Why, you take the test, of course!

Absoutely hilarious, and it reminds me that many things in China haven’t changed that much since I left in 2003.

Anyone whoever steps into an Internet cafe in China knows within seconds that few if any of the patrons are sitting there spewing bile over the Great Firewall and anxiously seeking the latest solutions to circumvent it. In general, the hysteria over the censored Internet resides outside of China, though we all know friends in China who have expressed their frustration over the blocked site you want them to visit. Yes, they express it, but their tone is more one of resignation and “well, what can you do?” as opposed to indignation followed by a call to arms. It’s just accepted as fact of life that’s hardly worth dwelling on.

So after that “duh” introduction, I want to encourage you to read this post and its comments on how/why the Chinese are so apathetic toward media/Internet censorship. It’s funny and frustrating at the same time, and it keeps raising the same question, with which the article ends: “One wonders why the government bothers to censor the Internet at all.” It’s another must-read.

Many thanks to ESWN for providing the link (in today’s list of Recommended Readings) to this site. Head over there and watch the movie, or click on some of the links. I would say it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to a snuff site disguised as a history site. The anti-Japanese rhetoric of the film sounds exactly like CCP propaganda (and yes, I know and have discussed many times how wicked and disgusting the Japanese were toward the Chinese in WWII).

The site is mainly an ad for the Rape of Nanking movie, which also comes with a second movie as a bonus. From the link they provide to tell you about the second movie:

Viewers should beware: Hitler’s Diaries is also incredibly violent and horribly graphic. Unlike other films which attempt to sanitize Nazi atrocities and the horrors of war, Hitler’s Diaries is reality to the extreme: Soldiers are killed in battle. Civilians are bombed and machine gunned as they run through burning cities and down dusty roads. Men, women, and children are stripped naked and shot. Women and men are dragged to the scaffolds and hung by the neck. Jews are rounded up, herded into ditches and executed by Nazi firing squads. Murder and death is everywhere, for that is the reality of the horrors of war and the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. And, its all real!

Yes, it’s real, and you can see it all! Gouged-out eyeballs and naked children, shot before your very eyes! That’s what this entire site is about: lurid, depraved, voyeuristic obsession with seeing people tortured, mutilated and killed. Take a look at the graphics and photos and watch the movie, and then decide for yourself.

I love ESWN (though not unconditionally). I read him first thing every day. So I am totally bewildered why he would refer his readers to such blatant pornography.

UPDATE: Roland explains how he came to link to this site here. All is forgiven.

CNN is giving huge play to the story of the release of Psiphon, the tool that seems to work better than any other at getting under the Cyber Nanny’s skirt – provided the user has a contact in “the free world” to set up the account for them.

Canadian university researchers have developed software that will let users hop over governments’ Internet firewalls, raising the prospect of unfettered Internet access in countries that have long tried to control how residents use the Web.

The Psiphon program, developed by computer experts at the University of Toronto, allows an Internet user in a country with no online curbs to set up an account for someone in a country that censors Web content, and that person can then surf the Web without restrictions.

“The communities that we’re helping to connect to each other have a legitimate right to exercise their human rights within this governance regime,” said Ron Deibert, director of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which studies the interaction between human rights, technology and security issues.

He admitted Psiphon, which is set to launch Friday as a free download, could become a thorn in the side of governments that already monitor, limit and control what people read, watch, listen to and post on the Internet, with varying degrees of sophistication.

“It does conflict with some sovereign states’ values, but there are competing legal norms at work.”

…Deibert said Psiphon works by first allowing a person in a country like Canada that does not censor Internet content to set up a user name and a password for a person in a country that does — China, for example.

The Canadian user would then pass on the information to the Chinese user, who would log on to the Canadian’s computer and effectively use it as a server to browse the Internet without being censored by the Chinese government.

The Web traffic between the two users is encrypted and secure, so China would have difficulty tracing the usage, he said.

China has worked with admirable diligence to counter technology that puts cracks in the Firewall, but this one sounds relatively foolproof. The big challenge, in my eyes, is finding the willing “partner.” If anyone in China wants help from me in setting up an account, you know my email address.

Update: And now CNN is interviewing IT/political experts who say there are risks attached to using Psiphon. The government could easily use its famous brigade of 30,000-or-so Internet mischief makers as plants, offering to set up overseas accounts for gullible Chinese Netizens. They lure them in and then turn them over to the security police. The analyst said this is not far-fetched at all, as use of Psiphon will certainly be illegal in China and those who use it are breaking the law. So the only way to use it safely is to find a trusted “accomplice” in countries with a free Internet. Maybe we bloggers who don’t live in China can offer up our services.

Out of curiosity, is this story appearing on CNN in China, or is it being blacked out? I’d put my money on the latter.

China may make bloggers give ID

China is considering forcing internet users to provide their real names and ID card numbers when opening a blog. Advocates of the idea argue that blog anonymity has encouraged widespread libel and slander. Opponents say blogging is flourishing for the very reason that people are free to express themselves.

There have been some very interesting cases of “mob justice” in China resulting from blogging. However I think the real motivation of the authorities (if they did do this) could be easily discerned.

