Hundreds of fans gather outside a hotel where Chinese-Canadian pop idol Kris Wu was staying in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, in 2017. Photo: VCG

A special training course for online variety shows and entertainment program creators was launched on Friday by Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau. 

The training session aims to guide entertainment workers to create content that can have a 'positive influence' on the public. 

"'Positive influence' is a rather broad and comprehensive concept, the core of which is whether they can bring good or bad social influence. For example, behind the ban on online content that shows off unnecessarily extravagant lifestyles is the value to not waste resources. Meanwhile vanity worship and such ideas can misguide young viewers to prioritize wealth over morality and education," Xu Mingjun, a cultural industry policy advisor, told the Global Times on Sunday.  

There are three main principles at play during the training course. First, show creators should create programs that are in line with the correct values. Second, they should recognize their responsibilities when it comes to maintaining a good online environment while creating content. Third, they should provide high-quality audio-visual content that can bring people together and embody virtue and encourage national spirit. 

"I believe that in the future, there will be more and more online cultural content that not only engages patriotic thinking and promotes the national spirit, as well as content particularly focused on young people's mental and physical development as they are the biggest consumer group of fan-related online content," emphasized Xu. 

The course also encourages the industry to abandon its dependence on production models and forms that are "imported."  

The training course was designed to be a backbone for the notice issued by the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in early September that called for a strengthening of the management of the culture and entertainment circles, especially concerning major issues such as excessive fan behaviors, immoral celebrities, online stars promoting distorted "sissy" images and showing vulgar contents. 

More than 80 insiders from major Chinese online platforms such as iQIYI, Youku, and ByteDance participated in the training course. 

The training course was held by experts including scholars from the Communication University of China and senior editors from the China Television Art Committee.