Dear Agony Aunt: China
Dear Agony Aunt, I’ve always wanted to walk the Great Firewall of China but I can’t seem to find it on google maps! Help?!
Love, I Finally Got Around to Writing My Bucket List
Dear Adventurous Spirit, Look at you go my little lamb, writing down your dreams and planning a trip to China! Yahooo! This. Is. So. Exciting.
Which is why I’m devastated to reveal that the Great Firewall of China is not what you think it is. But let’s face it, it’s best we resolve this now before you’re perched under the wings of an imposing papier mache dragon, sipping on a lychee flavoured cocktail in a merry state of international-travel-bliss. You see the thing is, China is complicated.
The Great Firewall of China is not a destination, as its cousin The Great Wall of China would suggest. Instead, it’s a combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by the People’s Republic of China to regulate and control the internet domestically.
The Firewall was established in attempt to block access to politically sensitive information, to neutralize critical online opinion and prevent its people from being corrupted by “evil” culture. While strict censorship is nothing new China, under the reign of President Xi Jinping online restraints have grown tighter. Over last few years, new legislation has marshalled the prohibition of most western social media sites, search engines, video sharing and streaming platforms. Even Winnie the Pooh was banned! To give you a sense of the extent of the bans, here’s a list of the most popular websites which, at the moment, are blocked in china: Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Snapchat, Picasa, WordPress.com, Blogspot, Blogger, Flickr, Soundcloud, Google+, Google Hangouts, Hootsuite. Search engines: Google (enough said). Video Sharing: YouTube, Vimeo. Media: The New York Times, Financial Times, The Economist, Wikipedia, Google News. Streaming Platforms: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, Hulu and many more.
‘WHAT IS THIS TYRANNY? Isn’t that almost all the websites on the internet?’ We cry. Well yes. Yes and no. There is an assumption made by the Western societies that China are missing out on the social media revolution, but in some ways, this could not be further from the truth. Instead, these social media platforms have been replaced by alternative ones, which the government can monitor. Two of the most popular being WeChat (China’s version of Facebook) and Sina Weibo (the twitter of China).
According to statics released in Jan 2018, there was 911 million people using China’s equivalents of social media at the time. Which when you think about it is HUGE! And these platforms, even with the censorship, are heavily utilized for the same reasons western social media is: to stay in touch, to network, to meet new people, to share photos and videos and to find funny and entertaining content. Which makes the whole situation seem somewhat okay until you remember that, China, by imposing these restrictions on their citizens are seriously compromising the founding vision behind the internet – an unfettered global exchange of information.
As I said, it’s a complicated one. Enjoy your trip to China!
Love, Agony Aunt IMG’s from: China Briefing, Tanya Cooper, Goats On The Road










