It is an hour long video, “shot” almost entirely with in-game video from World of Warcraft, satirizing the government’s attempt to “harmonize” China’s Internet with forced installations of “Green Dam Youth Escort” and the travails of Chinese World of Warcraft players over the last several months.

…The film tracks the fight between The9 ($NCTY) and Netease ($NTES) over the renewal rights to Activision Blizzard’s ($ATVI) World of Warcraft, the requirement that skulls be removed from World of Warcraft (hence the Skull Party), the bureaucratic battles between GAPP and the Ministry of Culture over the re-approval of WoW in China, the money-obsessed Uncle Yang and his Internet addiction camps and electro-shock therapy (see this forthcoming Feb 2010 Wired article on China’s Internet addiction camps), and the attempts to impose “Green Dam Youth Escort” software on Chinese web users. The movie concludes with an impassioned speech calling for Chinese World of Warcraft players to end their silence and fight the attempts to keep them away from World of Warcraft, followed by an agreement between the warring bureaucracies-GAPP and MOC–to put aside their dispute and go after Netease for more money.

(...)
Read the rest of Video: “网瘾战争 War of Internet Addiction” (Updated) (953 words)

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Post tags: gaming, grass-mud horse, Internet control, satire, videos, World of Warcraft
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Praying to the Snow Grass-Mud Horse, from flickr.

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Post tags: grass-mud horse, photo
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The sentencing of Liu Xiaobo comes despite international appeals for his release, which China sternly rejected as interference in its internal affairs.

Liu was the co-author of an unusually direct appeal for political liberalization in China called Charter 08. He was detained just before it was released last December. More than 300 people, including some of China’s top intellectuals, signed it.

The verdict was issued at the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing after a two-hour trial Wednesday where prosecutors accused Liu of ‘’serious” crimes.

”All I can tell you now is 11 years,” the defendant’s wife, Liu Xia, told The Associated Press. Diplomats said they were told by Liu’s lawyers that he had been deprived of his political rights for a further two years.

See also a Reuters report and this news on the web, via

The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department has issued an order to all Chinese search engines to block search results for the term “11 years.” But some netizens have just opened a Baidu forum under the keyword “11 years” here. Almost all comments are in support of Liu Xiaobo.

On Chinese Google, “Liu Xiaobo” and “Case of Liu Xiaobo” are among top ten fastest rising search terms.

Updates:  On Twitter, thousands of Twitterers put yellow ribbons on their profiles to show support for Liu Xiaobo. CDT translated a few tweets as examples:

@aiww: The sentence is only on Liu Xiaobo, but the slap slams across every Chinese person’s face. Ai Weiwei

这刑是加在晓波身上，可耳贴子是煽在每一个中国人的脸上。

@leungmantao: I was going to stay away from blogs and micro-blogs, but I really can’t help it today.

From now on, “Merry Christmas” is a coded greeting among Chinese, it means: Remember Liu Xiaobo.

本想遠離微博和博客，但今天忍不住了。從此之後，「聖誕快樂」是中國人的一句暗語，它的意思是記住曉波。

@cuiweiping: Thirty years ago, Wei Jingsheng was sentenced to 15 years. Thirty years later, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years.  We spent thirty years in exchange for  four years of progress.

30年前魏京生判了15年，30年后刘晓波判了11年，我们用30年的时间，换来4年的进步。

@ye_du: According to sister Gao Yu, Charter 08 has 4024 characters. 4024 divided by 11 comes to 365. So Xiaobo is jailed one day for each Chinese character of Charter 08.

高瑜大姐刚刚和我说，她刚计算出：零八宪章4024个字，除以11正好等于365，为了宪章，晓波要一个字坐一天监狱。

@zhangfacai: I have finished reading the indictment. I could not tell if it was indicting Xiaobo or f**king indicting themselves.

