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Fascinating. Thanks for this.<br>
<br>
ChinaSMACK as revenge for the Opium Wars?<br>
<br>
On 1/15/11 2:46 AM, E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4D315ED3.9050203@pigs.ag" type="cite">
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<blockquote type="cite">China is the worst offender. China has
aggressive, sophisticated interception technology that places
itself
between every reader inside China and every information source
outside
China. We've been fighting a running battle to make sure we can
get
information through, and there are now all sorts of ways Chinese
readers can get on to our site."</blockquote>
<br>
Back in the early 90's the term "bamboo curtain" used to be used
to
describe China's rather isolationist policy, as<br>
opposed to the Iron Curtain of Eastern Europe. An iron curtain is
nigh
impenetrable. A bamboo curtain<br>
can snap closed suddenly, according to the analogy.<br>
<br>
Now I would describe it as more of a "Beaded Curtain". The
curtain is
there sometimes but it doesnt<br>
provide much of a barrier. My Chinese friends are at least as
familiar
with Wikileaks as I am.<br>
<br>
Most of the Chinese that I know are quite familiar with the means
of
negotiating around the curtain, anyway.<br>
<br>
YouTube is seriously hindered in favour of the homegrown Chinese
competitors like YouKu.com and Tudou.com, etc,<br>
both of which often offer material that YouTube would not permit.
Lots
of YouTube videos are replicated<br>
on YouKu, Tudou, and Renren, etc.<br>
<br>
Woman going crazy down on Caroline Street. <br>
Actually its Nanjing...<br>
In a "flash" all hell has broken loose...'she was gone and I was
black
and blue...'<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/1OZJg-XfbI0/">http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/1OZJg-XfbI0/</a><br>
<br>
Google is partially blocked or harassed in some markets in favour
of
the local competitors baidu.com, sina.com, sohu.com, etc while<br>
yahoo.com is not generally messed with. I met Google's COO at a
get-together here recently and we discussed animal production in
China<br>
and etc. He said that Google's business in china is the sales of
geographically specific advertisements that appear on websites all
over
china.<br>
The fact that there search engine is often messed with does not
interfere with Google's core business in china, which is web
advertising.<br>
<br>
ChinaSMACK (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.chinasmack.com">http://www.chinasmack.com</a>)
covers one portion of the often silly side of urban Chinese pop
culture
and might be interesting to some.<br>
<blockquote>chinaSMACK is a daily-updated collection of translated
internet content from the Chinese-language internet. These
latest
stories, pictures, videos, and topics have become very popular,
spreading across China’s major BBS forums, social networking
websites,
or through email forwards sent between normal Chinese people
everyday.<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
Chinasmack is not blocked at all in Beijing. I don't care. I
seldom
have much interest in pop kitsch. The Chinese know much more<br>
about western and US pop kitsch than I do.<br>
<br>
chinasmack notes one way to circumvent the curtain (there are
other
ways)--<br>
<blockquote>Certain parts of the website includes information from
websites that may be blocked in China (or other countries) such
as
YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. As a result, any page of our
website
that includes information from these blocked websites may cause
the
page to load more slowly than normal. When we embed YouTube
videos and
YouTube is blocked in your country, you will only see a blank
square.
We have designed the website to minimize this unfortunate effect
upon
your browsing experience and thank you for your understanding
that
these are beyond our control. One way to avoid this problem is
to use a
proxy or VPN. For example, chinaSMACK has tested VPN services by
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.chinasmack.com/go/freedur" target="_blank">Freedur</a>
and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.chinasmack.com/go/fbvpn" target="_blank">FBVPN</a>.<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
chinasmack has this to say about what some "liberals" would call
"vile
hate speech": --<br>
<blockquote>We believe racism and bigotry is a major part of the
internet, including the Chinese-language internet. We try to
offer an
honest look into the big Chinese-language internet, so we will
sometimes translate racist Chinese and racist Chinese comments.
As a
result, we believe it would be unfair to hide the racism and
bigotry of
non-Chinese people.
<p>This does not mean we will not moderate racism and bigotry
completely. It only means that we will not pretend it does not
exist.
It is not our goal or policy to hide the truths about people
and
society. Please fight racism and bigotry by condemning it
wherever you
see it.<br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>chinasmack also has a glossary of popular internet slang.<br>
</p>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.chinasmack.com/glossary#%E6%93%8D%E4%BD%A0%E5%A6%88">http://www.chinasmack.com/glossary#%E6%93%8D%E4%BD%A0%E5%A6%88</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.chinasmack.com/glossary#SB">http://www.chinasmack.com/glossary#SB</a><br>
<blockquote><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
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