The Pike incident was not the most extreme case of police overreaction against OWS demonstrators (Oakland occupies the pole position here) and Li Qiming’s desperate, drunken bravado (if it actually occurred) was not the most heinous display of princeling impunity in China.

But they were neat, irrefutable morality plays starring blatantly abusive villains and unambiguously innocent, tragic victims. They validated convictions and attitudes that until then had lacked clear illustrations of who the bad and good guys were ….

Incidents like the Li Gang affair (and the handling of events after a high-speed train crash of July 23, 2011, which provoked a similar outpouring of righteous indignation), apparently provoked some soul-searching within China’s official Internet apparatus.

However, confronted with the defiance and invincible ingenuity of China’s netizens, China’s cyber-establishment did not respond to the futility of censorship with surrender. For the time being, the CCP … still believes that the role of the state is to give overt guidance to a captive Internet.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet control, Internet culture, Li Gang, Li Qiming, Occupy Wall Street, perry link, United States, Xiao Qiang
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Web users searched the definition of the term “microblog” more than three million times on Hudong.com this year, while they sought out the meaning of “WikiLeaks” nearly 800,000 times, the website said Thursday.

Hudong.com also asked Internet surfers to vote on the most popular terms on the web, with both “microblog” and “WikiLeaks” receiving a large number of votes, it said, without specifying their ranking.

Also high on the list was “showing off my father”, a term referring to a fatal hit-and-run accident where the drunken perpetrator boasted to witnesses that he would go unpunished because his father was a high-ranking policeman.

The man’s actual comment was: “My father is Li Gang,” but the website did not use that line because it has been banned by China’s Internet censors.

Learn more popular Internet terms via CDT’s Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet culture, microblogs, slang, Wikileaks
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China could introduce a system requiring web users to provide their real names before posting comments online, state media reported on Wednesday, as authorities move to tighten control over the internet.

Administrators of major websites in China, who are responsible for screening online postings, are already required to register their real names, the China Daily said. “We are also exploring an identity authentication system for users of online bulletin board systems,” Wang Chen, the head of the State Council Information Office, was quoted as saying.

Web users currently have to log on to major news portals before sending postings — effectively banning anonymous comments. But they are not yet required to provide their real names.

See also:
- “China to force internet users to register real names” from the Telegraph
- “Ministry: Time to get ‘real’ on China’s Internet” from China Daily
- “Plan to unmask 400 m Net users” from Global Times

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet culture, Internet regulation, netizens, real name registration
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The most notorious “Internet mythical creatures” are River Crabs and Grass-Mud Horses. Now, a new creature has emerged called Google Dove 古鸽 (Google’s Chinese name is “Gu Ge”; Ge is also a homonym for the Chinese word for “dove”).

Here is an image of the Google Dove and some excerpts of its descriptions, translated by CDT:

“According to an American Indian legend, this bird has a very important habit, called “don’t be evil”，translated into Chinese it means “fear River Crabs.” When they encountered an environment where there were too many river crabs, they could not survive as well as grass-mud horses; instead, they migrated South.

… According to the statistics of Nasdaq animal research institute, there are about 120 billion Google Doves in the world. But it is currently almost extinct in mainland China. The original Chinese Google Doves have migrated to the south, Hong Kong, in large numbers.

Many animal lovers went to the Google park in Niaoguan village in Beijing to mourn its leaving.”

Apparently, the departure of the Google Doves has also caused many Chinese netizens to follow it to its current location, at least in virtual space.

Below is a screenshot of the Google trend on how many times the phrase ” Fan Qiang 翻墙” (“Scaling the Wall“) has been searched on Google in recent days (Google moved its China search engine to Hong Kong on March 23). A search for “Fan Qiang” will find numerous tools and methods for circumventing the Great Firewall.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: google internet, Googlecn, Internet culture, netizens, netizens' voices
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Like the United States, China is having its own tea party movement, but this one has a very different agenda.

Police have long tried to shush and isolate potential activists, usually starting with a low-key warning, perhaps over a meal or a cup of tea. Now, the country’s troublemakers are openly blogging and tweeting their stories about “drinking tea” with the cops, allowing the targeted citizens to bond and diluting the intimidation they feel.

