Reports from the net and Twitter this morning that as part of the three days of official earthquake mourning, scheduled to begin this afternoon at 2:28PM, many and perhaps most entertainment venues, websites and broadcasting are to shut down. For more on the online side of this, including a translation of the Anhui provincial government notice on this, see the Shanghaiist.

Total scope and implications are not yet clear. Much of the discussion on Twitter right now is concerned with how websites are likely to circumvent any ban or benefit from a more easily enforced television ban. But it might just be taking time for orders to ripple through the system and be implemented. A cinema website I looked at this morning didn't say anything. But in my apartment right now all Chinese channels are carrying news and all non-news foreign channels are blacked out. Of course, I can still watch some airhead on CNN talking about Indiana Jones, but I guess some entertainment was destined to slip through. YouTube is also blacked out. After much early back-and-forth, the Olympic torch relay will also be suspended for three days (understandable after BOCOG initially misread public sentiment on the issue badly).

A national mourning period is perfectly appropriate. I find the the possibility of a broad entertainment blackout a bit strange. Perhaps watching a vulgar sitcom is inappropriate in these sad days, but Imagethief doesn't feel that people need to be prompted to mourn under the current circumstances. The flood of terrible photos of death and grief have pretty much ensured an appropriately sober national mood.

In a period of disaster the government is naturally preoccupied with its domestic audience, as it should be. However if the entertainment and Internet blackout turns out to be comprehensive, it could end a stretch during which international press coverage of China has been largely sympathetic and positive, with much discussion of the openness (also here and here and from the Internet standpoint here) with which the quake has been covered. Exercising of government fiat over of a broad swathe of private business in the interest of enforcing a period of national mourning is the kind of thing that would remind everyone that, "Grandpa Wen" or not, the recent openness might have just been a brief honeymoon.

Update: China Daily, via Danwei (who also report that newspapers will use only black ink for the next three days): All "public amusements" are suspended for the next three days.

Also, the US Twitterati have picked up on the order via tweets from @markvanderchijs and @frankyu. Some of the comments on this Friendfeed thread are a big ignorant. H/T Jeremy Goldkorn.

Update 2: Here is online gaming firm Shanda's brief statement on suspension of service for three days:

SHANGHAI, China, May 19 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited, (Nasdaq: SNDA), or Shanda, a leading interactive entertainment media company in China, today announced that in accordance with a public notice issued by the Chinese government on May 18, 2008, Shanda will observe a national period of mourning beginning on May 19, 2008, for victims of last week's earthquake. Shanda will resume its game services at 1:00 A.M. on May 22, 2008.

H/T: Steven Schwankert.

Also, have a read of Paul Denlinger's hearfelt blog post reacting to the US Twitter discussion and western media reporting on the situation:

The Chinese government and party have activated their media, and issued an edict that entertainment websites should shut down over the next three days, entertainment programming should be curtailed, along with three minutes of mourning each day.

This move immediately attracted strong criticism from many members of the Twitterati in the US who, to put it frankly, have embarrassingly little understanding of China, and continue to see China in over-simplified black and white stereotypes, as you can see in this feed from Robert Scoble’s Friendfeed account.

When I think that the people who have Friendfeed accounts represent smart, well-educated, tech-savvy people, and they say these things, I just get depressed. The stereotypes and distrust of China just run so deep.

Elliott Ng also has a good post in reaction to the US Twitterati at CNReviews. He proposes six areas in which he feels the West misunderstands China:

  1. China is changing so fast that most Westerners have a dated point of view about China.
  2. For many people in China, the Sichuan Earthquake is being experienced like 9-11 was in the U.S.
  3. Criticism of Chinese Government as distinct from the Chinese People is often “lost in translation”. Or it creates a feeling of “you talkin’ about my mama” defensiveness.
  4. Chinese Government has moral authority among the people, and people want to follow their lead.
  5. Westerners often have a misconception that the Chinese people are controlled (brainwashed? repressed?) by the regime.
  6. Chinese society values different things in different measures. For example, prosperity and actual, personal liberty is more important than the abstract and absolute ideas of freedom of speech, religion, and press.

His ideas are more fully explained online. More to come, no doubt.