Mainland seeks more cross-Straits film and TV exchanges

BEIJING - The Chinese mainland will continue to encourage its film and television companies to introduce more TV series from Taiwan and have joint productions, a spokeswoman for Taiwan affairs said on Wednesday.

Fan Liqing, spokeswoman of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, told the media at a news conference that the mainland's authority on radio, film and television has pledged to deepen cross-Straits broadcasting cooperation, unveiling a slew of new measures to promote exchanges of film and TV programs.

The mainland's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has vowed to facilitate joint investment in TV series production and to encourage television networks, such as Central China Television, to have fixed slots to broadcast jointly-produced TV series.

Other measures include encouraging companies from the island to invest in the construction and renovation of mainland cinemas and the introduction of more Taiwan-produced TV series in the mainland.

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in cross-Straits exchanges of film and television, Fan said, adding that the mainland was willing to further advance the cooperation as long as the two sides maintained peaceful relations.

Yu Xintian, head of the Shanghai-based Taiwan Research Institute, said cross-Straits exchanges of film and television programs are beneficial for mutual understanding, especially among the grassroots public, as it presented Chinese culture in a simple and lucid way.

Fan's remarks followed an allegation saying that the mainland authority of film and television planned to tighten its control over allowing Taiwan performers to work on the mainland. Mainland's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said the policy was made in response to the island's putting a restriction on mainland actors and was part of a mainland campaign to eradicate "entertaining programs with vulgar taste".

The Taiwan-based mainland affairs authority, however, denied the accusation of imposing restrictions on mainland performers.

China Daily