Fan Bingbing's storm in a D-Cup

Regretful.

That’s how Chinese actress Fan Bingbing describes the Chinese censors’ decision to remove all cleavage-baring scenes in her new historical drama, The Empress of China.

The epic 74-parter created a stir in China last December when it was abruptly and mysteriously taken off air after just four episodes for “technical reasons”.

When it returned to the small screen a week later, shots of the actresses were tightly-cropped to remove any sight of bulging breasts.

Fan, who is one of the series’ producers and plays the titular role of Tang Dynasty ruler Wu Zetian, said:

“I definitely felt that it was a bit of a pity that audiences (in China) couldn’t watch our original version.
“When we produce dramas, we set out with a set of standards and we have a vision of how we want it to be presented. It’s regretful that we couldn’t have our drama shown as it was.”

Singapore viewers will also not be able to see the display of cleavage. StarHub TV acquired the show through Hong Kong’s TVB channel, which hired a CGI team to use effects to cover the “offending material”.

Read the full report in our print edition on April 21.
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