cinemas to ban the film following protests from Catholics.
Removing the film after its strong 22-day run suggested that the authorities had struck a balance between Chinese Catholic leaders and the China Film Corp, the state-owned company that brought the film to China, analysts said.
At the same time authorities said that the US-produced Mission Impossible III thriller starring Tom Cruise would be released next month, but with some cuts, after Chinese media said scenes shot in Shanghai depicting laundry hanging out to dry were harmful to the image the city is trying to cultivate as a modern financial capital.
China’s decision to pull The Da Vinci Code was seen as a victory by China’s official Patriotic Catholic Association and a few dozen Catholics protesting in Hebei Province.
CATHOLIC ALLIES
There have been reports that those involved in the decision did not want to alienate the government’s Catholic allies, amid fears of the growing ‘underground’ Catholic and Protestant churches, BosNewsLife observed.
"Our view is that it should never have been released in the first place," Liu Bainian vice president of the Patriotic Catholic Association, said in an interview. "Removing it is the right decision for the sake of social stability," The New York Times News Service quoted him as saying.
Liu issued a call to boycott the film in the middle of last month, when it was first released in Chinese theaters, that initially went unheeded. He declined to comment on why the authorities had reversed themselves after three weeks of brisk ticket sales, but called the decision a victory.
PROPAGANDA DEPARTMENT
A senior official at China Film Corp reportedly said China’s Propaganda Department ordered the film removed from screens after it over 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million) and continued to sell far more tickets than any other movie, including the famous Titanic movie.
China’s decision comes after elsewhere in Asia, including Pakistan and several states in India, the film was banned following protests from Christians there. Christian believers say The Da Vinci Code attacks their faith as it claims that Jesus was married and had a child with Maria Magdalene and that ancestors still live today. Christian leaders have said that Christ was not married to any woman and that He clearly has identified His Church, which includes all Christians who accept him as Lord and Savior, as His Bride.
Although China tightly restricts the number of foreign movies that can be shown on the big screen, pirated versions of most recent Hollywood films can be bought on most street corners, observers say. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from China)
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