The movement is an embarrassment for officials, who are suspicious of anything that looks like an organized challenge to their authority. And it can’t help that “drinking tea” stories seem to be spreading among ordinary Chinese, including ones who signed a recent online call for political reform.

The country’s top political event of the year, the National People’s Congress, has given the stories another bump. More than 200 people say they’ve been invited by police to “drink tea” since just Friday, when the congress began, said independent political blogger Ran Yunfei.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drinking tea, Internet culture, police conversation, Ran Yunfei, Xiao Qiang
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Xiao Han, an outspoken intellectual at the Chinese Politics and Law University, wrote a piece which classifies China’s Fifty Cents Party into different types.

Fifty Cents Party is now a well-known satirical term for online commentators employed by the government to guide public opinion. In an article written last week, Xiao further classifies the Party into three types according to income and professional standing.

And from Xiao Han’s post, the first type:

Type 1: New-Rich Fifty Cents

This type of fifty cents usually appears university professors, experts (like legal experts and economists), researchers, media professionals and political commentators. They have good image and usually appear on TV, newspapers and headlines of official websites. Their arguments are full of concepts and seem logical, but with only one aim: to prove that the government actions are correct, legal or great, even though they are often unjust, unfair and inhuman. Their opinions enable them to get rich within the establishment; what they receive far exceed fifty cents per comment. Therefore they are the most expensive type of fifty cents; they are the new-rich. They can further be classified into two types: academic (represented by university professors), or popular (represented by political commentators and media professionals).

Read more about the Fifty Cent Party via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fifty cent party, Internet culture, Internet stars, Xiao Han
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AT THE BEIJING headquarters of Mop, Ben Du, the site’s head of interactive communities, told me that the Chinese term for human-flesh search engine has been around since 2001, when it was used to describe a search that was human-powered rather than computer-driven. Mop had a forum called human-flesh search engine, where users could pose questions about entertainment trivia that other users would answer: a type of crowd-sourcing. The kitten-killer case and subsequent hunts changed all that. Some Netizens, including Du, argue that the term continues to mean a cooperative, crowd-sourced investigation. “It’s just Netizens helping each other and sharing information,” he told me. But the Chinese public’s primary understanding of the term is no longer so benign. The popular meaning is now not just a search by humans but also a search for humans, initially performed online but intended to cause real-world consequences. Searches have been directed against all kinds of people, including cheating spouses, corrupt government officials, amateur pornography makers, Chinese citizens who are perceived as unpatriotic, journalists who urge a moderate stance on Tibet and rich people who try to game the Chinese system. Human-flesh searches highlight what people are willing to fight for: the political issues, polarizing events and contested moral standards that are the fault lines of contemporary China.

Versions of the human-flesh search have taken place in other countries. In the United States in 2006, one online search singled out a woman who found a cellphone in a New York City taxi and started to use it as her own, rebuffing requests from the phone’s rightful owner to return it. In South Korea in 2005, Internet users identified and shamed a young woman who was caught on video refusing to clean up after her dog on a Seoul subway car. But China is the only place in the world with a nearly universal recognition (among Internet users) of the concept. I met a film director in China who was about to release a feature film based on a human-flesh-search story and a mystery writer who had just published a novel titled “Human-Flesh Search.”

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: human flesh search engines, Internet culture
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[From the introduction to Part 1: This year, we announce the top ten neologisms in cooperation with “Baidu Encylopedia,” using this model to examine public life in 2009. The chosen neologisms were all trendy this year. Some come from flashpoint news incidents and some come from serious social phenomena; but all the phrases were widely used in online media. Our criteria included search statistics, media attention, web users participation, etc.]