看完审判书了，也他妈不知道是审判刘晓波还是审判他们自己。

@mashaofang: He is already sentenced, so let me tell something true.  Last November, inside  Beijing Wansheng Bookstore, Xiaobo, Liu Xia [wife of Liu Xiaobo] and Professor He Weifang talked about Charter 08.  I said, the cost will be someone going to jail.  I do not want Xiaobo to go to jail again.  Xiaobo said, if the cost for peacefully signing onto a Charter is imprisonment, I will do this without hesitation.  His wife said: He is not afraid.  I support him firmly!

人已被判，我就说个真事。去年11月，北京万圣书店内，晓波师，刘霞师母，还有卫方老师。当时说到宪章的事，我说，这可能会被抓的，我不想晓波师再坐牢，晓波师说，若是和平宪章签署都要坐牢，我就坚决去坐。师母说：他已无畏，我坚决支持！

@my1989: I just received a response from the signature group of Charter 08: Thank you for your support. Greetings to the veteran of the Square. Fighting for tomorrow. I am also a veteran from the Square.

收到宪章签名小组回执：谢谢支持。向老兵问候！为明天奋斗！ 签名整理小组 也是老兵

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Charter 08, grass-mud horse, Jia Lianchun, Liu Xiaobo, political prisoners, subversion
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Songshinan (Chat host): You were just named by 《Southern Wind》 magazine as the 2009 Man of Public Interest. You deserve it.

In 2009, you and your team found at least 5000 names of children who died during the Sichaun earthquake. Your action warmed thousands of families, moved inumerous conscientious Chinese and made them feel angry and inspired, and also cornered the stupid Sichuan government.

In your own unique way, you have challenged the authoritarian windmill, used courage to press the cowardice of the authorities, used playfulness to highlight the authorities’ stupidity, used persistence to reveal the authorities’ crudeness, used your action to prove authorities’ falseness.

In my heart, you are more than the man of 2009; you are the largest Grass-Mud Horse in China this year.

Questions from forum members:

fatherofmissingfish: Hi Old Ai. 2009 was a hard year.  There was Huang Qi, then Tan Zuoren [inprisoned]. The government repression of rights defenders has been extremely harsh. What do you think about the future of the human rights movement?

Ai Weiwei: The government is protecting their power; citizens are defending their rights. No matter how hard defending rights is, this is the only way.

ririxishou：Hi teacher Ai. [In Chinese, "teacher" is a term of respect] I want to ask one question.  Which dimension of change do you think is most important for today’s China: Is it immediate demands for freedom? Or raising citizen consciousness first, then talking about freedom?

Ai Weiwei: For the question of freedom, there is no bargain, no strategy. You are either free or not free.

Kaidijianeng: Teacher Ai, please share your thoughts on “freedom” and “citizenship” in today’s society. What are your expectations for government and for citizens?

Ai Weiwei: Today the government’s wisdom is to play dead; citizen’s wisdom is to kick [the government's] ass, regardless if it’s playing dead or really dead.

vahine: Grandpa Ai [In Chinese, "grandpa" is an informal term of high respect], is there any space to compromise between us and authorities? Is there still a possibility of constructive interaction?

Ai Weiwei: I think we have a 100% bastard government, but only less then 5% of citizens demand democracy, equality and justice. So there is a lot of space.

jencoxu: Do you still have any hope for China? Do you think the next round of reforms will be top down or bottom up?

Ai Weiwei: I never had any hope for China. I am only resisting the hopelessness China is imposing on me.

Zhangyang: Dearest Grandpa Ai, my question is: What factors in Chinese culture are preventing the establishment of civil society? How can we address that?

Ai Weiwei: We always talk about Chinese culture this and Chinese culture that.  As a matter of fact, Chinese culture has no damn business here. Forget about Chinese culture; this is the shortcut to civil society.

wtdd: How big is the possibility of organizing an opposition party, for example through Twitter?

Ai Weiwei: The order should be, organizing people on Twitter first, then organizing a party.

zyl1989：Are you ready for prison? Or put it this way, the government has not yet put you into a prison cell. Is it because they do not think you are threatening enough?

Ai Weiwei: I don’t think so. It is because the prison cell is not big enough.

pigselbow: In an intervew about the 1980s generation,  Chen Danqing [an artist] commented that you are a lefty artist. What do you think about his comment?

