[Peace-discuss] Pilger on Assange/wikileaks

[E. Wayne Johnson]

chinaSMACK seems to be seeking stories with some pop interest and shock 
value
whereas the Hopium War seems to be about lullabying the huddled masses back
to sleep with muted tones of gentle rhetoric, for a change.

*

In ancient China there was a legend about a roadside tavern that served 
/jiaozi/
(a kind of Chinese ravioli).  Before they would  run out of meat they 
would add
some sedative drug like Hopium to their dishes, and when next hapless 
customer 'awakened'
from his little nap he was the picture of a changed man -- 
exsanguinated, eviscerated,
depiliated, quartered, and made to hang on hooks in high places.




On 1/16/2011 12:34 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> 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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