5 ms·

I'm really skeptical that's true.... Winnie the Pooh is such a popular theme in products in China, I've never heard anything remotely close to such a ban....

tablespoon 6y ago
> I'm really skeptical that's true.... Winnie the Pooh is such a popular theme in products in China, I've never heard anything remotely close to such a ban.... IIRC, it's not a general ban, it's just censored from social media, probably by official directive. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-winnie-the-pooh-film-to-stop-comparisons-to-president-xi https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-win...
- dumb1224 6y ago
  Well it's definitely not censored on social media: https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%E7%BB%B4%E5%B0%BC%E7%86%8A&wvr=6&b=1 https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%E7%BB%B4%E5%B0%BC%E7%86%8A&wvr=... Even if it was slightly true it must have been incredibly insignificant hence my skepticism. My point is that we could leave out a bit of noise as it is very easy to come across misunderstanding already.
  - fossuser 6y ago
    It's not noise - the censors drop specific comms over time when there's focus. When the Pooh meme was happening if you tried sending it the receiver would never get it. Now that it has died down it's no longer a focus (though I'm still unsure if that image would be received). The same thing happens around certain events (Tiananmen Square Anniversary) where they get more extreme about the censorship. The fact that they applied the censors to the Pooh meme shows that they'll do it for even the mildest 'threat'.
    - dumb1224 6y ago
      I'm not sure it's censored for the reason you've stated (the mildest 'threat' part). But I take your point. The censoring regarding June every year is a very different story. I just hope I can contribute to a more meaningful discussion here as there are simply too much misunderstanding.
      - fossuser 6y ago
        Yeah - I'd guess it's less 'threat' and more 'things that embarrass the party leader'.
  - hkmaxpro 6y ago
    Winnie the Pooh was censored in the Chinese version of the video game Kingdom Hearts III [0][1]. Do you think a massive white blot around Winnie the Pooh in every appearance is a “misunderstanding”? As I pointed out in another comment, it was also the content of the most censored Weibo post in 2015 [2], according to the Weiboscope cenorship tracker. These examples are very easy to find if you Google for them (assuming you can Google from your country). [0] https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/winnie-the-pooh-china-ban https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/winnie-the-pooh-china-ba... [1] https://gamerant.com/kingdom-hearts-3-winnie-pooh-censorship/ https://gamerant.com/kingdom-hearts-3-winnie-pooh-censorship... [2] https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/31/china-top-5-censored-posts-2015-censorship-communist-party-xi-jinping-explosion-pooh/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/31/china-top-5-censored-po...
    - dumb1224 6y ago
      I can not verify your claim since I don't play Kingdom Hearts. That's exactly my point; if the issue is very trivial then over-iterate on it seems a bit sensationalist. Official censoring some posts and 'chinese-cut' version of some imported art/entertainment are very much loathed and aware in China, 'banning' a whole commercial theme is a very different story. "(assuming you can Google from your country)" I think it's a bit unnecessary to assume that given that HN is largely targeting tech space and people will have very diverse reasons of not using Google? Assuming we're discussing this out of good faith one should realise if one can only read english sources it might be a little biased IMHO.
      - hkmaxpro 6y ago