Ai Weiwei: Left or right, that’s a scholar’s business. As a citizen, there is only one position: Grass-Mud Horse.

louy0427: Master Ai, I salute you and pay my respect here.  I want to ask what kind of strength sustains you on the current road? After all, your fame and influence can open any country’s door for you. Please tell us, when more and more elites emigrate to foreign countries because they are disappointed in the ruling powerful of this land, why have you chosen a road full of danger and unknowns? After all, you are facing a ruthless government which has a powerful propaganda apparatus and violent force! Thank you!

Ai Weiwei: If I give up the country I am in, then I have lost my reason to choose any other country. If I denied my current road, there is no other road in front of me.

li198558: Please Mr. Ai tell us why you investigate the names of students who died in the earthquake? Tell us the truth!

Ai Weiwei: I don’t believe the parents of these kids did not name them.

Ricebowl: Facing such a bastard society, is Teacher Ai ever depressed? How can you keep full of energy?

Ai Weiwei: Mixing bastardness with depression you will for sure be full of energy, this is a secret recipe from our ancestors.

runnakedisanotherkindofbeauty: Teacher Ai, if you had 10,000 soldiers, would you rebel?

Ai Weiwei: I would command all of them to run naked.

Openthemouth: Please let us know your thoughts. In the current situation, the government’s political propaganda and influence has reached every cell of society, and [the government] purposely weakens citizen education. How can we effectively raise the consciousness of citizens? Facing the powerful propaganda machine, how can we maximize the voices of dissent?

Ai Weiwei: In the lengthy life time, you just need to express yourself simultaneously with others one time, and the world will be changed.

maoxihua: For the group who demands democracy, equality and justice but makes up less then 5% of the population, what should these people do?

Ai Weiwei: Reach 6% ASAP.

(...)
Read the rest of Ai Weiwei (艾未未) on Citizenship and Freedom (251 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1984bbs, Ai Weiwei, grass-mud horse, huang qi, Tan Zuoren
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Today, Hu Yong came to Story Garden cafe to participate in the “NGO salon.” When he spoke about the “character of the year,” not only did it recall “character of the year” discussions from the past few years, but it seemed as if ["character of the year" discussions] had already become a classic topic. Speaking about this is brings some sadness, because when we had our first discussion, “Great Firewall” had attracted everyone’s attention and garnered many votes. At that time, the word picked was “blocked.”(封)

Getting “blocked” isn’t just restricted to the internet; it also happens in real life. Therefore, Hu Yong likewise supported the character “wall (墙),” as it exists both online and offline, using different mechanisms and methods. I kind of wanted to cast my vote for “climb” (翻) since never before had so many people learned how to use proxies, learned how to climb over the Great Firewall, understood Tor [The Onion Router] and other similar tools. Never before had so many people learned how to fix hosts, learned about API and how to use all kinds of Twitter API access methods. It’s similar offline, as many people are thinking about how to “climb over the wall” in their own lives, and search for their own place and worth.

As a result, my 2009 “character of the year” pick was “climb.” I also wanted to propose having a “climbing methodology.” Sometimes, resistance produces martyrs, so all the more we need methods, tact, humor, deconstruction, guerilla warfare … in this way, power can accumulate and bring more value to society, allowing it to have the opportunity to improve.

Yes, many people are using the “push/tweet” method, such as Ai Weiwei. [In Chinese, "tweet" and "push" are also homynyms.] I salute him and others. It’s not just about making the actual “push,” but more importantly, it’s using Twitter to be an online media tool, having a community approach, and having real-time communication forecast a greater communication and strength. Further, media, communities, and society per se are valuable, and have also described an online future.

One of my friends on Twitter asked, “When will the character of the year be ‘topple (倒)’?”

