Chinese Government Ban Hip-Hop Culture, Actors With Tattoos

The Chinese government has placed a ban on hip-hop culture and actors with tattoos from appearing on television because the country now considers it “tasteless and obscene.”

The new order was given by the country’s media regulator, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television of the People’s Republic of China (SAPPRFT)

Gao Changli, director of the administration’s publicity department, in a statement, outlined four “Don’t” rules on Friday:

*Absolutely do not use actors whose heart and morality are not aligned with the party and whose morality is not noble
*Absolutely do not use actors who are tasteless, vulgar and obscene
*Absolutely do not use actors whose ideological level is low and have no class
*Absolutely do not use actors with stains, scandals and problematic moral integrity

The statement added that it  “specifically requires that programs should not feature actors with tattoos [or depict] hip-hop culture, sub-culture (non-mainstream culture) and dispirited culture (decadent culture),” Sina, a Chinese news outlet, reports.

The ban follows the removal of the prominent rapper GAI from Hunan TV’s Singer, a hit competition show. Clips of GAI, whose real name is Zhou Yan, were also removed from China Hunan TV’s official Youtube Channel.

Wang Hao, aka PG One, another well-known rapper, was forced to apologize earlier this month after one of his songs, “Christmas Eve,” was criticized for promoting drug culture and insulting women.