A senior official from China’s Taoist Association asked Chinese director Chen Kaige to publicly apologize after his film, “Dao Shi Xia Shan” or “Monk Comes Down the Mountain,” allegedly smeared the image of Taoism.
"The Taoist priest in the movie broke the commandments as he robbed, killed, got intoxicated, and had sex with a woman, which was misleading," said the vice-chairman of the Taoist Association. The senior official went further on to ask the film's screening to be cancelled.
Chen Kaige is an award-winning Chinese director who directed the Academy Award nominee "Farewell My Concubine." The film was also nominated as Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival.
Based on a best-selling novel, "Monk Comes Down the Mountain" tells the story of a Taoist priest and his attempts to discover his purpose in the world. Since it premiered at China's box office on July 3, the film has earned 345 million yuan.
While the Taoist official's statement caused debate, some people are not too keen on taking the film seriously.
"We need an open mind to allow for artistic expression," said Taoist priest Liang Xingyang in an interview with the Global Times Sunday. The secretary-general of the Taoism Association of Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, Liang is a popular Taoist priest in the country with around 130,000 followers on Sina Weibo.
"More people came to know of Taoism because of the film, and people could interpret Taoism either way," he added.
Meng Zhiling spoke on behalf of the association, saying that the organization had not issued a statement regarding the film. Whether the vice-chairman posted the statement in his name has yet to be confirmed.