Update: I strongly advocate the following character, it better represents the spirit of 2009.
[The character is not a real one, but a made-up character, mixing elements of the following three characters: "grass", "mud" and "horse". ]

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2009, Ai Weiwei, bloggers, grass-mud horse, Great Firewall, Hu Yong, Zhan Bin
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Just by typing two Chinese characters “Fan Qiang” (翻墙）［meaning “Climbing over the Wall”] into search engine Baidu or Google, one can find infinite items. Opening those search results, one can see posters including amateur politicians, professional technologists, or people like myself who are computer illiterate but full of curiosity. As far as the content of those items is concerned, it includes complaining, cursing, asking for help, making suggestions, voluntarily providing software download information… All in all it is quite hot. “The Wall” and “Climbing over the Wall” have become quite a scene on the contemporary Chinese Internet.

“The Wall” is one kind of software. “Climbing over the Wall” is another kind of software. The relations between the two are Mao and Dun ["mao" means sword and "dun" shield; together, "maodun" means conflict]. The purpose of the Wall software is to stop netizens from crossing, and the purpose of the “Climbing the Wall” software is to providing netizens with ladders. The longer the ladders are, the higher the Wall becomes. The higher the Walls, the longer the ladders become. It seems like there is no end to this game. The Wall will only get higher and higher, and the ladders are only getting longer and longer.

For so many years, the busiest people on the Chinese internet are those who make the Wall software and the “Climbing the Wall” software. It has been said that those people all have something in common: 1. They are all Chinese, 2. They all made a fortune, 3. They all have studied in the US. The only difference is that those who write the Wall software have come back from the US and those who write the Climbing the Wall software are still in the US. This is we Chinese: We will help whoever pays the salary. As long as it makes money, we can do anything. It only hurts ordinary people: So much money spent on “the Wall” and “Climbing the Wall”!

在谷歌或者百度中输入“翻墙”这两个汉字，可以看见不计其数的条目，打开这些条目一看，可知发帖的人中，有业余政治家，有专业技术高手，也有类似 66我老人家这样爱看稀奇的电脑菜鸟；至于发帖的内容，有抱怨的，有骂娘的，有求助的，有出主意的，有义务提供软件下载地址的……，总之是十分的热闹， “墙”和“翻墙”成为中国当代网络上的一道风景线。

“墙”是一类软件，“翻墙”是另一类软件，二者是“盾”和“矛”的关系，“墙” 软件是要让你网民过不去，“翻墙”软件则是给你网民送梯子。梯子长了，墙就修得更高，墙更高了，梯子就建得更长。双方的较量看来将永无止境：墙没有最高，只有更高；梯没有最长，只有更长。

这许多年来，中国的网络上最忙碌的就是那些制作“墙”软件和“翻墙”软件的人，据说这些人的共同之处是：一，都是咱中国人；二，都发了大财；三，都在美国学习过，唯一的不同之处是写“墙”软件的人从美国回来了；写“翻墙”软件的人还留在美国。咱中国人就这德性：谁出钱帮谁；只要能赚钱，什么活也能干。心疼的是咱老百姓，这修“墙”和“翻墙”，该花了多少民脂民膏啊！

□ 涂子方(网 址 ：http：//blog.ifeng.com/article/3216077.html)

Here are some images about the Great Firewall created or circulated by netizens:

And another music video of “Grass-Mud Horse” is here.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-censorship tools, Fag Binxing, GFW, grass-mud horse, Southern Metropolis News, Tu Zifang
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Actually, this is very good.

He [Ai Weiwei] has always annoyed me. What kind of artist and architect is he? He’s a hoodlum! Even his studio is called “f*ck”

I fear Ai Qing [Ai Weiwei's father and famous Chinese poet] couldn’t anticipate this! Two different generations.

Ha ha! Very good, very strong! Very yellow, very violent!

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ai Weiwei, anti-cnn, grass-mud horse
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@wenshiyi:  The order of the three slogans yelled by Hu Jintao was very interesting.  Long Live the Great Chinese Communist Party! Long Live the Great People’s Republic of China! Long Live the Great Chinese People!  To use Mencius’s language: the ruler ranks the highest, the state comes next, and the people count the least.  [Mencius's original quote was "The people rank the highest, the state comes next, and the ruler counts the least."]

