The Great Firewall of China

[Kion]

So I'm in China for the until August 30th, and I have to say the great firewall of China is stupid. I thought that I could make it a month with out youtube, twitter, or facebook as I don't use them all too often, but they literally block everything. The only sites I can access to that I normally use are pso-world, gmail and manga-fox. Everything else, including random flash sites, wikipedia, imbedded youtube, is blocked. They even blocked all of the proxy sites that allow you to access any of those. This is freaking insane. I had no idea it was this bad. China can suck on it.

[Ark22]

Lol when I was in Beijing I couldn't see the sky, IT'S SO FRIGGEN POLLUTED!

[Sord]

That seems kind of funny, because isn't manga-fox borderline illegal because it's putting up free fan scanlations of already licensed works?

[FOkyasuta]

Yeah we know China's an all around Bitch. Didn't know it was that big of one though!

[blace]

I can imagine the firewall being in place since some people managed to hack into some government servers. WAAAYYY before Anonymous became known for anything than being a nuisance.

[Retehi]

That seems kind of funny, because isn't manga-fox borderline illegal because it's putting up free fan scanlations of already licensed works?

Because China is above piracy, and knock-offs.

[Kion]

Can't watch Nostalgia Critic, or the Spoony Experiment. For god sakes, even Zero Punctuation is blocked!! What the hell China!!??

[KodiaX987]

Welcome to single-party politics.

You are in a country that is pretty much the realization of the novel 1984. Thoughts are strictly controlled, there is only one party, it consists of a personality cult, and it regards anything that does not subscribe to communism as a threat. They can and they will do anything and everything in their power to keep the people from being contaminated by thoughts of capitalism.

Actually, I'm surprised that you're surprised at this.

[Sord]

Because China is above piracy, and knock-offs.

I never said they were, but since they're already cracking down on the internet concerning other issues, it comes as a surprise they don't bother doing it in other matters since they don't have any negative association with just straight up silencing people and speech. Granted, don't know how popular Japanese manga even is in China, might be beneath their notice.

[Kion]

Actually, I'm surprised that you're surprised at this.

I'm surprised by the sheer extent. Why the hell is the escapistmagazine.com blocked? It makes no freaking sense. Yaaaaaahhhhh!:rant:

[Sord]

There's escape in the name, THEY MUST BE TRYING TO LEAVE CHINA, BLOCK IT!

Might actually have more to do with being a mass western media news outlet.

[Dhylec]

China is not alone on blocking web sites & world news, pretty much all the communist & dictatorship countries are doing the same.

[GCoffee]

China is not alone on blocking web sites & world news, pretty much all the communist & dictatorship countries are doing the same.

China is not communistic. Just getting that straight. The name of the ruling party really doesn't mean anything, anymore.

[darkante]

Wow, what can one access?

[Kion]

So far gmail, pso-world, engadget and netbook news are working. Not too much beyond that. Chinese sites are fine, obviously. Baidu, Tuduo and Youku work fine. The problem is that ironically there are tons of pop-ups for porn sites. Keep it classy China.

[Dhylec]

China is not communistic. Just getting that straight. The name of the ruling party really doesn't mean anything, anymore.
That's interesting. So China is socialist now?

True that the name of the ruling party means nothing, but the ideology is the same - extreme control over expression & outside interaction. A huge firewall checking everything is just that.

[GCoffee]

True that the name of the ruling party means nothing, but the ideology is the same - extreme control over expression & outside interaction. A huge firewall checking everything is just that.

Yes, but that is only one specific trait of a communistic system. If you take the Chinese market you will soon realize how it equals ours in many ways. It is capitalistic, and capitalism is the opposite of what embodies communism.
I am not defending the way of Chinese politics, but they really are not communists, even if they make use of some of their methods, sure.

[Outrider]

Yes, but that is only one specific trait of a communistic system. If you take the Chinese market you will soon realize how it equals ours in many ways. It is capitalistic, and capitalism is the opposite of what embodies communism.
I am not defending the way of Chinese politics, but they really are not communists, even if they make use of some of their methods, sure.

But if we're going to nitpick, you can really argue that no "communist" nation has ever really followed the communist ideals.

Plus, much of China's government still functions under the old-world definition of "communism," with much of the changes appearing in the "special economic zones" or whatever they call them.

It's annoying how inaccurate the label can be sometimes, but when the true form of such a system can't really exist in the real world, it shouldn't be surprising that people use it as a shorthand descriptor for a somewhat related type of government.

[GCoffee]

But if we're going to nitpick, you can really argue that no "communist" nation has ever really followed the communist ideals.

Plus, much of China's government still functions under the old-world definition of "communism," with much of the changes appearing in the "special economic zones" or whatever they call them.

It's annoying how inaccurate the label can be sometimes, but when the true form of such a system can't really exist in the real world, it shouldn't be surprising that people use it as a shorthand descriptor for a somewhat related type of government.


