中国、ゲーム会社に「女々しい」コンテンツの削除を命令

【北京ＡＦＰ＝時事】中国当局は、ゲーム大手の騰訊控股（テンセント）や網易（ネットイース）などに対し、利益重視の姿勢をやめ、「女々しさ」を助長しているとみなされるコンテンツを削除するよう命じた。中国政府は、若者文化やジェンダーの理想、ＩＴ大手の影響力に対する指導を強めている。（写真は資料写真）
　中国当局は８日、巨額の利益を生むゲーム市場をけん引するテンセントやネットイースをはじめとするゲーム会社を呼び出し、今後の業界に対する規制強化について伝えた。すでに当局は、未成年のゲームのプレー時間を週３時間までに制限するよう命じている。
　苦境に立たされているゲーム業界への新たな規制の動きを受け、９日のゲーム関連株は急落した。
　国営新華社通信は８日夜、ゲーム業界に対する最新の規制について、「わいせつで暴力的なコンテンツ、拝金主義や女々しさなどの不健全な傾向を助長するコンテンツは、削除しなければならない」と報じた。規制に従わない企業は罰せられると当局は警告している。
　こうした規制対象について、香港大学の宋耕准教授は、中国の政治階級には派閥を超えて「女々しい男性は肉体的に軟弱で、感情的にもろい」という認識があり、「女性的な」男性には国家を守ることができないとの推論に基づいていると指摘。政治エリート層においては異性愛が唯一のジェンダー規範だとみなされていることが、性的指向やアイデンティティーをめぐる曖昧な表現に対する「不安」につながっていると付け加えた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/09/10-13:24）

Chinese authorities have ordered gaming giants to end their focus on profits and cut content perceived to be breeding effeminacy, as Beijing tries to direct youth culture, gender ideals and the reach of big tech.
The move is the latest by authorities to tighten their grip on the embattled technology sector and sparked a collapse in the share prices of some of the industry's biggest names.
Officials on Wednesday summoned gaming enterprises including Tencent and NetEase, the two market leaders in China's multi-billion-dollar gaming scene, to discuss further curbs on the industry, which has already been ordered to limit children gaming time to three hours a week.
Among the new targets are media representations of men, which experts say are a cause for anxiety among the conservative, older generation of Communist Party leaders.
In recent days, regulators have ordered broadcasters to resist abnormal aesthetics such as sissy men, calling for more masculine representations in programming.
Late Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency reported the latest edicts against gaming.
Obscene and violent content and those breeding unhealthy tendencies, such as money-worship and effeminacy, should be removed, it said.
Enterprises who flout rules will be punished, authorities warned.
The target is driven by a perception among sections of society that effeminate men are physically weak and emotionally fragile, University of Hong Kong associate professor Geng Song said, with the inference that 'feminine' men cannot defend the nation.
Song added that heterosexuality is seen as the only gender norm, leading to anxiety over more ambiguous representations of sexuality and identity.
- Stocks tumble -
Some leaders may believe that excessive gaming is also contributing to a softening of character in young men, Derek Hird, a senior lecturer in Chinese Studies at Lancaster University, told AFP.
The latest talks add to tightening oversight on tech giants in the world's biggest gaming market, with Beijing rolling out rules to weed out the excesses of the culture among Chinese youth -- from worsening eyesight to online addiction.
Besides breaking from a focus on profit and gaining fans, gaming businesses were also told to change game rules and designs inducing addiction, said Xinhua.
Gaming companies have already stepped up restrictions on minors, drastically cutting the online gaming time of children to just three hours a week during term time.
Tencent rolled out a facial recognition midnight patrol function in July to root out children masquerading as adults to get around a curfew.
Investors, already on edge over recent crackdowns, ran for the hills Thursday, sending NetEase plunging 11 percent and Tencent 8.5 percent lower.
Other tech giants that have been caught in China's crosshairs recently were also hammered, with ecommerce titans Alibaba and JD.com each shedding more than 5.5 percent.
Traders had been cautiously buying back into the industry in recent sessions on hopes that the Chinese clampdown on private enterprises may be easing off.
This demonstrates the risk for those attempting to call the bottom with so much uncertainty still hanging, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Kanterman said.
I don't think the overnight news is a big departure from that which we already knew, but the reaction clearly signifies the skittishness of investors around any regulatory news.