Friday, November 25, 2005
"I am a dance girl, and I am a party member."
A Party Girl Leads China's Online Revolution - New York Times
Howard French has written an article in the Times about blogging in China. It is an interesting survey of the types of blogs that are opening up Chinese culture and politics. The article opens with a quote from one of the most popular bloggers in China:
The contradiction between the staid image the party member and the "web cam dance girl" is an example of the friction in China over acceptable images, identities, and ideas. The blogosphere has opened up a world of overt and subtle subversion of Chinese cultural and political norms and practices. Fear of repression transforms harsh criticism into humorous jabs and jibes dancing around the lines of what is acceptable to the authorities.
French's article includes a good short summary of Chinese blogging and the attempts by the authorities to squash these bloggers:
There is no "free-spoken civil society" in China at the moment. But the repression has not shut down the discussion online, only forced it into euphemisms, humor, and witty end runs around the censors. There is a constant pushing at the limits of what is acceptable and a mixing of political criticism and the cultural content. French describes Mu Mu's blog as posting "highly ironic commentary about sexuality, intellect and political identity."
These bloggers open up the authorities to a powerful weapon of criticism: ridicule. The role of bloggers in subjecting the government to ridicule is hopeful sign that a public sphere, a "free civil society" is indeed emerging. If you can't speak truth to power, then make fun of it:
Howard French has written an article in the Times about blogging in China. It is an interesting survey of the types of blogs that are opening up Chinese culture and politics. The article opens with a quote from one of the most popular bloggers in China:
"I don't know if I can be counted as a successful Web cam dance girl," that early post continued. "But I'm sure that looking around the world, if I am not the one with the highest diploma, I am definitely the dance babe who reads the most and thinks the deepest, and I'm most likely the only party member among them.""Mu Mu" is the pseudonym of a self-described female party member from Shanghai. French describes her blog as witty and charming; she offers her readers "provocative" photos of herself and has thousands of readers.
The contradiction between the staid image the party member and the "web cam dance girl" is an example of the friction in China over acceptable images, identities, and ideas. The blogosphere has opened up a world of overt and subtle subversion of Chinese cultural and political norms and practices. Fear of repression transforms harsh criticism into humorous jabs and jibes dancing around the lines of what is acceptable to the authorities.
French's article includes a good short summary of Chinese blogging and the attempts by the authorities to squash these bloggers:
Chinese Web logs have existed since early in this decade, but the form has exploded in recent months, challenging China's ever vigilant online censors and giving flesh to the kind of free-spoken civil society whose emergence the government has long been determined to prevent or at least tightly control.
Web experts say the surge in blogging is a result of strong growth in broadband Internet use, coupled with a huge commercial push by the country's Internet providers aimed at wooing users. Common estimates of the numbers of blogs in China range from one million to two million and growing fast.
Under China's current leader, Hu Jintao, the government has waged an energetic campaign against freedom of expression, prohibiting the promotion of public intellectuals by the news media; imposing restrictions on Web sites; pressing search engine companies, like Google, to bar delicate topics, particularly those dealing with democracy and human rights; and heavily censoring bulletin board discussions at universities and elsewhere.
So far, Chinese authorities have mostly relied on Internet service providers to police the Web logs. Commentary that is too provocative or directly critical of the government is often blocked by the provider. Sometimes the sites are swamped by opposing comment - many believe by official censors - that is more favorable to the government.
Blogs are sometimes shut down altogether, temporarily or permanently. But the authorities do not yet seem to have an answer to the proliferation of public opinion in this form.
There is no "free-spoken civil society" in China at the moment. But the repression has not shut down the discussion online, only forced it into euphemisms, humor, and witty end runs around the censors. There is a constant pushing at the limits of what is acceptable and a mixing of political criticism and the cultural content. French describes Mu Mu's blog as posting "highly ironic commentary about sexuality, intellect and political identity."
These bloggers open up the authorities to a powerful weapon of criticism: ridicule. The role of bloggers in subjecting the government to ridicule is hopeful sign that a public sphere, a "free civil society" is indeed emerging. If you can't speak truth to power, then make fun of it:
"The new bloggers are talking back to authority, but in a humorous way," said Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley. "People have often said you can say anything you want in China around the dinner table, but not in public. Now the blogs have become the dinner table, and that is new.
"The content is often political, but not directly political, in the sense that you are not advocating anything, but at the same time you are undermining the ideological basis of power."
