No Baldness in China for New Pirates of the Caribbean 3 Movie

Scenes in the new movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End" have been cut in China, according to the Associated Press. Scenes of Chow Yun-Fat as a bald, scarred pirate insults China's people, says the main state news agency.

Xinhua said that Chow's time on the screen of the new movie had "been slashed in half by censors in China for vilifying and defacing the Chinese."

The Hollywood blockbuster was released in China earlier this week. It only shows about 10 minutes of the actors scenes. The original movie, shown in the rest of the world, shows about 20 minutes of Chow.

Zhang Pimin is the deputy head of the film bureau under the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Xinhua quoted him as saying that China's "relevant regulations on film censorship" and "China's actual conditions", were used in the decision to cut the scenes.

No specific reasons were given by him as to why the scenes were cut, but Xinhua also quoted a Chinese magazine, Popular Cinema, that said the negative images that were shown in the movie was the reason behind the cut.

"The captain starring Chow is bald, his face heavily scarred, he also wears a long beard and has long nails, images still in line with Hollywood's old tradition of demonizing the Chinese," the magazine said, according to the Associated Press.

Chow plays Captain Sao Feng, the pirate lord of the South China Sea. This is his first appearance in the third movie in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series.

The movies distributer, Walt Disney, reported that the movie brought in a record $1.3 million on its opening day in China.

Disney reportedly also said that the scenes were cut for cultural sensitivities.

The distribution chief at Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Distribution, Anthony Marcoly, said that "They weren't quite ecstatic with how the Chinese pirate was portrayed", according to the Associated Press.

Chow once played a tyrannical Chinese emperor who not only kills his son, but drives his wife insane, in the movie "The City of Golden Armor", produced in Zhang Yimou's. Censors had no problem with that movie.