Blocked on Weibo

抵制日货 (Boycott Japanese goods / dǐzhì Rìhuò) and 抵制家乐福 (Boycott Carrefour / dǐzhì Jiālèfú) were two separate grassroots movements in recent years aimed at demonstrating Chinese anger at Japan and the French retailer Carrefour, respectively. Though each took place in different years (For Japan: 2005, 2010, and 2012, among others; Carrefour: 2008) and for different reasons (Japan: continuing resentment over atrocities and occupation of parts of China during Sino-Japanese War, the cleansing of textbooks in 2005, former Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi’s annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, disputes over islands in the South China Sea, among others; Carrefour: in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Olympic torch relay was interrupted several times across the world by human rights protesters, most egregiously in France when the Chinese Paralympic fencer Jin Jing was tackled in her wheelchair while carrying the torch, and Carrefour, whose supermarkets are common in Chinese cities and reportedly also donated to Free Tibet causes, served as a convenient scapegoat), both were inspired by patriotic verging on ultra-nationalist sentiment that played up China’s role as a country that had been victimized in the past but would no longer be bulled.

Why it is blocked: For each event, anger was expressed virtually as well as with demonstrations and a call to boycott goods. In each case, the central government appeared to support initial protests or made no strong efforts to tamp it down, but as demonstrations grew violent and out of control in each instance, the authorities reacted by reining in the outrage (most recently: ”Weibo calls for Japanese boycott to remain rational”; “China moves to quell anti-Japanese demonstrations”). The existence of a block of “Boycott Japanese goods” on Weibo seems to be a legacy of these previous demonstrations and is not new.

维勒 (Friedrich Wöhler or Villar-Perosa machine gun / wéilēi) are two characters often found in phonetic transliterations of Western words and names. For instance, it makes up the last name of the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler (弗里德里希·维勒) as well as part of Colombian golfer Camilo Villegas’ last name (维勒加斯).

Why it is blocked: However, it’s unlikely that the characters are blocked because of either person’s contributions to science or sport (though Villegas was involved in a rather racy—by Chinese standards at least—photo shoot for ESPN Magazine’s ”Body Issue”). More plausibly, it may be because 维勒 represents 维勒·帕洛沙—the Villar-Perosa submachine gun. However, though this would be in keeping with China’s censorship of weapons on Weibo, the Villar-Perosa is almost always referred to by its full name even in Chinese, making it strange to block just 维勒 if the intention was to control references to the weapon (which are few: just two at last count, with one blocked—see the message at the bottom). The gun was never widely used in China or outside of WWI—though innovative, apparently it was a terribly ineffective gun. So the reason for why 维勒 is blocked is obscure.

For fun: The original service manual for how to maintain a Villar-Perosa submachine gun as well as an English promotional brochure for the weapon.

黄雀行动 (Operation Yellowbird / huángquè xíngdòng) was a Hong Kong-based effort initiated after the June 4 crackdown to assist Chinese political dissidents in leaving the mainland. From 1989 to 1997, a group of activists, diplomats, businessmen, and celebrities worked with crime bosses and smugglers to guide over 400 dissidents out of China. The program has been called a Chinese “underground railroad.”

Why it is blocked: Not only does the operation deal with politically sensitive people—Wu’er Kaixi, Chai Ling, and other June 4 student leaders left the country with Yellowbird’s assistance—but it also touches on sovereignty issues as well as the obvious rifts in the Hong Kong-China relationship. Foreign nations and diplomats actively bent laws to allow dissidents to sneak into Hong Kong and then find safe passage out to countries like the U.S. or France. Though China fiercely objected to such interference, The Standard also conjectured that China might have had cause for letting dissidents slip through its fingers: “Apart from the connivance of sympathetic Chinese officials, Yellow Bird’s high rate of success appears to owe something to inertia in the government, which can find it more convenient to let dissidents leave the country than have them remain to cause trouble.” Whether it was a convenient solution or not, Operation Yellowbird highlighted just how differently Hong Kong and China viewed 6-4 and democracy, issues China will have to contend with in the coming years as it continues to try and integrate HK.

膏药旗 (gāoyàoqí) is a colloquial name for the Japanese flag, often used in a derogatory fashion. 

Why it is blocked: Gāoyào is a Chinese medicinal patch, like a large band-aid that comes pre-packaged with an ointment used to treat aches and pains. Because the backside of many patches resembles the famous sun disc image of the Japanese flag, it is used pejoratively to refer to the Japanese flag, akin to calling the German flag Schwarz-Rot-Mostrich (“black-red-mustard”). Though on friendly terms today, Japan and China share a fraught past, with the Japanese invasions during the First Sino-Japanese War and WWII still not forgiven by most Chinese, leading to flashpoints like former Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi’s annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine and controversy in 2005 over Japan’s adoption of textbooks that reportedly glossed over the country’s WWII atrocities. Most recently, in September 2010, a Chinese fishing trawler collided with a Japanese Coast Guard boat in disputed waters. An international incident was touched off when Japan initially detained the crew but later released after facing intense Chinese diplomatic pressure and nationalism-fueled mass protest. In an indication of how complex China-Japan relations are, the Chinese government has even had to tamp down its own protesters in 2005 and 2010 in order to control anti-Japanese fervor—this after being accused of encouraging that very behavior earlier. However, to block gaoyaoyi, a seemingly minor slight relative to the other obscenities hurled toward Japan online, is curious considering no other similar anti-Japan words are blocked (one of the most common anti-Japanese insults, 日本鬼子, roughly translated as Japanese devils, has over 700,000 search results on Weibo).

