{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Hollywood\u2019s Cultural Battle with China","description":"So, yeah, whatever did happen to Richard Gere\u2019s career? The Golden Globe-winning actor was once everywhere on the big screen, but has been largely MIA for the last few years. Could it have something to do with his ongoing vocal support of Tibetan independence, a stance that has gotten him banned from China? Given China\u2019s importance in Hollywood\u2019s big picture, Wall Street Journal journalist Erich Schwartzel writes in his fascinating new book Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Supremacy, Gere had become a liability for studio heads to hire. As China now boasts the world\u2019s largest moviegoing audience \u2013 coinciding with the decline of moviegoing in the United States \u2013 and getting American movies into Chinese theaters requires approval from strict Chinese government censors, every single frame of a movie is examined before the censors sign off. Mission: Impossible III editors had to excise a scene depicting dirty laundry drying in Shanghai, because Chinese censors felt it didn\u2019t portray the city as modern. In 2012\u2019s Skyfall, a scene with James Bond killing a Chinese security guard was axed, because Chinese censors felt it suggested Chinese men were weak. With such scrutinizing the norm, it\u2019s clear why casting Gere would be a non-starter for any major Hollywood release, Schwartzel writes in his exhaustively reported, entertaining, and informative read on a complicated subject that is only going to continue to expand its impact on American pop culture. Read more:  RED CARPET: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Supremacy Pop Literacy Recommends: \u201cThe Untold Story of the World\u2019s Most Infamous Sex Tape\u201d by Amanda Chicago Lewis:   \u201cMaybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It\u201d by Jessica Pressler Pop Literacy is proudly sponsored by Libro.fm and Writer's Bone. ","author_name":"Pop Literacy","author_url":"http:\/\/popliteracy.com","html":"