Chinese actor Ding Yuxi rose to fame with 'The Romance of Tiger and Rose' and has since firmly held his position as a top young actor. Recently, he starred in the suspense drama 'Southern Archives,' which stirred discussions. Previously, many scenes of 'male-male hugging' had already leaked online, but unexpectedly, all these interactions were deleted from the final cut, leaving fans shocked.
'Southern Archives' is adapted from the namesake novel by Nanpai Sanshu, and follows a 'dual male lead' format to explore mysterious murder cases. However, viewers realized after watching the series that almost all crucial scenes between the leads—such as life-and-death farewells and hugs—were missing. Given the strict bans on Chinese TV dramas, netizens speculated whether these borderline scenes were cut for the drama to successfully pass censorship.
However, Nanpai Sanshu, the original author who also served as executive producer for the series, openly admitted he had not seen the final version: 'But the rough cut looked better than it does now,' clearly expressing some regret. In fact, there have been similar discussions in the past regarding Chinese dramas that sparked debate after all intimate scenes were deleted. For example, after Jing Boran's 'Steel Forest' aired in April, netizens noticed that the office first kiss, explosion kiss, and underwater kiss were all cut, which also led to public questioning of censorship standards at that time.
News source: Liberty Times Entertainment