胡錦濤喊的三個萬歲的次序很有意思：偉大的中國共產黨萬歲！偉大的中華人民共和國萬歲！偉大的中國人民萬歲！套用亞聖的名句，就是君為貴、社稷次之，民為輕。

@ Gongminyaoyao: I only have one thing to say about the military parade: the government can drive tanks on the street to show off the nuclear missiles,  but ordinary citizens could not get kitchen knives in the supermarket.

阅兵只有一点点看法，政府可以开着坦克在街上炫耀核导弹，老百姓在超市里菜刀都买不到。。。。

@ anonymous: [Internet censorship instructions to website editors]：The following type of information is strictly forbidden to appear on all websites. If you see it, immediately delete it and report the posting IP  [to Internet police]
1. Eulogy for sixty year anniversary of the Chinese nation. 中华六十年祭
2.The Great Motherland is much older than sixty years. 伟大的祖国母亲岂止六十岁
3.Demonstrate in black on October 1st. 十一黑衣游行
4. Demonstration in Wuxi over illegal evictions. 无锡非法拆迁游行示威
5. The explosion in the Xinjiang restaurant in Beijing is a deliberate human action. 北京新疆餐厅爆炸属于人为
6.  Xi Jinping failed to be promoted to the vice-chairmanship of the Central Military Committee Xi接任军委副主席未遂
7. The Rights Protection Group of Hong Kong Investors going up to Beijing to petition again.  港商内地投资权益维护小组再次上京请愿

@hansenguy : If Lu Xun lived today: most people would say they have never heard of him, and a very small group of people would have heard of him after they climbed over the Great Firewall. And a tiny tiny group of people, exiled overseas, would protest in front of the PRC embassy, demanding his release. 

鲁迅要是在今天：大大部分人会说不知道这个人，小小部分人翻墙有所耳闻，小小小部分流浪海外的在大使馆前举牌要求释放鲁迅。

@wangpei: Han Han wrote: in our country, citizens have the freedom to publish, but the government also has the freedom to not let you publish, and the latter has the right to interpret [the Constitution].

韩寒：在我们国家，公民虽然拥有出版的自由，但政府也拥有不让你出版的自由，并且后者拥有解释权。

@try2feel: I asked two venture capitalists after a couple drinks during a banquet: Why do you guys care so much about politics? One said: to understand the CCP is my professional need.  The other said: therefore opposing the CCP became my personal hobby. 

借着酒劲问俩做风投的：你们干吗这么关心政治？一个说：因为了解TG是出于工作需要。另一个接着话茬说：所以反对TG成了个人爱好。

Twitterers are often not just tweeting short texts, they also share photo links in their networks as well. Here are some photos from the parade:

And a cartoon: The Qin Shi Huang block in the parade 生果報馬龍漫畫：嬴政方陣 http://twitpic.com/kbutg

The above comments and images represent one line of thinking that was apparent on Twitter in recent days. However, because Twitter is blocked in China, those who still using the service from China tend to be those netizens who make the effort to “jump over” the Great Firewall. Therefore, Chinese tweets tend to be more political and more critical of the government that other online forums. If readers surf Chinese BBS (online forums), they are far more likely to find more celebratory comments about the military parade during National Day. Here is a very popular music video, made by two Tsinghua graduates who are currently living in North America, which expresses such feelings:

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1949 60 years, Ai Weiwei, bloggers, grass-mud horse, nationalism, tweets
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© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: grass-mud horse, Internet censorship, river crabs
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© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: grass-mud horse, river crabs
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To illustrate the power of blogging, Xiao Qiang, an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Journalism and director of the China Internet Project, cited the collapse of schools during last year’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake in the province of Sichuan — the result, he said, of the “deep corruption” of the Chinese government.

Qiang recounted how a lone blogger — an artist and architect who helped design China’s Olympic stadium — began collecting and publishing the names of thousands of students who had been killed as the region’s substandard schools crumbled. When Chinese censors deleted the postings, the lists were picked up by other bloggers, until the authorities had little option but to publish official lists of the victims.

“From an individual act, an inter national event,” said Qiang, adding that the story illustrates “the first law of Chinese cyberspace: Censorship meets resistance.”

