CDT’s recently launched Sina Weibo banned search term project has been growing with some very interesting findings. Below are two latest lists uncovered and tested by the CDT team.
The following list was originally done on November 2 [using simplified characters].
Current-event related: “leadership change” (换届) [China’s upcoming leadership change is scheduled in late 2012.], “Hexie Farm” (蟹农场) [Hexie can be literally translated as “river crab,” Hexie Farm is a series of political cartoons focusing on dictatorship, censorship, and propaganda. The artist behind the Hexie Farm has recently launched a “Dark Glasses. Portrait.” campaign to support Chen Guangcheng.]
Government officials: “Xia Yong” (夏勇) [current head of the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets], “Cai Wu” (蔡武) [Cai is the current head of China’s Ministry of Culture. This keyword is very likely to be related to China’s soon-to-be-launched cutback on TV entertainment.], “Ding Guangen” (丁关根) [a former minister of the Ministry of Railways who resigned after a deadly train crash in 1988.] “CLY” [abbreviation of Chen Liangyu, a former Party secretary expelled in 2006 and is currently in prison for corruption charge.]
Dissidents: 3 variations of the word “dissident” in Chinese (异议人士，异见人士，持不同政见), “Liu Binyan” (刘宾雁) [a well-known Chinese author and dissident]
Misc.: “dictatorship” (独裁), “one-party rule” (一党专制), “General Secretary” (总书记) “protest” (抗议), “massacre” (屠杀), “fifty cents” (五毛), “incest” (乱伦), “Pangu Band” (盘古乐队) [an underground Chinese punk-rock band whose songs are usually aggressively against the Chinese government; author of “BeijingFuckingOlympia.”], “Kan Zhong Guo” (看中国) [Kan Zhong Guo literally means “to read China” in Chinese. Here, the keyword is referred to Kanzhongguo.com, a multi-language news website run by Falun Gong activists.]
The following list was originally done on November 3 [using simplified characters]:
Current-event related: “Han Zheng” (韩正) [Han is the current mayor of Shanghai whose name is mentioned in Han Han’s latest blog post, “What if your style is not good enough?” (格调不高怎么办), as Han Han complains about how banned search terms affect him. The original post was deleted from Han Han’s personal blog by the blog host on November 3, the day after it was posted. And re-posts by netizens have also been widely deleted, for the post is mainly about China’s censorship of publications.]
Misc.: “Du Daozheng” (杜导正), “Cultural Revolution” (文化大革命), “cultural revolution,” “culture revolution,” “Tiananmen Square,” “democracy,” “CCP,” “JZM” [abbriviation of Jiang Zemin]
Note: CDT Chinese has launched a project to crowd-source filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information.