        > I can not verify your claim since I don't play Kingdom Hearts When you Google “Kingdom Hearts III China Cenorship”, Google returns more than 4 million results. Assuming there are repetitions and only 0.1% of them (i.e. 4K results) are genuine and unique. You think all these search results are fake? I will also claim that atomic bombs exist. Do you need to make an atomic bomb yourself to verify my claim? The first article I linked above [0] discussed several instances where Winnie the Pooh is banned, and many more it is not. So the censorship is real but not universal. [0] https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/winnie-the-pooh-china-ban https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/winnie-the-pooh-china-ba... > if one can only read english sources it might be a little biased IMHO Since you don’t like English source, let me Google some Chinese sources for you: [1] https://dailyview.tw/Popular/Detail/1182 https://dailyview.tw/Popular/Detail/1182 [2] https://www.bcc.com.tw/newsView.4791295 https://www.bcc.com.tw/newsView.4791295 > "(assuming you can Google from your country)" Because those links are the first few hits when I googled Winnie the Pooh censorhip in China. You seemed unable to find such news.
  - m9731526 6y ago
    Over these years a lot of words and characters got banned, some with good intention like to stop lewd or not-suit-for-kiids content from spreading, most other times with intention to stop people from talking about things CCP not willing to let people discuss about. If you can read Chinese, you will found that on some forums people are like talking with magic spells, in extreme cases, whole paragraph or article is composed of word/characters that pronounce same but looks different, or just looks similar enough so people understand what it implys. Even if Chinese is my native language I can't read ciphertext of that level. Talking about censorship, I'd like to share my 2 cents. For some time I had been actively browsing Zhihu (a Chinese knowledge sharing social platform), even posting and talking with the users. It's around a decade ago, the censorship back then was much looser. I am a Taiwanese, we even talked about a political incident which is basically Taiwanese people protesting about the ruling signing CSSTA... some Chinese agree, some do not, some just left hatred comments, but people back then was really talking and sharing opiinion. You find no more stuff like this now, the censorship got strengthened over years, a lot of topics are risky and people would rather not talk about it.
    - dumb1224 6y ago
      I share your sentiment. I couldn't agree more with the funny and sad cipher text. Zhihu could have been a good site for idea exchange but it too became obvious a target. I was very envious of online forum culture in Taiwan such as PTT and you never know there may be many chinese netizens from the mainland posing and hiding in disguise. I think what you are saying about censorship is true but it's also because we are facing unprecedented challenges both online and in real life. The traditional academic settings of intellectuals on various sites are not the same anymore. I won't say what is better or not but I hope more communications will eventually bridge gaps. If you're skeptical about the relationship between Taiwan and the mainland, look at Republic Ireland / Northern Ireland. It could be much worse until eventually an ambiguous agreement arrived. Sometimes people just need a bit cool down to communicate.
hkmaxpro 6y ago
It was the most censored Weibo post in 2015, according to Dr. Fu Kingwa, who ran the Weiboscope censorship tracker out of Hong Kong University’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre: https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/31/china-top-5-censored-posts-2015-censorship-communist-party-xi-jinping-explosion-pooh/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/31/china-top-5-censored-po...

