The fantasy concept of time travel just doesn't fly in China. And to make sure that the moviegoing public clearly understands the difference between fact and fiction, the country's State Administration for Radio, Film & Television banned the popular plot device in 2011. The rationale for this ban was that producers and writers were “treating the serious history in a frivolous way, which should by no means be encouraged anymore.”
The government censors explained that a recent spate of popular films and TV shows “casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation.”
Classic films that aren't welcome in China:
- Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, in which ghosts accompany Ebenezer Scrooge into the past to show him his wretched life, then take him to the future so he can see his heartlessness at work.
- Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, in which an American engineer is accidentally transported to the court of King Arthur.
- H.G. Wells' classic The Time Machine, in which an inventor fast-forwards himself to 802,701 AD and finds a world with two post-human races – Morlocks and Eloi.