China Praises Lee Despite Mountain Ban

China celebrated Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s Oscar triumph today, even though his gay cowboy romance, Brokeback Mountain, is banned in the country.

"Ang Lee is the pride of Chinese people all over the world, and he is the glory of Chinese cinematic talent," the official China Daily newspaper said on its front page today.

The praise is a striking departure from the violently anti-Taiwanese rhetoric the communist authorities have previously employed against self-ruled Taiwan. China has often threatened to invade the island, which it considers part of its own territory. Earlier this week, China vilified Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian for shutting down an agency dedicated to uniting the two nations.

Although the film picked up Academy awards for best director, adapted screenplay and score, and won acclaim around the world, censors have banned Brokeback Mountain from Chinese cinemas because of its "sensitive topic". Homosexuality is no longer officially considered a form of sexual deviancy in the country but conservative censors reject discussion of gay lifestyle on television and in the mainstream media.

However, movies dealing with gay themes are widely available on pirated DVDs. Today, vendors were reportedly selling pirated copies of Brokeback Mountain openly in the streets of Beijing.

In Hong Kong, an autonomous Chinese territory with Western-style civil liberties, the Apple Daily newspaper contrasted Lee’s success with China’s controls on popular culture. "China cannot produce a director like Ang Lee" because of its restrictive environment, the paper said. It praised the United States, where Ang Lee made his film, for giving talented people creative freedom.