tablespoon 6y ago

> I'm really skeptical that's true.... Winnie the Pooh is such a popular theme in products in China, I've never heard anything remotely close to such a ban.... IIRC, it's not a general ban, it's just censored from social media, probably by official directive. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-winnie-the-pooh-film-to-stop-comparisons-to-president-xi https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-win...

dumb1224 6y ago
Well it's definitely not censored on social media: https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%E7%BB%B4%E5%B0%BC%E7%86%8A&wvr=6&b=1 https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%E7%BB%B4%E5%B0%BC%E7%86%8A&wvr=... Even if it was slightly true it must have been incredibly insignificant hence my skepticism. My point is that we could leave out a bit of noise as it is very easy to come across misunderstanding already.
- fossuser 6y ago
  It's not noise - the censors drop specific comms over time when there's focus. When the Pooh meme was happening if you tried sending it the receiver would never get it. Now that it has died down it's no longer a focus (though I'm still unsure if that image would be received). The same thing happens around certain events (Tiananmen Square Anniversary) where they get more extreme about the censorship. The fact that they applied the censors to the Pooh meme shows that they'll do it for even the mildest 'threat'.
  - dumb1224 6y ago
    I'm not sure it's censored for the reason you've stated (the mildest 'threat' part). But I take your point. The censoring regarding June every year is a very different story. I just hope I can contribute to a more meaningful discussion here as there are simply too much misunderstanding.
    - fossuser 6y ago
      Yeah - I'd guess it's less 'threat' and more 'things that embarrass the party leader'.
- hkmaxpro 6y ago
  Winnie the Pooh was censored in the Chinese version of the video game Kingdom Hearts III [0][1]. Do you think a massive white blot around Winnie the Pooh in every appearance is a “misunderstanding”? As I pointed out in another comment, it was also the content of the most censored Weibo post in 2015 [2], according to the Weiboscope cenorship tracker. These examples are very easy to find if you Google for them (assuming you can Google from your country). [0] https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/winnie-the-pooh-china-ban https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/winnie-the-pooh-china-ba... [1] https://gamerant.com/kingdom-hearts-3-winnie-pooh-censorship/ https://gamerant.com/kingdom-hearts-3-winnie-pooh-censorship... [2] https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/31/china-top-5-censored-posts-2015-censorship-communist-party-xi-jinping-explosion-pooh/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/31/china-top-5-censored-po...
  - dumb1224 6y ago
    I can not verify your claim since I don't play Kingdom Hearts. That's exactly my point; if the issue is very trivial then over-iterate on it seems a bit sensationalist. Official censoring some posts and 'chinese-cut' version of some imported art/entertainment are very much loathed and aware in China, 'banning' a whole commercial theme is a very different story. "(assuming you can Google from your country)" I think it's a bit unnecessary to assume that given that HN is largely targeting tech space and people will have very diverse reasons of not using Google? Assuming we're discussing this out of good faith one should realise if one can only read english sources it might be a little biased IMHO.
    - hkmaxpro 6y ago
      > I can not verify your claim since I don't play Kingdom Hearts When you Google “Kingdom Hearts III China Cenorship”, Google returns more than 4 million results. Assuming there are repetitions and only 0.1% of them (i.e. 4K results) are genuine and unique. You think all these search results are fake? I will also claim that atomic bombs exist. Do you need to make an atomic bomb yourself to verify my claim? The first article I linked above [0] discussed several instances where Winnie the Pooh is banned, and many more it is not. So the censorship is real but not universal. [0] https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/winnie-the-pooh-china-ban https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/winnie-the-pooh-china-ba... > if one can only read english sources it might be a little biased IMHO Since you don’t like English source, let me Google some Chinese sources for you: [1] https://dailyview.tw/Popular/Detail/1182 https://dailyview.tw/Popular/Detail/1182 [2] https://www.bcc.com.tw/newsView.4791295 https://www.bcc.com.tw/newsView.4791295 > "(assuming you can Google from your country)" Because those links are the first few hits when I googled Winnie the Pooh censorhip in China. You seemed unable to find such news.
- m9731526 6y ago
  Over these years a lot of words and characters got banned, some with good intention like to stop lewd or not-suit-for-kiids content from spreading, most other times with intention to stop people from talking about things CCP not willing to let people discuss about. If you can read Chinese, you will found that on some forums people are like talking with magic spells, in extreme cases, whole paragraph or article is composed of word/characters that pronounce same but looks different, or just looks similar enough so people understand what it implys. Even if Chinese is my native language I can't read ciphertext of that level. Talking about censorship, I'd like to share my 2 cents. For some time I had been actively browsing Zhihu (a Chinese knowledge sharing social platform), even posting and talking with the users. It's around a decade ago, the censorship back then was much looser. I am a Taiwanese, we even talked about a political incident which is basically Taiwanese people protesting about the ruling signing CSSTA... some Chinese agree, some do not, some just left hatred comments, but people back then was really talking and sharing opiinion. You find no more stuff like this now, the censorship got strengthened over years, a lot of topics are risky and people would rather not talk about it.
  - dumb1224 6y ago
    I share your sentiment. I couldn't agree more with the funny and sad cipher text. Zhihu could have been a good site for idea exchange but it too became obvious a target. I was very envious of online forum culture in Taiwan such as PTT and you never know there may be many chinese netizens from the mainland posing and hiding in disguise. I think what you are saying about censorship is true but it's also because we are facing unprecedented challenges both online and in real life. The traditional academic settings of intellectuals on various sites are not the same anymore. I won't say what is better or not but I hope more communications will eventually bridge gaps. If you're skeptical about the relationship between Taiwan and the mainland, look at Republic Ireland / Northern Ireland. It could be much worse until eventually an ambiguous agreement arrived. Sometimes people just need a bit cool down to communicate.

hkmaxpro 6y ago

It was the most censored Weibo post in 2015, according to Dr. Fu Kingwa, who ran the Weiboscope censorship tracker out of Hong Kong University’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre: https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/31/china-top-5-censored-posts-2015-censorship-communist-party-xi-jinping-explosion-pooh/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/31/china-top-5-censored-po...