Buzz over the cuts of scenes showing corseted cleavages in a TV drama has attracted attention abroad. It has also gotten experts at home pondering, Xu Fan reports.

The much talked about cut of the first Chinese empress' bust has not only not died down, it has also created a buzz abroad.

Numerous international media outlets, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Daily Mail, reported on the heated chatter in the Chinese media and blogosphere about how the top-rated domestic TV drama, The Empress of China - also known as The Saga of Wu Zetian - was halted after its first week of release for "technical reasons", then released again five days later.