Ying Zhu, professor of media culture, published “The Cultivated and the Vulgar: China’s Cultural War at The City” on the Asian Creative Transformation Website.

Author of Two Billion Eyes: The Story of China Central Television (forthcoming, New York: New Press)  and co-producer of the documentary Google China Standoff, she writes “In October 2011 Chinese authorities banned scores of racy and overtly materialistic entertainment shows on primetime television. Within days Western media were abuzz with speculation on China’s tightening cultural policy. I received a fair amount of questions from deadline-chasing journalists soliciting my “expert” opinions on the “crackdown.” Unsurprisingly, the official Chinese line of “curbing excessive entertainment” is met with dismissive skepticism. Read more