Actually, my original statement was:

The first law of Chinese cyberpolitics is “Where there are River Crabs, there are Grass-Mud Horses (那里有河蟹，那里就有草泥马).” According to this “Law of the Grass-Mud Horse,” online censorship always meets resistance.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ai Weiwei, grass-mud horse, online censorship, river crabs, School Collapse, Xiao Qiang
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The latest hot item circulating in the Chinese blogosphere is a compressed folder leaked from a Baidu employee. It contains a set of working documents from Baidu’s internal monitoring and censorship department, with details including staff names, their performance records, company contact lists, censorship guidelines, operating instructions, and specific lists of topics and words to be censored and blocked, guidelines of how to search information which needs to be banned, the backend URL, and other internal company information from November 2008 through March 2009.

Baidu, China’s leading search engine company, has a long history of being the most proactive and restrictive online censor in the search arena. These newly available materials reveal and confirm how censors at the search engines distort and manipulate the search experiences of Chinese netizens. These complete documents are being rapidly spread, and quickly deleted, in Chinese cyberspace. CDT selectively posts some of those working documents here, including the list of filtered keywords (in Chinese). (To read more leaked Baidu documents, please visit the GFW blog.)(...)
Read the rest of Baidu’s Internal Monitoring and Censorship Document Leaked (1) (Updated) (730 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baidu, censorship documents, grass-mud horse, Internet censorship, river crabs
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The latest hot item circulating in the Chinese blogosphere is a compressed folder leaked from a Baidu employee. It contains a set of working documents from Baidu’s internal monitoring and censorship department, with details including staff names, their performance records, company contact lists, censorship guidelines, operating instructions, and specific lists of topics and words to be censored and blocked, guidelines of how to search information which needs to be banned, the backend URL, and other internal company information from November 2008 through March 2009.

Baidu, China’s leading search engine company, has a long history of being the most proactive and restrictive online censor in the search arena. These newly available materials reveal and confirm how censors at the search engines distort and manipulate the search experiences of Chinese netizens. These complete documents are being rapidly spread, and quickly deleted, in Chinese cyberspace. CDT selectively posts some of those working documents here, including the list of filtered keywords (in Chinese).

2. Web URL addresses that are filtered out by the Baidu search engine:
(...)
Read the rest of Baidu’s Internal Monitoring and Censorship Document Leaked (2) (829 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship documents, grass-mud horse, Internet censorship, river crabs
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The latest hot item circulating in the Chinese blogosphere is a compressed folder leaked from a Baidu employee. It contains a set of working documents from Baidu’s internal monitoring and censorship department, with details including staff names, their performance records, company contact lists, censorship guidelines, operating instructions, and specific lists of topics and words to be censored and blocked, guidelines of how to search information which needs to be banned, the backend URL, and other internal company information from November 2008 through March 2009.

Baidu, China’s leading search engine company, has a long history of being the most proactive and restrictive online censor in the search arena. These newly available materials reveal and confirm how censors at the search engines distort and manipulate the search experiences of Chinese netizens. These complete documents are being rapidly spread, and quickly deleted, in Chinese cyberspace. CDT selectively posts some of those working documents here, including the list of filtered keywords (in Chinese).(...)
Read the rest of Baidu’s Internal Monitoring and Censorship Document Leaked (3) (412 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship documents, grass-mud horse, Internet censorship, river crabs
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The following images have been created and collected by a Chinese blogger as part of the ongoing drama unfolding between the “Grass Mud Horse” and its archenemy, the “River Crab.”

In the same post, the blogger associated the following images, of training exercises by the police of Quanzhou, Fujian province, with the National Flag of the Republic of the River Crabs. The caption of the first photo reads: “You have grass mud horses. But I have river crabs!”

The banner on the stage reads: Public Security Bureau of Quanzhou Handling Mass Incidents Force Gathering Exercise.”
(...)
Read the rest of Photos: Which Country is Home to the Grass Mud Horse? (0 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: E'gao, grass-mud horse, political satire, river crabs
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阳春三月欲赏花
还须翻墙到邻家
闲来把酒煮河蟹
马勒戈壁草泥马

I want to enjoy the flowers in the beautiful March
Must climb over the wall to the neighbor’s home
In my leisure l drink liquor and boil river crabs
Grass-mud horse running on the Ma Le Desert.