维基揭密 / 維基揭密 (WikiLeaks / Wéijījiēmì) is an online organization that publishes submissions of secret and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. 维基 is a transliteration of “Wiki” while the last two characters can be written in various ways (see note below for discussion of variations on word), all of which roughly mean “uncovering/explaining secrets.”

Why it blocked: China, like the U.S. is deathly afraid of government leaks and is no doubt concerned about what WL has in its treasure trove of secret documents. Already, Wikileaks has revealed Chinese willingness to abandon North Korea, as well as other embarrassing (if true) rumors like Wen Jiabao’s “disgust” with his wife’s corruption. In the U.S., merely even reading WikiLeaks cables may have repercussions on your job prospects, and just last week a U.S. Foreign Service Officer was dismissed for linking to WikiLeaks on his blog, among other allegations. Nothing similar exists in China at the moment. [Status - 3/12/12, 3/23/12: blocked]

Note: Both the above simplified and traditional versions have roughly the same number of Google hits.  Swaps for the third and fourth characters are common. “Jie” can be written as 解, meaning “explain,” or 揭, meaning “uncover.” “Mi” can be written as 秘, meaning “secret,” or 密, meaning “dense” (put together, 秘密, they form the word “secret”). Some of these alternative variations—for instance 维基解密, apparently the most popular way to translate the term, with roughly 9 million Google hits vs. less than a million for the two above blocked versions—are unblocked. 

UPDATE: The key trigger in Deauville is “多維,” short for Duowei Times, a New York-based Chinese language newspaper which is known for its mostly even-handed news coverage. It may still be possible that Deauville is being singled out for censorship, but it is perhaps more likely that Duowei Times is the actual target and Deauville is a mostly innocent keyword.

多维尔 (Deauville / duōwéi’ěr) is a famed seaside resort city in northwestern France. Each year it holds the prestigious Deauville American Film Fesitval along with the lesser well-known but similarly respected Deauville Asian Film Festival (法国多维尔亚洲电影节), which concluded its 14th edition yesterday. The Iranian film Querelles (aka Mourning) won the top prize, the Golden Lotus.

Why it is blocked: Over the years, alongside the typical Wuxia and art films at any Asian film festival, Deauville has screened a number of incredibly raw Chinese films that engage sensitive contemporary topics. The 2010 Grand Prize winner, Judge, is about a death row inmate and the judge who controls his fate. The 2003 winner, Blind Shaft, is a brutal depiction of life as a coal miner in northern China and was banned in the PRC. [Status - 11/19/11, 2/5/12, 3/12/12: blocked]

Two quotes:

Judge touches on a lot of topics considered sensitive in China. Did you have a lot of difficulty getting approval to make the film? Yes, there were some difficulties but we overcame them in the end. The most difficult thing was the fact that government departments were not sure about this, and they didn’t want this talked about.There were two reasons I think this film was approved. Firstly, the authenticity of the film […] every single sentence and every detail in the film is very accurate – if there were any small mistakes they picked them up.—Liu Jie, director of Judge

Your film has been banned, but why didn’t the government crack down on the novel? It is quite unusual in China. Certain aspects of Chinese politics are strange and many things don’t follow homogenous standards. It is defined as “One Country, Two Systems” but it really is “one country with several systems”. Every department seems to have its own rules […] I don’t actually understand how it works, but I can say that the Chinese Film Bureau is one of the most conservative of the artistic institutions. They probably heavily restrict films because they think movies can become a means of propaganda, instead of entertainment and artistic expression.—Li Yang, director of Blind Shaft

幸運☆星 (Lucky Star / xìngyùn xīng) is a Japanese four-panel comic strip manga by Kagami Yoshimizu. It features the stories of four high school Japanese girls. An anime series, novel, and video game have since been produced.

Why it is blocked: No idea. Both the series and the manga are for all ages and features nothing scandalous. Lucky Star has become a huge hit in Japan. Hong Kong’s ATV airs the series, but it doesn’t appear to have crossed into mainland China. Perhaps the potential for naughty schoolgirl mashups caused this to be banned? [Status - 11/25/11: blocked; 2/5/12: blocked]

Note: Because of typographical issues, the series is sometimes referred to as 幸運星, without the star (also blocked; the Weibo blacklist ignores non-Chinese characters when checking Chinese terms). However, the proper translated title includes the star (Japanese title: らき☆すた, or transliterated as Raki☆Suta). Regardless of how one writes it, it seems clear that the series is being specifically targeted and is not some unintentional block.

九一一袭击 (the September 11 attacks / jiǔyīyī xíjī) were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States on September 11, 2001.

Why it is blocked: China has been battling its own Muslim rebels, which it labels terrorists, in its Western provinces. Chinese citizens and leaders generally expressed great sympathy and condolences to the United States, but the the combination of violence, religion, and America make this a sensitive topic, regardless of China’s avowed alignment with the U.S. on The War on Terror post-9/11.

Note: Though the term was blocked when it was checked in November 2011, it has since been unblocked—a reminder that the line between sensitive and not is always shifting.