China has released the names of 88 celebrities on the country's blacklist.- The list included
Kris Wu , a former K-Pop star who was arrested in July on charges of rape.
China released a list of 88 celebrities that it blacklisted for "illegal and unethical" behavior.
In a notice released on November 23, the China Association of Performing Arts announced it was banning 88 entertainers, claiming that they violated the country's moral standards. This is the ninth such list issued by the association, which first started blacklisting celebrities for alleged bad behavior in 2018.
The blacklist specifically bans these 88 people from accessing or appearing on livestreaming platforms, a popular means for entertainers in China to access a wide audience.
The China Association of Performing Arts said in its notice that its purpose was to "strengthen the self-discipline" in the entertainment industry and to prevent "illegal and unethical artists from moving to other platforms to re-start their careers."
"All online audio and video platforms and companies are not allowed to provide any form of online live-broadcasting services to these individuals," read the association's notice.
The list includes Kris Wu, a former K-pop star who was arrested this July in Beijing on rape charges. Wu, a former member of the South Korean boy band EXO, has not been heard from since.
Also on the list are two entertainers who had large fan followings in China before their respective scandals broke. One of them is Zheng Shuang, an actress who caused a social media firestorm after being accused of tax evasion and abandoning her surrogate children in the US.
Another star who was blacklisted was Zhang Zhehan, an actor and singer who had his social media accounts wiped after photos of him visiting Japan's Yasukuni Shrine went viral. Visits to the shrine, which is dedicated to Japan's war dead, are viewed in China as an endorsement of Japan's war crimes.
According to digital culture publication Jing Daily, Guo Laoshi, an influencer on Douyin, China's version of TikTok, was cited because she posts videos of herself rejecting conventional ideas of Chinese femininity. Guo regularly filmed herself doing things like smelling her own feet or wearing unflattering makeup.
This is the second big curb imposed on the Chinese entertainment industry this week. Insider's Hannah Towey reported that China is barring celebrities from extravagant demonstrations of wealth on social media, reasoning that pop stars should comply with the country's "core socialist values."
These new bans come after an earlier crackdown in July when the Chinese government moved to restrict the behavior of Chinese fandoms to prevent prolonged online fan wars from brewing between the supporters of influencers and pop stars.
In September, China also ordered broadcasters to ban "sissy men" that it said were too effeminate to appear on TV.