…6. Impromptu quality 临时性

Definition: A prefix added to other phrases, such as “impromptu rape,” “impromptu building,” “impromptu love,” etc. The originating phrase was “impromptu rape.” The story goes that two police officers in Nanxun, Zhejiang raped a woman who was unconscious due to alcohol. Reviewing the evidence, the Nanxun court ruled that the two had committed an “impromptu and impulsive crime,” that the rape was not premeditated. Considering that they turned themselves in, and obtained the victim’s forgiveness, they were given a light sentence. Hence netizens turned the phrase “impromptu and impulsive crime” into “impromptu rape” and spread its use everywhere. Afterward, phrases using the prefix “impromptu” proliferated. Some even say that the times have moved from the “passive tense era” to the “impromptu quality era.” Here, the phrase “impromptu” has come to indicate excusing oneself from responsibility on a pretense.

Background: In recent years, people’s distrust of the justice system has been growing by the day. This is particularly true for suits involving defendants with a background in government work. The above case, for example, involved police officers.

Commentary: Bastards. Excuse me, that was just an impromptu commentary. It has no deep hatred or stable meaning.

Example of usage: To make impromptu, illegitimate love: guess a two-character phrase.

Searches on Baidu Encyclopedia: 633, 116.

7. Scale the Wall 翻墙

Definition: Originally, it meant to traverse a wall, a kind of physical action. Now it indicates using all kinds of proxy servers to get past Internet censors and reach banned websites, or to complete banned web searches. Ever since the control of the Internet began last year, discussions of “scaling the wall” have begun popping up everywhere. Posts asking for clues about software to “scale the wall” are everywhere. People who use the wall scaling software try to access the censored websites that they seek by masking their IP addresses. These websites might be vulgar; or perhaps they have bad content? Whatever the case, censorship cannot stop a number of persistent netizens. The use of limitations only encourages them to use a thief-like methodology to achieve their goals. More broadly speaking, any actions that seek to transgress official limitations can be called “scaling the wall.”

Background: The control of the internet.

Commentary: The function of many walls is to be scaled. The more limitations there are, the stronger the people’s desire to transgress those limits. It’s only when you get to the other side that you realize that the outside is not actually so different.

Example of usage: Last night I scaled the wall to go to the Internet café. When I got to the café, I scaled another wall to look at websites. But there wasn’t much to see, so I huffed and puffed my way back over the wall.

Searches on Baidu Encyclopedia: 111 ,992.

8. Second generation poor 穷二代

Definition: The children of the wealthy are called “second generation rich,” and the children of the poor are called “second generation poor.” This is what we mean when we talk about giving people social labels. Someone with time on their hands set up 18 criteria for “second generation poor.” “Ordinary workers during the economic reform period, farmers and the impoverished who have yet to enjoy the wealth brought about by government policies: let us call these people ‘first generation poor.’ Growing up in this terrible basic environment, their children do not receive as much education and are unable to leave poverty. These people are ‘second generation poor.’”

Background: In several incidents this year, the masses denounced “second generation poor.” At the same time, the unevenness of all sorts of social opportunities are becoming clearer. Take education: from olden times, education has been an opportunity for social mobility for the poor. But in reality, at the starting line of early education, children from wealthy families are able to receive better education and are able to have more opportunities to go to college—and to go to better colleges.

Commentary: Whether or not these labels are appropriate, and whether or not the criteria are ridiculous, the endless cycle of the impoverished population is an objective truth. Not only must government policies take care of them, but society must also care for their welfare. Otherwise, society itself will suffer.

Example of usage: Lin is “second generation poor.” To him, city management is the most prestigious industry.

Searches on Baidu Encyclopedia 158,000.

9. 70 Yard 70码

Definition: Also called the “horse of deception.” (Qishi is a homophonic pun for “70” and “deceive,” while ma can sound like both “length measurement” and “horse.”) According to netizen editors on Baidu encyclopedia, this term originates in a hit-and-run traffic incident in Hangzhou on May 7, 2009. In the police report, officers wrote that the car at fault was moving at “about 70 yards per hour.” This ignited controversy, and became mixed in with the complicated emotions of contemporary neologisms such as “buying soy sauce,” “push-ups” and “eluding the cat,” that continued to be popular during this time. “70 yards” rapidly became a top hot phrase, used to express the dissatisfaction of civilians with regards to the government’s explanation and handling of public incidents in a satirical voice.

