Old Wounds That Won't Heal

I cannot say that I had any intention of seeing this movie or reading the book. The term Geisha just doesn't sit well with me and I'm just not too interested in the details behind it. However, it seems that it is being banned in China because of old wounds WWI and Japan.

Memoirs of a Geisha, the hit film based on a best-selling book, has run into trouble in China, home to its leading actresses. Prompted by fears that it will further inflame already rampant anti-Japanese feeling, Chinese film censors have cancelled the planned release of the movie next month.

China's two most famous actresses, Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li, play the leading roles in the film, which was initially approved by the censors. But the state-run Film Bureau has changed its mind. Mao Yu, director of the bureau's propaganda and publishing section, believes Memoirs poses 'complex' problems and is 'too sensitive'. There were complaints in Japan about Chinese actresses portraying Japanese women, but there is outrage in China, where many regard geishas as prostitutes. The 26-year-old Zhang, who shot to fame in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and has since become Asia's most famous actress, has attracted venomous criticism from her compatriots.

One blogger said: 'She's sold her soul and betrayed her country. Hacking her to death would not be good enough.' Other bloggers claimed that casting of Zhang as the geisha Sayuri is the equivalent of a Jewish actress playing a Nazi.

With Sino-Japanese relations at their lowest point in decades, the authorities are worried the film will revive lingering resentment over the Japanese treatment of Chinese women before and during the Second World War. Tens of thousands of women were raped by Japanese troops during the infamous Nanjing Massacre in 1937. Thousands more were among the estimated 200,000 Asians forced to work as 'comfort women' in Japanese military brothels during the war.

Violent anti-Japanese protests erupted across China last year after the publication in Japan of a revisionist history textbook that glossed over the country's wartime atrocities.

Looking at their rationale, I cannot say that I fault the sentiment (but tell me they won't have black market DVDs all over the place)!