*The artist is Bimuyu. (Thanks to Joel for the link.)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: grass-mud horse, humor, political satire, river crabs
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Also from Radio Free Asia:

Chinese netizens are reacting angrily to reported attempts by government censors to stamp out a humorous form of protest against a recent Web clean-up campaign.

Apparent government directives widely posted on forums, chatrooms and on instant update services such as Twitter are now ordering Internet service providers to clamp down on spoof items about the “grass-mud horse,” a fictional alpaca-like creature dreamed up by netizens in response to a recent anti-porn campaign.

(...)
Read the rest of “Grass-Mud Horse” (草泥马) – Netizens React to Censors (With Photo and Video) (83 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing Zoo, grass-mud horse, Internet activism
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The grass mud horse is hardly the first creature or coded term invented by China’s famously vocal netizens but it seems to have caught on in an unprecedented way, said Professor Xiao Qiang of the University of California at Berkeley in the United States, who runs a project monitoring Chinese cyberspace.

Terming it a ‘phenomenon’, he said: ‘It is essentially an online protest and has become a subculture mostly among younger netizens, who are fed up with online censorship and so made up a mascot to express what they really want to say to someone who shuts down their blog.’

This form of political parody is grassroots ‘weapons of the weak’, wrote Tsinghua University sociology professor Guo Yuhua in an online article.

(...)
Read the rest of Sim Chi Yin: Free Speech With ‘Grass Mud Horse’ (Photos Added) (216 words)

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© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: grass-mud horse, Internet censorship, Xiao Qiang
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]]> http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/03/free-speech-with-grass-mud-horse-mythical-creature-a-not-so-secret-weapon-against-net-nannies/feed/ 0 http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/03/china-censors-bar-mythical-creature/ http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/03/china-censors-bar-mythical-creature/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:16:42 +0000 Sophie Beach http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=36039 The New York Times has a brief piece about the “grass mud horse” being “put out to pasture” by Chinese censors (or, “river crabs“):

A Chinese contributor to the site quoted a message from an Internet administrator to managers of online bulletin boards warning that “any content related with Grass-Mud Horse should not be promoted and hyped” because “the issue has been elevated to a political level.” It went on to say, “The overseas media has exaggerated the incident as a confrontation between netizens and the government.”

[...] The order also said the grass-mud horse should not be associated with river crabs and other mythical creatures, many of whose Chinese names sound obscene.

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© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: grass-mud horse, Internet censorship
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]]> http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/03/china-censors-bar-mythical-creature/feed/ 0 http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/03/oiwan-lam-goodbye-grass-mud-horse/ http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/03/oiwan-lam-goodbye-grass-mud-horse/#comments Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:15:45 +0000 Xiao Qiang http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=35978 The “river crabs” are cracking down on “grass-mud horses” now. Oiwan Lam writes in the Global Voices Online:

Last week the story of Grass Mud Horse has traveled to the U.S.A via the New York Times and re-imported back to China with new ideas for reproduction, such as the marriage of two legendary creatures: Grass Mud Horse and FaKe Squid into FaKe Mud Horse.

As imagethief pointed out, the New York Times may have over-interpreted the Grass Mud Horse for criticizing the repressive censorship mechanism. Instead of mechanical blocking, there are some other soft tactics (summarized by “The Seven Possible Fates Of An Internet Post”), and the Chinese censor team is ready to show how with its latest notice about “Grass Mud Horse”.

The administration’s notice to forum managers has been tweeted and re-tweeted many times in twitter:

草泥马相关内容不得进行任何推荐，不得炒作（包括××神兽、河蟹），点名批评猫扑。目前该事件已上升到政治高度，境外媒体炒作该事件为网民与政府对抗。

One shouldn’t promote any content related with Grass Mud Horse, don’t turn it into hyperbole (including xx legendary creatures and river crab). It names and criticizes mop.com. The issue has elevated into a political level, overseas media has turned it into a hyperbole of netizen and government confrontation.

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