“Anyone who has ever tested positive is not wanted.” “No tattoos, criminal record, or positive test history.” “Applicants who have tested positive or been in a mandatory quarantine facility need not apply.” “During the pandemic,...
“Voices of May” is the first in CDT’s monthly “Voices of …” series of viral audio-visual content from pandemic lockdowns in Shanghai and other Chinese cities. Inspired by the original audio-visual compilation “Voices of April,”...
On June 1, the WeChat account 功不唐捐的孤岛 (“Island of Efforts Paying Off”) posted a folk song titled “Don’t Drink the Celebratory Toast.” The video for the song features lyrics, in white subtitles against a black background, urging...
Journalist Lian Qingchuan’s reflection on Tuesday’s relaxation of COVID control restrictions in Shanghai was originally posted on WeChat, but deleted for “violating relevant laws and regulations.” Lian subsequently reposted it...
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source. At 18:00 this evening, [city...
The coronavirus pandemic has introduced a rash of new vocabulary into everyday life across the globe, but perhaps nowhere more so than in China, where the battle for “COVID zero” has spawned an epidemic of slogans. Political...
Over two years after whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang’s death from COVID-19, the comments section under his last Weibo post, which has become known as “China’s Wailing Wall,” continues to serve as a repository for the hopes,...
A Shanghai resident’s defiant response to a local police officer’s warning that non-compliance with the city’s COVID policy would have a deleterious impact on the man’s future offspring went viral across Chinese social...
On Thursday, May 5, the Politburo Standing Committee decreed that there is no place for those who would “distort, doubt, or deny” China’s “dynamic zero-COVID” policy. In response, Shanghai’s already-stringent...
Since the lockdown in Shanghai began five weeks ago, numerous video and audio recordings about the suffering of people in Shanghai have circulated online, and many have been censored. “Voices of April,” a six-minute viral video...
An essay tracing the evolution of Shanghai lockdown memes from giddy jests about Shanghai culture to gallows humor and gloomy meditations on the state of society was censored last week after going viral on Weibo. The essay,...
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. BJWX notice Latest instructions: All platforms, please refer to [attached] examples and perform...
On April 19, a nine-and-a-half minute audio recording of a phone call between a German resident in Shanghai and a translator working for the local neighborhood committee went viral on Chinese and overseas social media. The...
A YouTube video performance of “New Slave” 《新奴隶》, a song by Shanghai-based rapper Astro, has drawn attention for its frank lyrics about the chaos during Shanghai’s recent lockdown. After being widely circulated on...
As state media rings with Xi Jinping’s pronouncement that “persistence is victory” in Shanghai’s fight against Omicron—now sometimes referred to as “The Battle to Protect Shanghai”—a different martial metaphor reigns on social...
The latest wave of Omicron outbreaks and lockdowns in Shanghai, Changchun, Dongxing, Taiyuan, and other cities has resulted in food shortages and supply chain disruptions. The lockdowns and road closures have been particularly...
Recently, a recording of a five-minute phone call made by an elderly Shanghai man to his neighborhood committee has been circulating on the Chinese internet and social media. During the call, the man [identified here only as...
After conducting nucleic acid testing on its 26 million residents this week, Shanghai remains under lockdown. The metropolis has reported over 120,000 cases of COVID-19 thus far, most of them asymptomatic. Nationwide, an...
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