Everyone knows that China is notorious for censoring anything — or anyone — that’s deemed wrong, harmful, or offensive, but it looks like there is definitely still such a thing as overkill.

Recently, the official Weibo account of upcoming Chinese film Me and My Father’s Generation (direct translation) shared a promotional clip of Chinese actor Wu Lei aka Leo Wu, 21, riding a horse while shirtless.

However, something was missing… or rather, two things: His nipples, which had been blurred out.

Before long, the post was flooded with thousands of messages from bewildered fans complaining about the unnecessary censorship.

“Is there something I’m not supposed to see?” asked one netizen, while another had this thirsty demand: “Return my husband’s nipples to me.”

Many also called for the original uncensored version of the video to be released.

The feedback got so intense that a few hours later, the page succumbed to the requests and put up the uncensored clip with Wu Lei’s nipples intact.

It’s not clear why the promo team behind Me and My Father’s Generation decided to blur out a male chest, but Taiwan’s Apple Daily seems to think it might have something to do with China’s well-documented censorship practices.

In 2019, acclaimed auteur Zhang Yimou’s movie One Second, which is set during China’s Cultural Revolution, was pulled out of the Berlin Film Festival at the last minute due to “technical difficulties”, although many suspected that it had run into censorship issues instead.

Then there is the recent purge of projects involving disgraced stars like Vicki Zhao and Zhang Zhehan from online streaming platforms, which we’re sure many filmmakers would prefer to avoid at all costs.

However, judging from the internet’s reaction, we seriously doubt showing his nipples is gonna get Wu Lei cancelled that easily.

Photos: Wu Lei/Weibo, 全娱乐/Weibo, 职业观众/Weibo, 解救剧荒/Weibo