A priceless essay on this infuriating topic, from which I will offer but a small sample:
Apparently 17.5 million people have started blogs in China. Because you often find insults, curses, libel and even fraud on blogs, the relevant departments have will require bloggers to register with their real names. This way the problem can be stopped.
This is a kind of logic that would destroy Hegel.
I wonder how much water has entered the brain of the individual who came up with this? The idea that forcing people to use real names will put an end to unsavoury online discussion is like a Grimm’s fairy tale.
Insults and swearing did not start because of the Internet or blogs; libel started when people first started writing. Fraud and confidence tricks are ancient crimes, you can’t just blame them on the Internet. Is it possible that the real name system will solve al these problems? It’s like that old joke: if the eighth steamed bun is the one that makes you full, why bother eating the first seven?
It then gets better, more funny and more serious. Definitely check it out now. Those last two paragraphs are so funny, yet so serious. Priceless, the whole thing.
I am over my head in class and work and am aware of the dearth of new posts. We’re working on it, but can’t make any promises for the next 24 hours. Meanwhile, if you can read Chinese, check out this post on how China is going overboard in rounding up unlicensed dogs in Beijing (via this site).
1
By Bob Willes Chitty
Still – better than forced tattooing of numbers on foreheads – with only 100 Chinese surnames (so I’ve been told) there’s gotta be a few repeats in there…so what’s the point?
October 26, 2006 @ 12:23 am | Comment
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By Fat Cat
I found some interesting comments on that site about Beijing going overboard in rounding up dogs prior to the Olympics. The followings are just my translation of a few humorous ones:
“Why don’t we simply turn China into a country with no dogs? At least we can break another Guinness World Record.”
“I think that the dogs have a stronger case here. How shameless can it get to have blamed the dogs for men’s incompetence!”
“I always wonder why all nice things in the world will turn so ugly once they come on board Chinese soil. Ah! Is this what we called a typical case with “Chinese characteristics”?”
“One wonders whether it is not because a high government official’s family member has been bitten by a dog. Oh poor things. It is revenge time, isn’t it? Now the entire species will have to be exterminated. It was Cantonese masked civet back then. It is Beijing dogs now. Why is it that animals are always made scapegoats of human failure?”
October 26, 2006 @ 4:32 pm | Comment
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By Ivan
As I’ve said before: Since the Communist Party have spread far more death and disease in China than dogs, it would seem logical for the Communist Party to exterminate themselves before the Olympics.
October 26, 2006 @ 6:24 pm | Comment
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By Chip
Wait a sec, I haven’t seen any other news about this, is Beijing outlawing dogs???
October 27, 2006 @ 2:59 am | Comment