The Goddess of Democracy

Tomorrow is the big day.  It is the most sensitive anniversary of this year (so far): June 4th, the 20th anniversary of the Tian’anmen Square Massacre that brought the months long student protest for greater freedom and democracy to a bloody close.

This is actually a much smaller deal in China then you would think.  The reason is largely due to the fact that the younger generations, the high school and college students, have never heard about this dark day in Chinese history.  And if you do know anything about it your gut reaction is probably to be quiet, what with the Harmonious Society kick the government is on these days.  Back in 2004 when I was a outspoken and overzealous high school student in Beijing I brought up the protest with my host brother.  He had never heard of it.  Yet it turned out that he had been there as a toddler.  His parents, like many Beijing residents, went to the Square to give food to the protesting students, many of whom were holding a hunger strike.  My young host brother handed out popsicles.  Still though he had never learned of the protest until an American student had come to live with him 15 years later.

Of course the most lively discussion about the big anniversary is happening online.  Former dissidents have been promoting a campaign to have people wear white clothes on June 4th, white is the color of mourning in the Chinese culture.  There is already talk online that TV presenters are banned from wearing white (or black, or red) for the whole month of June.

A lot the discussion of the anniversary and what people are doing has been happening on Twitter.  So it was probably inevitable that Twitter was blocked yesterday, along with the Flickr photo sharing site and Hotmail (Hotmail is now back).  Many outspoken Chinese bloggers have been using Twitter as a nice uncensored alternative to the options available in China.  It is the first time Twitter was blocked. The New York Times has an article up about the recent wave of censorship in China.

First thing, this sucks.  I use these sites everyday.  All the photos on my blog are uploaded to Flickr, so now the blog looks rather naked from China.  I was getting really into Twitter too, though I must say a break from Twitter isn’t all that bad for my time management.  This recent wave of web site blockings (all in the name of creating a happy harmonious society) comes at the heels of many earlier attempts at censorship in the lead up to the anniversary.  Youtube was blocked over a month ago and as usual searching for websites related to the anniversary shuts down your access to Google and other sites.  In other forms of censorship pages from the International Herald Tribune were taken out of every issue entering the country and the BBC World News channel, which is available to many people in large cities like Beijing and Shanghai, found that it’s signal cut out whenever it brought up the Tian’anmen Square protest.  Geesh!  So much work you guys!  I wonder how many Party members it takes to unscrew the light bulb?

However the government, like a sloppy child hiding a mess from his mother, doesn’t actually manage to hold back the flow of information too well.  For instance this video is still available here in China.  These attempts at blatant censorship have also given the world media a lot to write and talk about and are incredibly noticeable and infuriating over here and not just to us American expats.  It seems to me that this campaign achieves nothing but to diminish the people’s trust in the Party and government.   Tomorrow I will have my own little protest by wearing white, but if anyone at my school asks me why I must lie.  (I have been banned from wearing white by an American.  It’s actually fine by me, giving voice to your political thoughts in China is just plain scary and often stupid (especially for a foreigner).  Ironically enough though it seems that half of the teachers at my school are wearing white.)  No wonder my students always say they love America because of its freedom.  They may not know anything about the Tian’anmen Square Protest and the bloody massacre that ended it but they’re not stupid.