Guest contributor Ann Condi returns to Danwei with a short report about apathy and Internet censorship. Condi’s previous contribution to Danwei is the article Changing the Subject: How the Chinese Government Controls Television<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Glimpses Inside the Chinese Media by Ann Condi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Those outside of China often imagine hordes of Internet savvy Chinese Web surfers scouring the Internet for cracks in the Great Firewall, avidly downloading precious snippets of information blocked by the government to disseminate among the circle of politically-aware Chinese cybernauts. The hope is that the Internet is having a transformative effect on China by allowing The Truth \u2013 or at least some essential truths \u2013 to seep into this tightly controlled information environment. And surely (the assumption goes) the vanguard in this process of \u201cpeaceful evolution\u201d would be young, English-speaking urban professionals.<\/p>\n This image is largely a myth.<\/p>\n An anecdote can illustrate this: A few days ago I was at a multinational company in Beijing doing some translation work. I had just discovered a site called Proxzee.com<\/a>, which is a rather useful tool (along with Anonymouse.org<\/a>) for bypassing Chinese Internet blockage. There were about 20 young Chinese people in and out of the office throughout the day, some of whom were former students of mine, and I made a point of recommending Proxzee to most of them. I was interested \u2013 and bit disheartened \u2013 by the range of responses I got. Here are some representative samples, with my own rough categorizations:<\/p>\n Ignorance:<\/strong><\/p>\n Zhao: This site is for what?<\/p>\n Me: Accessing blocked Internet sites.<\/p>\n Zhao: There are blocked Internet sites? I never noticed that.<\/p>\n Apathy<\/strong><\/p>\n Denial<\/strong><\/p>\n Zheng: What do you mean, you can visit blocked sites with it? If you can visit them, they aren\u2019t blocked!<\/p>\n Me: No, the sites are blocked. You can\u2019t access them directly in China. This site enables you to access them indirectly, through their own server.<\/p>\n Zheng: Well, the government must know about this. And since they don\u2019t block Proxzee, it means there actually aren\u2019t any blocked sites. If you can visit them, they aren\u2019t blocked. Maybe the sites you think are blocked are just down from time to time. Maybe you don\u2019t have your browser settings right. Don\u2019t jump to conclusions.<\/p>\n Paranoia<\/strong><\/p>\n Wei: Oh, no, no thanks. You must be kidding. If I get onto such a site, there\u2019s surely somebody monitoring it, watching every keystroke. This is bound to be some trick. I wouldn\u2019t use such site if I were you. This is just a sure-fire trap to find people who are visiting illegal sites.<\/p>\n Downplaying<\/strong><\/p>\n Cao: Oh, great, thanks. But I don\u2019t think this is so useful nowadays. Sure, ten years ago it would have been helpful. But there are so few blocked sites these days, right? They just block the most radical or dangerous websites. Such fringe stuff doesn\u2019t interest me.<\/p>\n Me: Well, the BBC has been blocked. That\u2019s not exactly fringe stuff.<\/p>\n Cao: But you can get the same news on CNN or whatever, so what\u2019s the big loss? The BBC probably did something to piss the government off. I don\u2019t think this is such a big issue now.<\/p>\n Nationalism<\/strong><\/p>\n Liu: What do you expect me to do with this? Get on a bunch of human rights sites that curse China? I already fully understand Western propaganda against China, I don\u2019t need to read any more of it. Thanks anyway.<\/p>\n Mild Interest<\/strong><\/p>\n Du: Really? That\u2019s good to know. I haven\u2019t looked into this kind of thing, but I know that Internet censorship exists. I guess I could learn about a lot of things they don\u2019t tell us about. Thanks for the recommendation.<\/p>\n Most of the responses I got could be characterized as \u201cPolite Apathy\u201d. What Internet activism there may be in China, it is not coming from the upwardly-mobile Chinese white-collar workers. One sometimes wonders why the government bothers to censor the Internet at all.<\/p>\n UPDATE:<\/strong>Rebecca MacKinnon adds to the debate: Censorship, apathy, and free thinking or lack thereof…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What do people think when they are shown a tool to help them access off-limits sections of the Internet?<\/p>\n
\nScenes Behind the Scenes No. 27<\/h3>\n
\nXu: Thanks, I\u2019ll check it out. But I don\u2019t really care about surfing blocked sites. I\u2019ve got better things to do with my time.<\/p>\n