River crab society

Just read about the 11-year sentence of Liu Xiaobo, a human rights activist in China who last year wrote Charter 08, a manifesto calling for greater freedom of expression and democratic reforms.

Out of curiosity, I baidu-ed his name and pulled up some Chinese forums. It seems like Chinese netizens are upset, but in a more resigned way... Most comments said the government is corrupt or poked fun at the idea of "he xie", which means peace and harmony but is also a homophone for river crabs. Some people didn't know who Liu Xiaobo was. But what was most interesting was that some people thought he was a traitor and anti-Chinese. I guess these people make up the 愤青, or angry nationalist youth of China.

I then looked up Charter 08 (but this time in English) and found out that over 8,600 signatures have been gathered in support. While any petition would be happy to get that many participants in the US, 8,600 out of 1.3 billion? Of course, no reasonable Chinese person would be willing to put his/her name down in writing in support of "subverting the Party".

This reminded me of a conversation I had with my media teacher a few days ago. He talked about how Nanjing University's school forum used to be a renowned platform for debating intellectual and political ideas. The reason this was possible was because anonymity was allowed on the forum and many graduates and people from overseas participated. However in 2005, the entire forum was shut down and a new one set up, this one only allowing students. Any posts would be made under your name. That effectively shut down any more political debate. Now the forum is a place to get advice on dating, download movies, and help cheating on exams. The same things happened to Tsinghua and Peking University BBS's.

Sometimes I forget that I live in a repressed society.


"现在这年代，应该是允许有不同的声音和意见，河蟹社会吧！"