“The Deer and the Cauldron 2020” Allegedly Censored Wei Xiaobao’s Polygamy
A source claimed that CCTV has deleted at least 15 episodes from the original 60-episode serial of the new The Deer and the Cauldron <鹿鼎记> remake, to censor a major subplot involving Wei Xiaobao with his many wives.
The Deer and the Cauldron 2020 premiered on November 15 on CCTV. It is slated to air for 45 episodes, while the DVD release will have 49 episodes. The wuxia series is based on the famous novel of the same name by Jin Yong (金庸). It centers on an orphaned thug called Wei Xiaobao, who befriends the Kangxi Emperor to have a rich life, but ends up becoming the emperor’s most trusted sidekick.
The original story ends with Wei Xiaobao living happily ever after with his seven wives. However, according to sources, CCTV has decided to censor that aspect of the story because they did not want to promote polygamy, which is illegal in China.
The source said a total of 15 episodes were deleted to cut down Wei Xiaobao’s romantic interactions with the other female leads in the story. The only remaining female lead is Princess Jianling, whose screen time remained allegedly untouched.
28-year-old Zhang Yishan (张一山) stars as Wei Xiaobao, with 33-year-old Zhang Tianyang (张天阳) as Kangxi. 33-year-old Tang Yixin (唐艺昕) plays Princess Jianling.
The Deer and the Cauldron has been adapted many times by television over the years, most famously by Hong Kong’s TVB in 1984, in which Tony Leung Chiu Wai (梁朝偉) starred as Wei Xiaobao and Andy Lau (劉德華) starred as Kangxi. The 2020 remake is the sixth television remake.
Source: HK01.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Then you might as well start censoring all the emperors with multiple wives, the generals/high ranking officials >_> stupid to erase what used to be the norms/traditions.
@littlefish
I agree and this getting to be too much… what else is left of this adaption? Pretty much nothing…
That’s the whole theme of the book. How can you cut out all the women? And the Princess wasn’t even his favorite wife.
Wonder what kind of watered down adaptation this has become lol. But I do hope they cut the all-wives-in-one-bed scene. That was obviously rape.
@megamiaow Yes, that scene was always disturbing. Very much rape.
@megamiaow
I feel guilty since I used to love that scene in the 80s version as I was a kid and knew nothing about rape. I thought they were just sleeping in bed.
@hetieshou lol, you are not the only one. I, too, thought they just sleep in the same bed together >_> until much later on that I understand it was rape >_<
@littlefish
Lol… I thought I was the only one. I thought they only slept on the bed and then woke up and had a pillow fight. It was not until many many years later that I realized it was rape.
Is anyone surprised though? They started banning palace dramas and everything that’s not in their agenda.
Maybe they will ban the book soon.