CCP Instructions to Peng Zhen and Others concerning Agreeing to Organize a Film Examination Committee in Beiping

Posted on February 22, 1949 Updated on December 9, 2013

To Peng, Ye and Zhao, with CC to the North China Bureau, the General Front Committee, the Tianjin Municipal Committee, the North-eastern Bureau, the East China Bureau, the Central Plains Bureau and the North-western Bureau:

Telegram from 7th day of Chou month read. Agree that you organize a film examination committee under the Military Management Council, and that it is composed of nine commissioners in total under Sha Kefu as director. The participation of democratic personalities from film circles should be attracted as much as possible, for example, Hong Shen has already arrived and should participate. But at present, our own films are very few in number, therefore, examination and prohibition standards must be lenient, films must not be banned because of a few shortcomings or a little harmful [content], in the first stage, it will do to just ban a number of films that are clearly reactionary and oppose the people’s democratic undertaking. Furthermore, for films that are only ideologically backward, we can wait with banning them until our own film production has become relatively large, and it is possible to replace them.

Original Chinese text to follow.