Background: Because the driver at fault was the so-called “second generation wealthy,” and the victim who was killed was a college graduate trying to make it in the city, the incident ignited a strong reaction against the “second generation wealthy.” At the same time, the supposition that “officials and the wealthy are natural allies” makes civilians distrust the government in such situations.

Commentary: This is a classic case of the government’s failure at crisis management. Actually, they did everything they ought to have done after the fact, but they began by denying everything, and that benefited no one. It hurt the civilians as well as the government.

Example of usage: The distance from Hangzhou to Heaven is only 70 yards.

Searches on Baidu Encyclopedia: 629, 768.

10. Pressure differential 压力差

Definition: Regarding the collapsed building in Shanghai, the government’s report shows that the reason was that there was too large a pressure differential between a high dirt pile on the north face of the building and the underground garage on the south face. The dirt needed to level, and this caused the building to fall over. Civilians who like to think, upon hearing this explanation, used all sorts of theories to discuss whether this result made sense. Of course, some people felt instinctively that this explanation was a cover-up. One netizen, using imagination, wrote: “If we follow the theory that the 10 meters of dirt caused 3000 tons of sideways pressure on the Ocean Lotus building in Shanghai, then the 8848 meter high Mount Everest would be exerting 3 x 10 to the 16th power tons of sideways pressure. Under that pressure, the Indian plate would move outwards into the Indian Ocean, making India an island.”

Background: The belief that hens can lay eggs is based on generations of experience. The belief that planes can safely fly is based on trust in a system of professionals. The latter is one of the basic foundations of modern society. But after so many years of experts lying and ruining their own reputation, it’s no wonder that some citizens have become cynical.

Commentary: Is the rift of trust between civilians and government offices caused by a pressure differential?

Example of usage: The theory of pressure differential has been widely used in massive construction projects, and received the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Searches in Baidu Encyclopedia: 79936.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2009, Internet culture, online public opinion, slang
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Every day, Chinese fans produce unauthorized translations of Western pop culture products and put them online, like subtitled episodes of “Heroes” or the final Harry Potter novel. But a group calling itself the Eco Team has picked a more cerebral target: the British newsweekly The Economist.

With each new issue, the group’s members work together to sharpen their language skills by translating the magazine from cover to cover.

The group meets on a message board at ecocn.org/bbs that is led by Shi Yi, a 39-year-old insurance broker in Beijing. “Different people come from different backgrounds with their own purpose,” Mr. Yi said. “But we all like the style of The Economist.”

Read also Translating “The Economist” Behind China’s Great Firewall from CDT.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: foreign media, Internet culture, The Economist
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Chinese nationalism was a hot topic this year, quite the opposite of the usual criticism directed at China, whether it be her food safety issues, human rights record, environmental policies, or the authoritarian regime’s repressive techniques and censorship. Indeed, China has strived to improve its image, culminating this year with the Beijing Olympics 2008, where nationalism played an integral role in expressing the pride and glory of China’s rise and achievements. However, as in the Belgrade embassy bombing in 1999 and the anti-Japanese protests in 2005, nationalistic citizens have an agenda of their own, sometimes promoting state agenda and ideology, but not always working in favor for the government. CDT has collected these stories over the past year. Here are some of highlight events that have sparked a wave of nationalism:

In the months prior to the Olympics, the Lhasa riots in March that spurred a movement of by nationalistic netizens, termed “angry youth” or fenqing by the domestic press. With the dual images of China, the nationalists sided with the “left,” (conservative), creating websites like anti-CNN.com that became a leader against the perceived Western media bias. The effect was immediate, with responses from Western media after pressure from these netizens. No one was immune to their wrath. The elite “right,”(liberals) like Southern Metropolitan Weekly editor Chang Ping, made slight criticism on the rationality of these “angry youth” and was deemed a traitor, eventually stepping down from his role as editor.

Indeed the nationalistic wave was soon shown to be fickle and quite polarized. During the Olympic Torch Relay in Paris, Jin Jing, was once glorified as a hero for her role, then vilified a week later as a traitor for her comments on the Carrefour boycotts. Grace Wang, a Duke University student trying to bridge the gap between Tibet protesters and Chinese citizens came under attack and showed the power of “human search engines” and netizens when they find their target. Even the official government was relatively quiet during all of this, only stepping in to direct the nationalistic energies to more “constructive” purposes and the police and universities’ trying to cancel student protests.

