrade Murdoch and Friends, but at least, we will FINALLY get the films.

Money talks !!!


Politically Correct Fox to Air Charlie Chan Films

Monday September 1 9:14 PM ET


A Charlie Chan film festival that was canceled this summer by Fox Movie Channel after complaints from Asian-American groups will return to the cabler this month with wraparound segments featuring panel discussions on racial insensitivity.

The four restored films -- "Murder Over New York," "Charlie Chan at the Opera," "Castle in the Desert" and "Charlie Chan in Honolulu" -- will begin airing Sept. 13.

Fox decided in June to discontinue its planned 23-film Chan festival after civil rights organizations decried the movies -- released by 20th Century Fox in the 1930s -- for perpetuating stereotypes and casting Caucasian actors in roles intended for Asian-Americans.


But with Fox's license agreement to air the films set to expire at month's end, the network decided to bring back four titles, along with discussions featuring experts including actor Harry Shen and Peter Feng, professor of Asian-American studies and film at the University of Delaware. "Star Trek" actor George Takei will moderate the panel.

"We believe that the introductory piece and follow-up discussion will help promote understanding of the issues many Asian-Americans have with these films," said Karen Narasaki, president and executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter


http://tv.yahoo.com/news/va/20030901/106247607000.html