The troubled reign of 'The Empress of China'
- By Li Jingrong
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 22, 2015
The popular palace-themed TV drama "The Saga of Wu Zetian," also known as "The Empress of China," is experiencing an extremely troubled on-screen reign, Sina.com.cn reported on Wednesday.
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The popular palace-themed TV drama "The Empress of China" uses male actors to play nuns. [Photo/people.com.cn] |
A netizen named "Long Leg Hu Bing" on Tuesday revealed that the show had used male actors to play nuns. As proof, the indignant netizen posted a group of stills from the series on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, adding, "Here are the pictures, here is the truth."
In the pictures, some of the nuns were obviously played by male actors with clearly visible, prominent Adam's apples. Even worse were the "breast implants" found on some of the nuns' costumes.
The post triggered hot debate on the Internet. Many people criticized the production company for disrespecting their viewers' intelligence.
"I suppose actresses might have been unwilling to have their heads shaved, and the production team didn't want to have to spend money on special headgear," one person commented.
Another post contained the sarcastic comment, "That's why Wu Zetian got pregnant."
The TV drama is based on the story of the reign of Empress Wu Zetian from 690-705 A.D. It has proved to be one of most expensive TV dramas made in China in recent years, with total expenditures reaching 300 million yuan (US$4.89 million), the website people.cn revealed.
It first aired on the regional satellite station Hunan TV on Dec. 21, 2014. One week later, however, authorities halted the show's airing for alleged "technical reasons." The drama returned to TV screens on Jan. 1, 2015, but to viewers' surprise, many shots that had previously exposed the cleavage of imperial concubines were replaced with facial close-ups. Only a few wide-angle shots survived.
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