What Lies Behind The Great Firewall: A Vast Great Shopping Mall Internet Complete With Mall Cops Moderators

Posted on by An Xiao Mina

An Xiao Mina and Xiaowei Wang write in the Knight First Amendment Institute blog:

In the West, we’ve become accustomed to reports of censorship in China as the result of a menacing authoritarian regime that threatens the core tenets of free expression. While a convenient construction, this centers authoritarianism as the guiding force for China’s social media platforms, missing…

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Ethnography of Tech

Debunking myths about China state control & surveillance in the age of COVID-19

Posted on by Tricia Wang

Editor’s note: Starting in January, Tricia re-connected with her former colleagues and contacts in Wuhan (where she did extensive fieldwork in the past) to find out more about the COVID-19 pandemic and the truth behind some popular myths that have been floating around on the Western mainstream media. Here, we document her debunking two such myths (with the help of Shayla Qiu and Reginald…

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Finding Solace & Entertainment Under Quarantine: China’s Netizens Pave the Way

Posted on by Jason Li

There’s been a raft of great coverage recently about how people in China are adapting to life under quarantine, especially the ways that they’re leveraging technology to entertain themselves at this stressful situation. Below is a recap of some of what we’ve seen (with a hearty shout-out to those who first reported on it).

Livestreamed “bedroom” concerts

A Bilibili livestream concert poster by Merrie Records featuring a set list behind a small TV surrounded by snacks (and a cat)
Merrie…

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As The Coronavirus Rages On, Cartoonists Lash Out With Irony, Quiet And Candor

Posted on by Jason Li
A muscular half person, half snake has wrapped a bunch of doctors and journalists in its arms and is gesturing for them to be silent.
Created by 撒旦君 Sadan via Weibo.

Despite dramatic measures taken to stem the tide, the coronavirus is still spreading across China and the rest of the world. Confined to their homes, independent cartoonists in China continue expressing their views around the epidemic through their works. Some creators have reached a state of detached irony, while others are…

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Chinese Cartoonists Grieve, Pray & Respond to the Coronavirus Outbreak

Posted on by Jason Li
An anxious seal and octopus in a crowded room with their suitcase. Everyone has surgical masks on.
Illustration by Wang XX from Weibo.

As Wuhan and other nearby cities in China remain in lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, the normally festive Lunar New Year season is now beset with anxiety and grief. People across the country have taken to social media to share messages of concern, to share tips on…

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Photo essay: China Residencies’ 2019 cross-country tour of arts spaces

Posted on by Jason Li
Montage of our photos of people and art in China

Ahead of its sixth Crystal Ruth Bell Residency program (apply now – it’s fully funded!), the team at China Residencies took a cross-country tour around China to visit art and culture spaces new and old. Below we’re featuring photo highlights from this strip, which have been culled (with permission) from their lovely Instagram account.…

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Chinese Comics Review

Cantonese.jpg: A boisterous, cartoon dictionary of idioms, proverbs and slang

Posted on by Jason Li
Two covers for the Cantonese.jpg books, featuring a cartoon chicken reading/eating Cantonese text

Hong Kong cartoonist Ah To has three claims to fame: as an internet culture expert, political cartoonist, and linguist of the Cantonese language. First, he rose to prominence after creating the Golden Creature Card game that celebrates the city’s internet culture. Then he built a career as a political cartoonist, with provocative comics that frequently go…

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China Meme Report

Acceptable Protest: The 2019 workplace meme that’s thriving on China’s internet

Posted on by Jason Li
Photo of a booklet of China's labor laws taped onto the glassdoor of Ant Financial
Anonymous selfie of person giving Ant Financial/Alibaba a booklet of China’s labor laws. Source: 996action GitHub repo.

Internet memes about social issues have a spotty history on China’s internet, where netizens have had to evade, obfuscate and mask their posts in an evolving game of censorship cat and mouse. This was the case with the infamous…

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Chinese Comics Review

An illustrated love letter to the Beijing underground music scene

Posted on by Jason Li
Cover image of Open All The Buddha Boxes (excerpt)

This early excerpt from Open All the Buddha Boxes chronicles the rise of two seminal Beijing bands, Hang On The Box and Chui Wan, as they carve out a space for themselves in and outside of China. We follow members of the two bands as they develop their sounds, identities and aesthetics, and we see how they affect and are…

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