BEIJING: From reality TV to online gaming and even pop fandom, China's leadership has launched a crackdown on youth culture in what experts say is a bid to ramp up "ideological control." Regulators — alarmed by what they see as decadence and degenerate morals — want to rein in the entertainment and gaming industries. President Xi Jinping warned young Communist Party officials this month that they should "never be spineless cowards." The quality of youth, the party has determined, is being threatened by the entertainment and culture consumed by China's youth. Controlling what China's youth see, hear and read has long been the policy with strict internet censorship and crackdowns in recent years on men wearing earrings, tattoos or "vulgar" hip hop lyrics.

Source: Manila Times September 29, 2021 16:07 UTC