This is getting a ridiculous amount of coverage:
Television audiences across China watched an anarchist antihero rebel against a totalitarian government and persuade the people to rule themselves. Soon the Internet was crackling with quotes of "V for Vendetta's" famous line: "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
The airing of the movie Friday night on China Central Television stunned viewers and raised hopes that China is loosening censorship.
...Some commentators and bloggers think the broadcast could be CCTV producers pushing the envelope of censorship, or another sign that the ruling Communist Party's newly installed leader, Xi Jinping, is serious about reform.
"Things are obviously getting better because V for Vendetta is on the telly. Also, I'm so going to use a guy fawkes mask as my Weibo avatar." Go on lads, knock yourselves out.
It's not clear that the film was ever actually banned or indeed whether any previous attempts were made to show it in China. If there is a datapoint here, it's that Chinese 'social management' is getting smart enough to distinguish between the formally and actually subersive and also maybe getting to grips with the idea of rebellion as a diverting spectacle.
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