For years, China has been trying to develop domestic cartoons to compete with the US and Japan
But recently, two of the most popular and successful Chinese cartoons have come under fire for being too violent for children
The government has suspended them on all TV channels, and that has sparked some controversy
HanPeng reports
"Tom and Jerry" is famous around the world and loved by parents and children alike
But it has also been criticized for its cartoon violence
Here in China, another enormously popular cartoon "The Pleasant Sheep", with a similar plot of a big bad wolf trying to catch and eat cute little sheep, has also come under fire
It, too, has been accused of being what the media watchdog says is "violent and vulgar" and suspended for broadcasting
Along with it, another home-grown cartoon "Bonnie Bear" has banned
Children can easily imitate what they have seen
The influence of the mass media is so powerful that parents can hardly avert it
One example of this imitation, used by the critics, is a 9-year-old viewer who tied his two friends to a tree and set them on fire
The victims were almost killed and ended up with severe burns. Their family sued the cartoon
Reports say throughout the 1,000-episode program, the sheep gets boiled over 800 times, and the wolf gets assaulted by a frying pan over 9,544 times
Opinions though among viewers are divided
The big wolf always gets beaten by his wife with the frying pan, it's hard to explain my child why the mom always beating the dad
Sometimes there's verbal abuse in the cartoons. When my child speaks she naturally learns form it
If you want to attract children, some fighting is unavoidable
I think we have put too much social responsibility on cartoons, they are just entertainment. If you don't like it, you can turn it off.
She cries when we don't allow to watch it
Now the producer of "The Pleasant Sheep" cartoon has pledged on spending of multi-million yuan to modify the cartoon to play down the alleged violence
But many people said that real protection form children that's not really happened on TV but in from of it
Because for parents spending more time and communicating more with children are always much wiser and much more responsible when use a TV as a babysitter
HanPeng, CCTV, Beijing