[iDC] Re: The Internet in China

Sun Jun 11 11:40:07 EDT 2006

Thanks for the great links Trebor. Very timely as I'm currently in the supercity
of Chongqing hanging out at a massive computer cafe surrounded by chain smoking
teens gaming and chatting (QQ). A favorite is Jing Wu - not by any means Bruce
Lee's "Jing Wu Men" but a 3D dance audition game.

Ryan - just tried the PBS link you mentioned but I can't access pbs.org here. 

I also noticed that some of the image links from the Google US "Tiananmen"
pages
don't work yet "Democracy Now" comes in loud and clear.

Heading up to Beijing tomorrow.

cheers,
Stephanie

Quoting Kenneth Fields <ken at ss.pku.edu.cn>:

> >
> A short reply from Beijing:
> Today at the Beijing CC Salon - I bumped into some China Wikipedians.
> They are unconnected to any effort to legitimize their knowledge  
> building
> and instead look for temporary technical fixes (proxies, mirrors).
> They have never been approached nor can they find anyone to question
> regarding the continued blocking of their site. We have come up with
> a possible strategy to move forth on that issue.
> 
> It is my opinion that the blocking of Wikipedia (etc) is in no way an  
> intelligent design!
> The people in the information ministry have no access to a  
> sophisticated view of
> 'net culture,' and would never have the slightest hint at what  
> significance wikipedia (etc)
> holds for their society. It 'was' my textbook, and portal for my  
> students. The students
> here have to learn a 'contributer' mentality to the building of a  
> knowledge base.
> Instead, a passive, consumer role is perpetuated.
> 
> The current 'policy' (no such thing) as I understand it is that like  
> Google and Yahoo,
> Wikipedia would need to implement a China filter in order to gain  
> access to 'mainland'
> consciousness. From my perspective, I do not agree with the current  
> strategies
> of corporate appeasement. That said, if Google, like Wikipedia were  
> to suddenly disappear
> from the information-scape in China - life as we know it would cease  
> for foreign
> workers attempting to survive here.
> 
> It is not an easy matter of course, China needs to have access to an
> informed consulting group - like an academic/professional digital  
> media board -
> as other countries have access to. However, most (all) professional  
> associations are
> extremely artificial here. In most cases, their credentials are not  
> the key issue,
> but their 'affiliations' are. A media art association of China was at  
> one time set up with
> full govt backing - however the director of the initiative has since  
> bolted. Unfortunately
> he started a Beijing Siggraph chapter also... If he's out there,  
> please call home.
> 
> China!?
> 
> Interesting,
> Ken
> 
> 
> 
> >
> > Today's Topics:
> >
> >    1. Re: The Internet in China (Ryan Griffis)
> >
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 19:07:55 -0500
> > From: Ryan Griffis <ryan.griffis at gmail.com>
> > Subject: [iDC] Re: The Internet in China
> > To: idc at bbs.thing.net
> > Message-ID: <27B499A4-8A39-4661-8B6C-20A981364BBD at gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; delsp=yes; format=flowed
> >
> >> Most of you are probably familiar with the comparison of image search
> >> results for ³Tiananmen² between Google China and Google¹s homebrew.
> >>
> >> Google China:
> >> <http://images.google.cn/images?hl=zh-CN&q=tiananmen>
> >>
> >> Google US:
> >> <http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen>.
> >
> > i recently saw a Frontline documentary regarding this very erasure of
> > history that was quite interesting
> > http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/
> > it also discussed growing popular unrest - demonstrations against the
> > state and economic policies from 50,000 in number 2 years ago to
> > 87,000 for 2005.
> > best,
> > ryan
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 19:16:51 -0500
> > From: Ryan Griffis <ryan.griffis at gmail.com>
> > Subject: [iDC] Re: What you myspace will be held against you
> > To: idc at bbs.thing.net
> > Message-ID: <E2CAF6E8-DB03-4EF3-9015-392FA15BECA3 at gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
> >
> > on a more microl level... in Chicago recently i witnessed a teen
> > party being broken up by a bunch of patrol cops. A person i was with
> > asked the cops what was going on, they said they found out about the
> > party from myspace.
> > ryan
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
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> > End of iDC Digest, Vol 20, Issue 6
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