It's true that true communism as Karl Marx described it never existed.
(Like you, I personally believe it would be impossible to create such a system; the ideology as it is would actually a good thing if possible to execute.)

The massive control of media and thinking is not part of communism, though. Let us say it is a product of the masses realizing there is better than the system they are living in and politics who defy change. However, many regimes work exactly like that but are not called communistic by the media. It ought to do with the Chinese party's name.

Communism is defined as a system who abolishes all work classes, where everyone is unified and the same. Furthermore, a system in which no private goods exist and everyone gets as much as any other. Perfect equalism. Now of course neither the Soviet Union nor former East Germany managed to work that way either, but they tried. China does not try, at all.

They are hardcore capitalists, and as such no communists. I wonder if by calling them communits people see a connection to the Soviet Union? Why, though? Because they are the baddies? Is it beyond people that there are systems other than communism, ones that actually work very much like our own in some regards, that are cruel and despicable?

[Kion]

I think the control of media is simply because of the fact there are roughly 1.5 billion people in china, and the government wouldn't last long if they decided to rise up.

But fuck these god damn fuckers. I had youtube working on a proxy this afternoon and it's already blocked.

[SStrikerR]

Welcome to single-party politics.

You are in a country that is pretty much the realization of the novel 1984. Thoughts are strictly controlled, there is only one party, it consists of a personality cult, and it regards anything that does not subscribe to communism as a threat. They can and they will do anything and everything in their power to keep the people from being contaminated by thoughts of capitalism.

Actually, I'm surprised that you're surprised at this.

I just started reading this for lolsummerreading. Way to spoil the book, asshole.

[spoiler-box]Just kidding, nothing ruined there.[/spoiler-box]

Anyway yeah, China disgusts me. I'm glad I don't live under their shitty rules.

AMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMERICA THE FREEEEEEEEEEEEE

[Kion]

This trip to China is really sucking. I'm going to start listing the things I hate about this country.

One, first and foremost, I can't speak Chinese. This is entirely my fault, but I really don't feel like studying at all. I spent 6 years studying Japanese and I enjoy languages. I really feel like I could move on to Korean or French. The main problem with Chinese is everyone around me speaks with a normal voice of my yelling voice, and everyone's yelling voice is well; even louder. I really don't have any desire to study something that sounds like loud obnoxious chirping.

That leads into my main problem. Because I can't speak Chinese, I spend too much time around the house getting babied by my wife's mom; who cooks 24 hours a day. Pretty much every fifteen minutes she keeps asking me if I'm hungry. For the love of god woman, you made a four course meal for breakfast that was more than I usually eat in a week, and fifteen minutes later how am I supposed to digest that?

The list after that is pretty short.

1) No youtube. No twitter. No facebook. Google search doesn't connect 1/3 of the time
2) Kung fu movies. I like kung fu, or at least I thought I liked kung fu, but every freaking show on every freaking channel is pretty much the same cheesy shit.
3) State propaganda. If people liked China, they should actually take tare of it. Don't litter, stop polluting. Don't sing a bunch of songs and pretend to be a patriot.
4) No traffic lights. This is big, you know how asian people are stereotypically bad drivers? Imagine that, times a country, with no traffic lights. It's 24 hours of non stop honking at even small intersections.
5) Inflation. You'd think that being on the upper end of a conversion rate stuff would be somewhat cheap (especially yen to yuan right now). Not the case, pretty much everything is the same price as in Japan, and there are a lot of fakes, so money really doesn't go to far here.
6) Everyone is a spoiled brat. With the one child only law, parents dote on their children too much. Kids don't know how to dress or feed themselves. Everyone has a me-first attitude that doesn't work well with a high population.

So I realize this is over generalizing, but to a decent degree it holds up to some degree in Fuqing, Fujian China which has a unique (as in back water) culture compared to the rest of the country. I think Beijing or Shanghai might be a some what better.

Attitude is everything and mine definitely sucks, but I'm ready to head home (except I still have another freaking week here).

[FOkyasuta]

I think Beijing or Shanghai might be a some what better.


I hardy doubt its better from what ive been hearing but its worth a shot.

[Kion]

There are a lot of Chinese kids at my school in Japan. I tend to get along with the kids from Beijing better than the kids from the South. Or that could be accounted for that the level of kids going abroad is much better than the average person and doesn't qualify as a good population sample.

Some more to add
7) People keep smacking their lips and eating with their mouth open. Seriously, this should be common courtesy in any country.
8 ) Non of the guys where a freaking shirt. I know It's hot, but I don't want to see your nipple hair.

The most enjoyable thing I have found here are infomercials.

There was one for a fake iPhone (iPhon). Costs $200, had android installed on it, small crappy screen, slot for a microSD card and two SIM card slots. From looking at it, it was obviously a piece of shit. They kept focusing on some voice to text feature (which obviously didn't work, because they kept computer animating it).

