[Peace-discuss] Pilger on Assange/wikileaks

[C. G. Estabrook]

Fascinating.  Thanks for this.

ChinaSMACK as revenge for the Opium Wars?

On 1/15/11 2:46 AM, E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
>> 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."
>
> Back in the early 90's the term "bamboo curtain" used to be used to describe 
> China's rather isolationist policy, as
> opposed to the Iron Curtain of Eastern Europe.  An iron curtain is nigh 
> impenetrable.  A bamboo curtain
> can snap closed suddenly, according to the analogy.
>
> Now I would describe it as more of a "Beaded Curtain".  The curtain is there 
> sometimes but it doesnt
> provide much of a barrier.  My Chinese friends are at least as familiar with 
> Wikileaks as I am.
>
> Most of the Chinese that I know are quite familiar with the means of 
> negotiating around the curtain, anyway.
>
> YouTube is seriously hindered in favour of the homegrown Chinese competitors 
> like YouKu.com and Tudou.com, etc,
> both of which often offer material that YouTube would not permit.  Lots of 
> YouTube videos are replicated
> on YouKu, Tudou, and Renren, etc.
>
> Woman going crazy down on Caroline Street.
> Actually its Nanjing...
> In a "flash" all hell has broken loose...'she was gone and I was black and 
> blue...'
> http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/1OZJg-XfbI0/
>
> Google is  partially blocked or harassed in some markets in favour of the 
> local competitors baidu.com, sina.com, sohu.com, etc while
> 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
> and etc.  He said that Google's business in china is the sales of 
> geographically specific advertisements that appear on websites all over china.
> The fact that there search engine is often messed with does not interfere with 
> Google's core business in china, which is web advertising.
>
> ChinaSMACK (http://www.chinasmack.com) covers one portion of the often silly 
> side of urban Chinese pop culture and might be interesting to some.
>
>     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.
>
> 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
> about western and US pop kitsch than I do.
>
> chinasmack notes one way to circumvent the curtain (there are other ways)--
>
>     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 Freedur <http://www.chinasmack.com/go/freedur> and
>     FBVPN <http://www.chinasmack.com/go/fbvpn>.
>
> chinasmack has this to say about what some "liberals" would call "vile hate 
> speech": --
>
>     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.
>
>     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.
>
> chinasmack also has a glossary of popular internet slang.
>
> http://www.chinasmack.com/glossary#%E6%93%8D%E4%BD%A0%E5%A6%88
> http://www.chinasmack.com/glossary#SB
>
>
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