Xu said the situation, while bad, is better than it was in 2007 when the association first presented such awards and when it found that only two of the 30 films surveyed did not have any smoking scenes.

"Generally speaking, Chinese films and TV series have seen the number of smoking scenes decline in recent years, partly due to government intervention," said the Beijing-based actor Feng Yuanzheng, who also serves as a volunteer to spread tobacco control messages.

In February, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued directives ordering the makers of TV series and films to stub out smoking as much as possible from their future offerings.

"The efforts paid off somewhat, though loopholes still exist. For example, smoking scenes that are necessary to further the plot are still allowed," said Yang Jie, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's tobacco control office.

TV series, however, have become more "contaminated" by smoking scenes, Xu said, citing the fact that nearly 87 percent of the 30 productions surveyed had smoking scenes while 65 percent of movies had such scenes.

"Productions depicting politicians are the worst," she said.

In Red Cradle, 988 smoking scenes were recorded and the leading character, Chairman Mao, was seen smoking in 776 of them.

A total of 301 million Chinese - 28 percent of the population - smoke. About 1 million people die from smoking-related diseases each year, official statistics show.