chinese films that were either officially banned (temporarily or completely) in china, or made without approval and thus automatically considered illegal ('Underground Films' and/or foreign produced ones). a temporary ban can also mean it was just pulled before initial release, indication of status + details with sources are in the notes.

since underground films often overlap with foreign made/produced ones, any foreign film shot entirely or primarily in china also counts, as well as hong kong and taiwan films whose reason for banning in mainland china was explicitly political. heavily re-cut films qualify too.

⚫ = made without approval
🔴 = completely banned
🟡 = pulled after release
🟢 = banned but eventually released
✂️ = edited/censored for release - only when coinciding with delays or significant enough to alter the original film, which tends to be the same thing since its usually only when news breaks that we get info about what was censored. (all official releases are)

Directing Bans

Zhang Yuan - ? year ban for Beijing Bastards (1993) alongside his wife and screenwriter Ning Dai (not for this film), who is also the sister of prolific female chinese director Ning Ying. talk about talent running in the family. not only did the ban not stop him from filmmaking, but he followed this up with 4 unapproved films (one documentary oddly enough was greenlit even though he was seemingly still banned), including a documentary on Tiananmen Square - The Square (1994), and chinas first openly lgbt film, East Palace, West Palace (1996) which he smuggled to cannes. lgbt and youth issues have remained a staple in his career since, even while working officially into the 2010s, after miraculously convincing the government to make his first approved film in 1999 -- which also happens to be the first chinese film granted permission to shoot in an active (womens!) prison. he then made a documentary on chinas most famous transgender woman in 2000, entitled Miss Jin Xing. and did i mention his debut film literally kickstarted chinese independent cinema? i listed zhang yuan first for a reason.

Lou Ye - 2 year ban for Suzhou River (2000), then 5 year ban for Summer Palace (2006). i included the short film In Shanghai in this list because it was a bonus feature on the (western) dvd releases of Suzhou River in 2001, so most likely not approved. he returned in 2003 with an anti japan film, just like he did in 2019 following a screening ban of his 2018 film.

Jiang Wen - 7 year ban from directing/acting for Devils on the Doorstep (2000). acting wise this didn't seem to stick, since he went on to act in 7 films in those 7 years, though it did take until 2007 for him to direct again.

Zhang Yimou - 2 year ban together with his girlfriend and lead actress Gong Li, for To Live (1994). he actually released 2 films within the period of his ban, one being a short in an anthology. zhang too went on to make a few party pleaser mainstream films (including that matt damon coproduction ppl mistakenly called whitewashed) to regain favour, and even directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 beijing summer olympics. they couldn't get rid of him even if they wanted.

Tian Zhuangzhuang - 2 year ban for The Blue Kite (1993). he had to resign from his position at the beijing film studio, and didn't make another film until 2002. (blue kite's wiki entry claims the ban was 10 years.. which would explain him not directing for 8, not sure)

Wang Xiaoshuai - 5 year ban for making The Days (1993) without approval, following which he went on to make another illegal film under the alias Wu Ming (literally, "no name" or "anonymous") which was also banned. the number isn't officially stated in his wikipedia entry, so it could be the ban was intended as indefinite, though he did ultimately get to direct his first approved film in 1998 after a 'lengthy period of self-criticism'.

He Jianjun - ? year ban for Red Beads (1994), which our boy too violated the very next year with Postman (1995), a film he had to smuggle out of the country for post-production.

Wu Wenguang - ? - year ban for Bumming in Bejing (1990).

Li Yu - 2 year ban for Lost in Beijing (2007), which was initially screened in heavily edited form (contains nudity), then completely banned. she worked for chinese state television CCTV before becoming a director, and her 2001 lgbt film Fish and Elephant, which is credited with being the first lesbian chinese film, was also banned for being an underground film.

Lü Ban - indefinite ban? for The Unfinished Comedy (1957) he died without making a film again.

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chinese directors who work/worked exclusively without approval

Wang Bing
Ai Weiwei
Rikun Zhu - prolific indie festival director/producer who spontaneously turned filmmaker himself after documenting harassment he faced doing his job.
Liu Bingjian -- first 3 films unapproved, 4th and final one approved
Hu Jie(?)
Jian Fan(?)
Zi’en Cui(?) lgbt activist

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distributers of exclusively*(?) unapproved films

dGenerate Films

if anyone knows of a comprehensive (maybe even official?) chinese source, please let me know, because i'm merely going off western sources and my own judgement. constant work in progress, still have lots to go over.

edit//

2021.02.01
huge thanks to chiujohn for his banned by douban list! from which i added a whopping 80 more films. if it only says 'banned on douban' in the notes this means i still have to find a source with information on why exactly the film was banned, though the subject matter they deal with usually makes it obvious.