CHENGDU -- China's public entertainment venues shuttered on Monday to begin three days of mourning for those killed in the Sichuan earthquake, China's worst natural disaster in 32 years, in which 70,000 are feared dead.
The quake, which registered close to 8 on the Richter scale, affected the whole country.
All media have been toned down as a mark of respect, with many newspapers using black ink instead of their usual lurid colors.
"Public recreational activities will be stopped during the period," ran a statement from China's ruling State Council.
The country observed a three-minute memorial for the victims on Monday, during which car horns and air raid sirens set up an eerie wailing.
Entertainment shows on TV, radio, mobile phones, IPTV and the Internet will be rebroadcast at a later date, authorities said, while concert performances and gigs will be rescheduled.
Karaoke bars and dance halls are closed, and there is no background music in restaurants and tea rooms. The Olympic torch relay is suspended for the mourning period.
Regular programming on TV, including cable, has made way for 24-hour news coverage of the disaster from CCTV.
This amounts to an astonishing openness in the media, which was banned from reporting on natural disasters until fairly recently. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which killed up to 300,000 people, was scarcely reported on in China.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
There is a problem with the comment system, or you do not have javascript enabled.
 |
Variety Asia RSS
Kaiju Shakedown RSS