But the funniest part was they had this skit where a guy was at a meeting with his boss, and his boss said, "we need to investigate xxx...", so the man turns to his phone and slowly says, "xxx". The boss' attention then turns to the phone, "wow, this phone is amazing!", he then pulls out his own phone (a real iPhone), and nods approvingly at the fake.

But the most incredible thing ever in China; are the late night bra infomercials. There are tons of ads for solutions to make girls' boobs bigger (I doubt any of them work), but the infomercials consist of nothing but girls with huge boobs showing off cleavage. There's one commercial that goes above and beyond; for a bra that makes boobs bounce. So it's ten solid minutes of huge boobs bouncing around. I'd like to post a youtube video, but in retrospect forget to look at the product name....

[KodiaX987]

7) People keep smacking their lips and eating with their mouth open. Seriously, this should be common courtesy in any country.


A Japanese guy I stayed with actually explained it, seeing as I was giving him a quizzical look when he was slurping his noodles.

Basically it arose from the cook being in his kitchen and cooking the noodles, but he had no way to know if people liked them. So customers started slurping the noodles to demonstrate they were eating the meal he'd prepared. Fast-forward to modern times where slurping noodles is considered a signal that you like the food you're eating. Apparently it's not as common as it used to be though.

Still, it's kind of the same principle as Ben-Hur burping when he was prompted to.

[FOkyasuta]

There was one for a fake iPhone (iPhon). Costs $200, had android installed on it, small crappy screen, slot for a microSD card and two SIM card slots. From looking at it, it was obviously a piece of shit. They kept focusing on some voice to text feature (which obviously didn't work, because they kept computer animating it).

But the funniest part was they had this skit where a guy was at a meeting with his boss, and his boss said, "we need to investigate xxx...", so the man turns to his phone and slowly says, "xxx". The boss' attention then turns to the phone, "wow, this phone is amazing!", he then pulls out his own phone (a real iPhone), and nods approvingly at the fake.

But the most incredible thing ever in China; are the late night bra infomercials. There are tons of ads for solutions to make girls' boobs bigger (I doubt any of them work), but the infomercials consist of nothing but girls with huge boobs showing off cleavage. There's one commercial that goes above and beyond; for a bra that makes boobs bounce. So it's ten solid minutes of huge boobs bouncing around. I'd like to post a youtube video, but in retrospect forget to look at the product name....

Now why we dont have things over here is beyond my guess. Perhaps an old grudge or something. Kinda glad we dont though.

[SPOILER-BOX]First they like small, Now big? Sheesh gals get your shit fixed on one thing![/SPOILER-BOX]



There are a lot of Chinese kids at my school in Japan. I tend to get along with the kids from Beijing better than the kids from the South.


I kinda figured. Maybe that rumor with a no-choose-able future was true... -3-

[Kion]

I know about noodles, and I've just gotten used to it. But that only applies to noodles in Japan, not to my brother in law with his arm on the back on my chair eating an apple as he smacks his lips right next to my ear as he tries read what I'm posting.

Seriously fuck off dude. That should give you a general sense of what the dinner table is like.

[FOkyasuta]

I know about noodles, and I've just gotten used to it. But that only applies to noodles in Japan, not to my brother in law with his arm on the back on my chair eating an apple as he smacks his lips right next to my ear as he tries look read what I'm posting.

At least he didnt bother to touch lick it. Brothers these days.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

It's true that true communism as Karl Marx described it never existed.
(Like you, I personally believe it would be impossible to create such a system; the ideology as it is would actually a good thing if possible to execute.)

The massive control of media and thinking is not part of communism, though. Let us say it is a product of the masses realizing there is better than the system they are living in and politics who defy change. However, many regimes work exactly like that but are not called communistic by the media. It ought to do with the Chinese party's name.

Communism is defined as a system who abolishes all work classes, where everyone is unified and the same. Furthermore, a system in which no private goods exist and everyone gets as much as any other. Perfect equalism. Now of course neither the Soviet Union nor former East Germany managed to work that way either, but they tried. China does not try, at all.

They are hardcore capitalists, and as such no communists. I wonder if by calling them communits people see a connection to the Soviet Union? Why, though? Because they are the baddies? Is it beyond people that there are systems other than communism, ones that actually work very much like our own in some regards, that are cruel and despicable?

The Chinese political system is Fascist, whatever you want to call it. It is modeled on Maoism, a specific form of Communism, though it has made a few concessions over the years, such as the easing of Religious restrictions.

It is still a system of government which is required to lie outright to its people with no intention of ever revealing truth, and that makes it unsustainable. You'd do well not to idealize it.

[GCoffee]

It is still a system of government which is required to lie outright to its people with no intention of ever revealing truth, and that makes it unsustainable. You'd do well not to idealize it.

As stated in an earlier post I am not ideaolizing anything here. How did you even get that idea? I am just pointing out the obvious mistake people make by calling them communists. That is obviously my only intention here, so there is no need to further tell me all of China's political and societial faults to make me realize something I already know. I have been there, I know about these.