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The Chinese government is concerned about what it sees as
increasing vulgarity in society. A crackdown on pornography and
freedom of expression more generally has intensified since
President Xi Jinping assumed office in 2013.
Victor Yang, spokesman of Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, told
Reuters on Friday that the company has received verbal notice
from the Shanghai autoshow organizer that no models can be used
at the week-long event, from April 20.
An official at the Council for the Promotion of International
Trade Shanghai, one of the main organisers of the show, said
such a restriction was "under discussion" and a decision would
be published soon. He did not elaborate.
Auto promoters in China, as in many other places, often employ
models to jazz up their stands. The models often seem to get
more attention than the cars, especially from shutterbugs in the
crowd.
Government censors faced a backlash from Chinese Internet users
this month when a television drama about a Chinese empress was
scrubbed of all footage showing actresses' cleavage.
Major web portals have also been under pressure to rein in what
the government considers "harmful" content.
While the news, circulated on microblogs, triggered some
criticism, Yang said it would be a positive move for car makers.
"An autoshow is an industry event to showcase cars, not
beautiful models," he said.
(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Michael Martina in BEIJING;
Editing by Kazunori Takada and Robert Birsel)
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