Smog documentary ‘Under the Dome’ removed from all major Chinese streaming sites
Last weekend, former Chinese state media newscaster Chai Jing released a powerful documentary film about China’s enormous pollution problems. By midweek, it had been viewed online more than 15 million times, and that number escalated as it continued to go viral.
Now, it has disappeared.
Viral smog documentary Under the Dome, which has been viewed by hundreds of millions of Chinese over the past week and launched environmental issues to the forefront as the nation’s top decision-making bodies meet in Beijing, has know apparently been deleted from major Chinese video streaming sites.
Versions of the film on Youku, Sohu, QQ and Tudou have all been removed over the past few hours in what appears to be a nationwide crackdown on the investigate feature by former CCTV news anchor Chai Jing.
Despite initially being pushed by domestic media, lauded by the nation’s new environment minister and openly shared and discussed on social network platforms, censors have increasingly been deleting comments online that blame the central government for the state of the environment.
This latest development may point to either an internal struggle within Party leadership or perhaps cold feet on the part of the government after having greenlit the project, failing to expect the depth of public feeling on the issue and the momentum the film would gain.
More at online.thatsmags.com
You can view the film, which Chai funded herself, with English subtitles, on YouTube, though.
Youtube Video
Led by a Chinese 12th grader linghein.me and an expat @tianyuf, an international team provided the English subtitles and had uploaded them to YouTube by Friday. They hope to provide subtitles in other languages in the future.