Shameless, Priceless

That China Central Television would apparently use footage from the movie Top Gun to prop up a puff piece on China's air force hardly surprises me. It reminds me of the indoctrination disguised as a welcome party that I had to sit through when I first taught English at Liaoning University in Shenyang. A panel of city and provincial officials, plus an officer from the Public Security Bureau, spoke at length about the importance of "teaching from facts" and shunning "pseudo-science". The highlight, however, was the promotional video (set to the music of one of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns) intended to trumpet the glorious past, present, and future of Liaoning Province but which, for reasons not explained, included footage of a Space Shuttle launch.

I do not imagine that the CCTV producers, or whoever else was involved, thought they were truly getting away with anything, nor do I imagine it was an inside potshot or clever attempt at subversion (the penalties are too great), but I do think the incident reflects China's general disregard for intellectual property rights, to say nothing of a lack of creativity or even awareness of how ridiculous China looks on the world stage in the wake of such events. The chicken-or-egg question is whether China's lack of IP protections has such a chilling effect on homegrown talent, or whether there are deeper cultural and educational issues to be explored if the country is to become an "innovation" economy.

At least the Taiwanese media has shown there is a better way to produce compelling television news.