Under the proposed scheme, bloggers will still be free to write under pseudonyms. Their identity would remain protected as long as they did “nothing illegal or harmful to the public”, officials said.

Translation – they’d be free to continue blogging, unless they criticised the authorities and/or caused trouble for them.

Chinese officials are so transparent……….

Steve Clemons of The Washington Note and the New America Foundation tells us to look closely at this Op-Ed in the Washington Post. Nawaf Obaid, personal advisor to Saudi Ambassador to the US Turki Al-Faisal and all around wonk gives his “personal opinion”. Steve says this is the public version of what the Saudis told Cheney privately this week:

There is reason to believe that the Bush administration, despite domestic pressure, will heed Saudi Arabia’s advice [to stay in Iraq]. Vice President Cheney’s visit to Riyadh last week to discuss the situation (there were no other stops on his marathon journey) underlines the preeminence of Saudi Arabia in the region and its importance to U.S. strategy in Iraq. But if a phased troop withdrawal does begin, the violence will escalate dramatically.

In this case, remaining on the sidelines would be unacceptable to Saudi Arabia. To turn a blind eye to the massacre of Iraqi Sunnis would be to abandon the principles upon which the kingdom was founded. It would undermine Saudi Arabia’s credibility in the Sunni world and would be a capitulation to Iran’s militarist actions in the region.

To be sure, Saudi engagement in Iraq carries great risks — it could spark a regional war. So be it: The consequences of inaction are far worse.

Say what you will about the Saudi regime yanking Cheney’s leash, if it really does work that way. Fact is, this does seem pretty much fait accompli. If the US pulls out, and sectarian violence continues at these levels, the Sunni minority is going to be in trouble. And if Al Qaeda gets in there and saves them, the Saudis will lose a whole lot of street cred. Plus, Saudi Arabia’s Wahabi tough guys are gonna feel they should be in there.

And if Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting a proxy war in Iraq, you might as well just leave your car in the garage. That or wrestle control of everybody elses oil, like the Russians. Or maybe Nigeria. I hear the Delta is nice this time of year. Get the rollerblades out of the closet and flip the wheels. I really wonder what oil prices will look like come 2008.

I have found Howard W. French consistently disappointing when it comes to reporting China for the New York Times. In Wikipedia terms, he’s not very NPOV. He paints the Mao Zedong Wiki article as a reflection of government censorship, when really there’s alot more going on here he chooses to ignore. He says that on the Chinese version of Wikipedia, “Mao Zedong’s reputation is unsullied by any mention of a death toll in the great purges of the 1950s and 1960s, or for what many historians call the greatest famine in human history.” He goes on to describe how a debate on the Talk page includes Manchurian Tiger saying: “”If anyone can prove that Mao’s political movements didn’t kill so many people, I’m willing to delete the wording that ‘millions of people were killed.'” Rather than contribute to encyclopedias, those who wish to pay tribute to Mao, he added, should “go to his mausoleum.””

I’m sorry, is that or is that not a mention of a death toll?

(more…)

Just go there. I’ll never forget gagging after my first sip of what tasted like diesel fuel.

Update: And damn, those comments are funny.

A guy named Daniel Wang, apparently. Evil, sulkiness, whatever is going on in those inscrutable Chinese minds, Dan has your answers. In what is either some sort of fascinating example of Orientalist targeted marketing or an ironic twist, I found out about Dan’s book The Confucian Mind, through an ad on Foreign Policy’s article What Makes a Muslim Radical? – I’ll get back to them at the end of this.

Anyway, I have found no reviews, press releases, summaries, home pages, bios, academic articles or other material about either this book or its author anywhere except the Xlibris bookstore that sells it, an Amazon page with 2 reviews, and a comment left at Sinosplice (an interesting discussion there, btw). But based on the blurb for the book and quotes from the excerpt offered, I’d say this is book is best used as a doorstop. To wit, from the blurb:

Asian values grown out of that social structure (subservience) diametrically contradict core Western values of freedom and justice, resulting in grossly distorted interpretations of these imported concepts, as the Asian mind struggles to find common ground between East and West… The author takes a bold and honest approach, ignoring cultural taboos, to reveal the inner workings of the Asian mind. The entire history of China and Japan – two different forms of Confucian civilization – is methodically examined and explained in this volume, which goes much farther and deeper than Ruth Benedict in analyzing the Japanese character, and for the first time presents a realistic portrait of the Chinese character. Readers can also find answers to questions like why savings rates are so high in East Asia, why post-war Japan was stable but not Iraq, mentality of the Chinese regime, and in what direction China is moving.

And for no additional cost, he’ll also explain why they stuff seven identical menus in your mailbox and how, by placing two of them inside a steel cage with enough graph paper and dumplings, you can live without using MatLab ever again. Now, from the book itself, after the fold:

(more…)

Chinese translation: Protect the environment!

Commenter t_co posted this about two weeks ago in the forum, and looking at it again today I decided it’s good enough for the home page. It kind of says it all, don’t it?

Go to the original thread to see other examples of ironic signage in China.