Great firewall of China
Posted Tuesday, August 12, 2008, 6:21 PM by Lonely Planet
When I'm sending messages home from an internet cafe in an unfamiliar part of the world, I like to check out what the locals are doing there. In China, I saw a lot of people playing complicated multi-user games; they all seemed to be shooting each other. Posters on the walls showed fantasy characters with huge swords and angular haircuts.
But among the gamers, there were a few lonely bloggers. And now it turns out they weren't so lonely after all.
There are, in fact, more than 47 million of them. In spite of the Great Firewall of China, the famous censorship system that prevents people from reading and dispersing information, the Chinese have become the word's most prolific bloggers.
With the world watching Beijing this month, Chinese bloggers are using all kinds of methods to bypass the firewall and get heard - including hosting their sites on foreign servers.
One of the most high-profile Chinese bloggers is Isaac Mao: in a fascinating interview he talks about the whole phenomena, and why he's proud to have 'blogger' on his business card.
- Kate James
Labels: Beijing, China, travel blog
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4 Comments:
Yes, the Chinese have filled every blog on the internet with The Great Chinese Internet Troll Army, The Great Chinese Internet Poser Navy and The Great Chinese Internet Flamer Air Force. But, The Planet Earth isn't allowed to return the firepower to keep our jobs for ourselves and our children. China is a one way street, for the products we all manufacture that we are not allowed to sell there, and for the junk lives and abuse we all get back in return.
How's that for The Great Chinese Capitalist Progress? That's just like the way China has always done it, and now they're getting away with the murder of us all!!
sounds like the blog may be the straw that breaks the communists back. part of me wants to believe its to keep the rich ancient culture of china. the other part of me is much more rational and is very opposed to the ideas that the communist government controls there people with such an authority that they cant even host a blog. and with all these Olympic scandals its horrific.
anyway great post and to Freedom great first comment. i currently operate a travel blog check it out if you want. tourist-post. thanks hope you enjoy my comment (i thumbed you up)
I thinks its great that Chinese people are finding their voice. The Internet could be the tool that brings the world to China, as the more people who use it the more ways will be found to get round their firewall!
The internet will keep China from trying to hide out from the rest of the world. It is slowly getting more free.
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