The SCMP reported September last week that a local TV station had at the last minute altered its' plan to show a flesh pageant featuring nearly nude women following phone and written protests from over 300 Hong Kong viewers. Many of the protests came from members of a single church congregation who having been alerted to the suggestive promotion which was blatantly exploitative of the nearly nude female body rallied to object to this being shown in their homes and to their children. The protesters won a small victory for sanity in programming.
Another, more traditional and less prurient beauty parade, the Miss Asia Pageant, went ahead on schedule Saturday evening. September 5.
Lovely women in swim suits are nowadays acceptable images on TV and in print advertising, including to most Christians. And I am among those Christians who believe the Church should proceed cautiously when playing the role of morality cop. Traditionally the Church has over-reacted to popular entertainment - the Calvinists in London for a season or two in the l6th Century were able to ban the plays of William Shakespeare because the elders found them too bawdy and sexy!
Also in Hong Kong, where Christians are only about l0% of the population, we need extra humility lest we appear to be trying to force a minority moral view upon the non-Christian majority.
Notwithstanding my cautious attitude, I was appalled when the deadly violent film, LEON, was programmed by TV Pearl in the 9:30PM slot last week. This film played in Hong Kong about a year ago at the Cinematique, an adult art cinema, and that's where it belongs - with adult audiences who buy tickets to enjoy the mayhem.
Pearl is now trumpeting its' coup, claiming that LEON, its' film of the month, had an immensely large audience, presumably more people watched it than there are TV sets in Hong Kong. Like most deadly serious films, there may be some redeeming artistic qualities for adults in LEON, but none for children. . The film opens with a 20 minute scene in which a family of five, as ugly and grossly dysfunctional as a domestic family could be caricatured, are systematically executed in their own apartment by a drug syndicate angry with the father. Two children are among the victims and their blood is copiously splashed on our TV screens.
We need to do some more letter writing and make those protest phone calls to the TV management and to the Hong Kong Government when stuff as deadly funky as LEON hits our TV screens. Unless the viewers speak out, the program managers and the advertisers will conclude that they own as well as manage our airways.
Pastor's Pages
The Rev. Gene R.Preston
14th Floor, Blk 36, Lower Baguio Villa Tel : 25516161 Fax: 25512114E-mail : gpreston@netvigator.com
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