Dirty Ashtray Award urges filmmaker Feng Xiaogang to stub it out

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Chinese director and actor Feng Xiaogang has won plenty of awards in his time, but the latest is not so welcome – a citation for scenes encouraging smoking.

A still from 2016 movie 'I Am Not Madame Bovary'

The Chinese Association on Tobacco Control (CATC) on Tuesday gave its 2016 Dirty Ashtray Award to Feng’s critically-acclaimed movie “I Am Not Madame Bovary.”

The film, which underscores social problems in rural China, features smoking every 8.6 minutes and there is at least one character smoking on screen during 3.5 percent of the running time, according to the CATC.

Feng Xiaogang in 'Mr. Six'

Following similar initiatives in other countries, the association has been awarding Dirty Ashtrays since 2007. This is Feng’s second win, after earning the gong last year for puffing away while starring in “Mr. Six.”

He won best actor at Taiwan’s 52nd Golden Horse Film Festival for “Mr. Six.” “I Am Not Madame Bovary” earned him the Best Director honor at the festival the following year as well as a Golden Shell for Best Film at the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival.

Dirty Ashtray Award

Smoking scenes have been on the decline in Chinese films and TV series in the past decade as awareness of the harmful effects of cigarettes has increased.

The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to which China is a signatory, recognized the depiction of tobacco in films as a form of promotion that can strongly influence tobacco use, particularly among young people.

A still from 'I Am Not Madame Bovary'

Under regulations issued in 2009 and 2011 by China’s State Administration of Press, Publications, Radio, Film and Television, smoking scenes are "strictly controlled" rather than banned.‍