Wednesday, October 07, 2009
People's Republic of the Grass Mud Horse?
A video of the "Grass Mud Horse Song" became a big hit in China in January of 2009. Some analysts have interpreted this song as a protest against censorship. According to Michael Wines,
"The grass-mud horse is an example of something that, in China’s authoritarian system, passes as subversive behavior. Conceived as an impish protest against censorship, the foul-named little horse has not merely made government censors look ridiculous, although it has surely done that.
It has also raised real questions about China’s ability to stanch the flow of information over the Internet — a project on which the Chinese government already has expended untold riches, and written countless software algorithms to weed deviant thought from the world’s largest cyber-community."You can read the rest of Michael Wines article here:
Michael Wines, “A Dirty Pun Tweaks China’s Online Censors,” New York Times, March 12, 2009.
Watch “The Song of ‘Grass Mud Horse (草泥马)’" Video (Warning Explicit Captions.)
More articles about the Grass Mud Horse:
Xiao Qiang, "Music Video: The Song of the Grass Mud Horse 《草泥马之歌》" China Digital Times, February 8, 2009.
Oiwan Lam, “China: More on Grass Mud Horse,” Global Voices Online, March 2, 2009.
Oiwan Lam, “China: Goodbye Grass Mud Horse,” Global Voices Online, March 18, 2009.
CNN Report explaining 'Grass Mud Horse' phenomenon, featuring Rebecca MacKinnon
Grass Mud Horse Cartoon Video on YouTube:
Labels: Censorship, China, Grass Mud Horse, Internet, Net Control
