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The campaign against TV matchmaking shows that was aimed largely at "If You Are the One," on Jiangsu Television, is the latest and most public example of the government's new crackdown on vice and perceived immorality, said an article in the Washington Post on July 5.
The article pointed out that it comes even as China becomes more freewheeling and open, with people increasingly pushing the boundaries in matters involving taste, sex and money -- and the intersection of the three.
According to the article, China has recently carried out a morality campaign against prostitution, online pornography and TV matchmaking shows. In April, public security police in Beijing launched a "hard strike" campaign against prostitution, shutting down 33 entertainment venues to "eradicate all social evils" and "advocate a healthy, civilized and high-minded lifestyle."
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Also, a spate of recent articles in officially sanctioned newspapers and magazines have been advocating a return to traditional moral values and a shift away from the country's expanding get-rich-quick ethos -- including the commercialization of sex.
The article said that the new morality crusade will clearly find some resonance, particularly among older people and the more conservative sections of society -- especially in rural areas -- that remember a more traditional China, where marriages were more often arranged and open talk about sex was largely taboo.
But in today's modern, urban China -- a China of ubiquitous hostess bars, karaoke clubs, pole dancing, suggestive ads, sex shops and intimate radio call-in shows – some doubt whether it is necessary for the government to try to tone down the show,said the article. "Over the past 30 years, with the opening up and the reforms, Chinese society's attitudes toward sex have changed a lot," said a Chinese commentator.