Ironically, Mr Six's protagonist dies from a smoking-related disease in the film.

The title role is played by Feng and has so far won the veteran filmmaker three best actor awards, including the influential Golden Horse Awards of Taiwan.

This is not the first time Mr Six received such criticism. The high-grossing film was rapped by the association for ignoring Beijing's ban on smoking in public places. Most of the film's smoking scenes occur in public places.

The producer, Huayi Brothers, said in a statement that the film, which has no intention to promote smoking, re-creates the real life of Beijing's masses and their world from an artistic perspective.

Besides, the story is set at a time when such a ban didn't exist.

While some online users criticized Mr Six for its latest "achievement", a few experts recommend greater tolerance of popular culture that depicts cigarette smoking.

Yin Hong, a communications professor of Tsinghua University, says sometimes it is difficult to avoid featuring smoking, dirty words or drinking in films and TV series.

"Over cleaning" of screen productions, such as a complete ban on such scenes, may result in an excessively demanding censorship for films and TV series, he says.