During the Sichuan Earthquake, the nationalism was directed toward grieving and the rebuilding the nation.
And even aggrieved parents stayed quiet for the Olympics.

As for the Olympics, the promotion of athletes (e.g.Liu Xiang), even Olympic marketing and publicity had a nationalism spin.

The reaction to the Tibetan riots, Carrefour boycotts have dwindled down while the Olympics were happening. After the Olympics, nationalism was still around, but no major event triggered as strong as the reaction prior to the Olympics.

Sometimes, nationalism attacks were on a smaller cultural scale such as Gong Li changing her citizenship to Singapore or the film Kung Fu Panda. The refueling of between Japanese and Chinese students or manifesting in the Japan train controversy. Nationalism can also create mass movements such as Crazy English.

Here are the highlights of how some have interpreted nationalism’s role in today’s China:

As ethnicity discrimination

Its impact on marketing

Formation of a new nationalism

How history has impacted the telling of Chinese nationalism

The youth movement as similar to Tiananmen

Why China is so touchy about tarnishing their image

As pessimists/optimist

Journalists on Tibet & Olympics

Scholars defining nationalism

Nationalism and how to avoid its dangers

The danger in Chinese democracy with nationalism.

Indeed the question about where nationalism stems from can be seen from many points of view, as xenophobic (seen in Shanghainese discrimination), specifically anti-West or pro-China. State propaganda certainly plays a role in the formation of a nationalistic identity, with some deeming nationalism as “soft power” for the state propaganda. Certainly in China’s first spacewalk after the Olympics not only diverted attention from the food safety issues and instilled legitimacy in the CCP’s rule, but created a sense of pride within the nation. State propaganda doesn’t just use nationalism as a tool, but also more broadly builds on ideology on a “harmonious society.” In reaction to individual stories, such as the teacher murders in October, the state stressed state ideology to focus more on moral education.

The internet played a large role in spreading the nationalistic sentiment. With the spread of information through the internet, the state has even had to change their strategy of censorship, leaking the story out first and spinning the story to their favor.

There are several debates on angry youth from Chinese media and Western media.

2008! China Stand Up Video made on April 15, 2008

The internet’s power in nationalism creates a cyber nationalism that can be seen as a threat as it breaks down physical boundaries. Already, the role of the internet not only mass mobilizes people in China, but overseas Chinese as well.

The state acknowledges that the internet is powerful and can be a tool, as in nationalism, as well as a threat. There has been limits to the internet including censorship, crack downs on internet cafes, and deeming too much online time as an addiction. Chinese bloggers have also noted the power of the internet. And Chinese netizens in response to censorship have been creative.

The role of nationalism has certainly had an affect on the events of this year, but where nationalism’s future lies, is another question. Certainly, democracy is constantly being questioned in China. However, the internet will play an integral role in how nationalism will fare. Especially if the state is unable to contain the Internet and the spread of information and opinions, whether the polarizing affect of nationalism will occur in the future is another question and the rise of more moderate voices. Already, the internet has been shown to be the site of critiques of the government, questioning corruption and mismanagement as in the “Changzhi New Deal” in response to the Shanxi mining and landslide accidents, with individual bloggers getting their voices heard, like Wuyeusanren and Woeser on Tibet. The 4th Annual Blogger Conference just wrapped up and as tech blogger Gang Lu pointed out, the internet in China is diverse and expanding with censorship only being a part of the Chinese blogosphere.

On the other side, the state is also hitting back, with more people being harassed, even arrested for blogging and online or off-line commentary, as Chen Daojun for his comments on the Lhasa riots and Yang Shiqun, a professor for his criticisms of the government.

Read more of CDT’s tags on Internet culture and Online Culture to find out more about the Netizen Role and Culture in Nationalism.

See CDT’s Nationalism and Chinese Nationalism tags for the full collection of stories relating to this topic.

© jleung for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, China 2008, China's image, Internet culture, national identity, nationalism
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