Nude salute sparks outrage

A nude woman stands with her back toward the viewer saluting soldiers of the Red Army.

This screenshot from a TV drama set during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) has been reposted on more than 1.4 million micro blogs since Tuesday.

Most called it ridiculous and criticized the writers for adding the scene to try and make this show stand out among all the other similarly themed TV dramas.

"There are at least five television channels broadcasting dramas related to the war against the Japanese every day, and some of the plots are absolutely absurd," a citizen was quoted by China Central Television as saying.

"Such TV dramas are not serious (about history) any more. They have become pure amusement, they are not as inspiring as those we watched in childhood," another citizen told CCTV.

Of the 150 TV crews shooting dramas at the Hengdian film production base, about 30 percent of them are set during the War Against Japanese Aggression.

Ni Jun, associate professor from the department of film and TV art at the Central Academy of Drama, said that given the strict censorship, scriptwriters are constrained to limited topics and the scriptwriters were resorting to exaggeration or flights of fancy in a bid to gain high ratings.

However, she said there should be a bottom line in adapting history to the screen, scenes such as a person tearing a Japanese soldier in two with his bare hands and people with bows and arrows fighting Japanese soldiers with guns should be banned.