Censored Chinese subtitle site reboots as social platform for fans of American TV

Remember Yyets? Once China’s top subtitles site, it was taken down by authorities in November, ostensibly for copyright violations. Last month, the creators mysteriously announced the was coming back in some form, and now, the new site has officially launched.

Now called RRMJ, the new site is billing itself as China’s largest community for American TV shows. It offers a platform through which users can read about and follow foreign TV shows they like, and each show also has a BBS-like forum on which users can discuss the latest episodes. Although the site was only re-launched on Thursday, these boards are already extremely active for the most popular shows.

There’s no way to actually watch any of these shows on the site itself, nor is there an easy way to find subtitles for them like there was on the old Yyets. But from the look of the boards, the site has already carved out a new niche for itself as a locus for discussion of, and questions about, American TV shows. Many users are likely still pirating these shows, of course, but now RRMJ isn’t as directly involved in that experience. The new site thus seems much less likely to attract the ire of China’s increasingly-strict regulators.

See: Killing China’s subtitle sites won’t stop movie piracy. Here’s what will.

That may actually be a source of frustration for the government. Many analysts have suggested that although the stated reason for the Yyets takedown was copyright violation, the actual reason was a desire by the government to weaken the West’s cultural power in China. Stopping Chinese users from getting subtitles to foreign films and shows – and thus limiting them to seeing only shows and films the government officially permits in Chinese – is certainly one way of doing that.

But this reincarnated version Yyets is, if anything, even more of a celebration of American entertainment culture. The only difference is that without links to subtitles or pirated video files, government authorities have no excuse to take it down. Increased discussion of foreign TV shows isn’t in line with authorities’ aims to strengthen China’s own entertainment industry while weakening the influence of the West, but it also isn’t illegal.

And, of course, new subtitle distribution sites have stepped up to fill the void left by the original Yyets and Shooter.cn takedown anyway. Chinese authorities may have closed those two sites, but Chinese-language subs for pirated foreign shows and movies remain as easy to find as ever.