As I had mentioned in the last post about Facebook's IP-block in China, the censorship is now becoming more and more "sensitive". This time, even as a supporter (for the Olympic Games), I got a lot of trouble accessing necessary resources to launch a widget for the Olympic countdown. Fortunately, I modified my host file and assigned a "safe" IP to facebook.com to finsih and ship my Application (Beijing Olympic Games countdown)
Yes, censorship takes a lot of trouble to bloggers, but there are many funny ways to avoid the censorship. Let me introduce some of the methods here:
1) An old way - "Spliting-Character-Way"
As we know, Chinese characters are made up of various components regarded as radicals(BuShou, aka 部首 in Chinese"). And some of the components are themselves individual characters. So it's a great way to "split" one character into two or more characters.
For instance:
"软件", aka "software" in English, can be "re-rendered" as "车欠亻牛".
There is even a funny IME software to help you input such characters on the fly:
http://go.6.cn/d379
2) Another old way - "Mars language"(aka "火星文" in Chinese)
This is not originally for getting rid of censorship, but just for fun amoung the young netizens. However, young students are alway like to go against the tradition. By making the Characters in another style, they successfully fooled the adults.
However, people now called it "Mars language", it is said that this name is originally from Taiwan.
For instance:
"游戏里用不了或新闻" can be "re-rendered" as "蝣戲裏苚吥ㄋ吙煋攵"
Also there's an IME helper to let you input such "Mars language":
http://go.6.cn/0r80
3) The latest way - "Classical-Chinese-Style"
Well, as we know that many years ago, Chinese people wrote and read in vertical directions. I'm sorry that I don't know how to accurately explain it in English, but a simple demo would make you understand it soon (the demo is presented in English):
║Ｃ│＇│ｗ│ｌ│ｅ│ｏ│ │ │ｉ║
║ｈ│ｓ│ｏ│ｌ│ │ｍ│ｂ│ｉ│ｆ║
║ｉ│ │ｒ│ｉ│ｗ│ｅ│ｌ│ｓ│ｇ║
║ｎ│ｈ│ｌ│ｎ│ｈ│ │ｏ│ │ｏ║
║ａ│ｏ│ｄ│ｇ│ｏ│Ｃ│ｇ│ａ│ｇ║
║ │ｔ│ │ │＇│ｈ│ │ │ｏ║
║ │ │ｗ│ｔ│ｓ│ｉ│ｂ│ｔ│。║
║ │ｉ│ｈ│ｈ│ │ｎ│ｙ│ｅ│ｃ║
║ │ｎ│ａ│ｅ│ｔ│ｅ│ │ａ│ｏ║
║ │ │ｔ│ │ｅ│ｓ│ｓ│ｍ│ｍ║
besides, we can use argot to avoid censorship~
Funny, but maybe the best method is to avoid publishing these charaters / comments which may probably be HEXIEed. After all, China strongly demands a harmonious Internet atmosphere before and during the Olympics.
I'm feeling very uncomfortable recently. Frankly speaking ....
When I was in senior, it made me very angry when wiki was blocked. I didn't know there was a thing called "proxy" that time ^^ hah.
Just be happy, I enjoy your essays and opnions very much ^^
We can't control the GFW, but luckly we still have many ways to avoid the censorship.
And I'm very glad that I found IfGoGo from your blog. Believe it or not, the recent comment is the first one I ever written in English, hoho.
Oh, really? Cool :)
Thanks for promoting us :)
I got it.
Oh, cool :)
I prefer the last one:)
The Internet should be a medium for the freedom of expression, not repression. When will governments accept that people have the right to seek and receive information and to express their peaceful beliefs online without fear or inference.
Sign Amnesty International’s pledge - at http://action.uncensor.com.au/pledge/
Hi, I'm an ignorant American and I've got a question. (Please see my comment on http://www.ifgogo.com/96/facebook-block-wikipedia-back/ for more about me.)
Can a citizen get in trouble with the law for using any of these techniques? The 'Mars language' technique makes me think of some of the ways English speakers abbreviate when they type text messages on their cellphones and in instant messages. This is a very interesting article, since I'm mostly in the dark about the individual Chinese citizen's personal use of the internet. The only thing I can get is major news stories, you know. Thanks.