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CDT Editor’s Observe: As we enter 2022, CDT has compiled a particular sequence of options for our readers, providing a glance again on the individuals, occasions, controversies, memes and delicate phrases that outlined the previous yr. A few of this content material is drawn from the CDT Chinese language group’s year-end sequence, with extra content material added by the CDT English group. We hope that CDT readers will take pleasure in this look again on the busy, complicated and interesting yr that was 2021.
We began with the CDT editors’ picks for favourite CDT posts and writing on China in 2021, CDT English high ten most-read posts of 2021, the Chinese language web’s high ten memes of 2021, and a glance again at among the civil society teams, bloggers, and media shops that mentioned goodbye in 2021. The next is a translation and contextualization of CDT Chinese language’s Prime 10 Censored Phrases of 2021.
1. Sprinkle Pepper 撒胡椒面
Associated censored phrases: indiscriminately + sprinkling pepper
February 25 was Xi Jinping’s large day to rejoice China’s overcome poverty. However as he learn out his florid victory speech, he flubbed one in every of his strains. Describing the federal government’s poverty alleviation work, he learn that “we stress fact-based steerage and strict guidelines, not flowery fists and fancy footwork, crimson tape and extreme formality, and performative going-through-the-motions, and we resolutely oppose indiscriminately …
Censors instantly aimed to mute dialogue of the pepper-sprinkling verbal blunder. The phrase “pepper” was fully censored on Weibo for eight days after the speech, and searches for video of the speech returned no outcomes. The phrase stays delicate immediately: posting “sprinkle pepper” on Weibo may end up in deletion of the offending account. Former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle as soon as incorrectly instructed an elementary college pupil to spell “potato” with an appended “e,” eliciting widespread mockery throughout the US, however no censorship.
2. Nomadland 无依之地
Associated censored phrases: Nomadland + launch date/cancelled launch, Nomadland / Chloe Zhao + humiliate China, Nomadland + block, cancel + Oscar , 93rd + Oscar Awards, Oscar + stay stream + cancel, Chloe Zhao + Oscar, Nomadland + Oscar, Oscar for Greatest Director
When Chloé Zhao received Greatest Director on the 2021 Academy Awards for her movie “Nomadland,” no person in China, the nation of her start, was watching—a minimum of not through formally sanctioned media. Protection of her historic achievement was blacked out after nationalist commentators dug up a 2013 interview during which Zhao mentioned China was a spot “the place there are lies in all places.” Her identify—together with the phrases “Nomadland,” “Oscar,” and “Greatest Director”—have been all censored. Tens of millions nonetheless discovered a option to watch and talk about by means of the adoption of code phrases like “Settled Sky,” an inversion of the movie’s Chinese language title.
Zhao’s different movies additionally appear to be banned in China. A Marvel movie she directed, “Eternals,” by no means aired in China, though different doable components in that call embody state-approved homophobia—the movie exhibits a kiss between a male superhero and his husband. Different Hollywood personages with household ties to China have been topic to related political scrutiny. An encore of the Zhao controversy engulfed Canadian actor Simu Liu after nationalists posted screenshots of an interview during which he recalled that his dad and mom’ reminiscences of rising up in China included “tales of individuals dying from hunger.”
3. Assist Xinjiang People支持新疆人
Associated censored phrases: assist + Xinjiang Individuals, Assist + Uyghurs, assist + “Uy” individuals
In March, the Communist Youth League set Weibo afire when it accused Swedish fast-fashion model H&M of mendacity about labor abuses in Xinjiang’s cotton business, and actively inspired Chinese language residents to boycott H&M merchandise. Amidst the sound and fury of nationalist assist for Xinjiang cotton, some Chinese language residents spoke out in assist of the individuals of Xinjiang: “Don’t simply assist Xinjiang cotton, assist Xinjiang individuals! Assist permitting them to remain in inns, assist them touring overseas, assist them discovering work, assist them strolling down the road with out having their telephones & IDs checked.” These posts have been shortly censored. However as the federal government fanned the flames of the boycotts, many netizens started to ask, “What is admittedly happening in Xinjiang?”
The censored Weibo posts are a sign that worldwide condemnation of China’s human rights violations in Xinjiang could also be able to influencing Chinese language public opinion, regardless of the Chinese language authorities’s assertions on the contrary. Within the meantime, nationalistic boycotts over Xinjiang proceed. The newest targets are Intel and Walmart.
4. Accelerationism 加速主义
Associated censored phrases: China + accelerationism, Accelerator-in-Chief (总加速师)
From China Digital Area:
The idea that Xi Jinping is hastening the demise of the Chinese language Communist Get together by doubling down on his authoritarian rule, usually referenced by the mock-title Accelerator-in-Chief. In its authentic sense, accelerationism holds that strengthening the expansion of the “techno-capitalist” state, not resistance to it, will convey sweeping social change. Whereas [the term] jiasuzhuyi is used satirically, within the West this fringe political concept has turn out to be intently tied to white supremacist teams, which maintain that violence and discord will topple the present political order and pave the best way for his or her imaginative and prescient of the longer term. [Source]
There was a quick second on Baidu when searches for “Accelerator-in-Chief” returned outcomes for Xi Jinping, however that’s now not the case. Bot accounts, the famed “web water military,” have flooded Twitter with Chinese language-language posts connecting accelerationism to America. These patently inorganic posts appear designed to drown out criticism of Xi in Chinese language-language areas on the worldwide web:
5. Guonan 蝈蝻
Associated censored phrases: married ass, little dick, little dock
Guonan, a homophone for “nationwide male” shaped from characters that share a radical with maggot and cockroach, is a derogatory time period for Chinese language males. The time period is utilized by some radical feminists to criticize what they see as pervasive chauvinism in Chinese language society. An identical time period exists for girls in conventional heterosexual marriages: “married asses.” Censorship of guonan and associated phrases elevated after Xinhua’s Could 31 announcement, “The Three-Baby Coverage Is Right here,” which raised fears of one other spherical of invasive authorities involvement in ladies’s reproductive selections. The censorship of guonan appears gentle compared to the mass shuttering of feminist teams and the arrest of #MeToo journalists. Even much less overtly political expressions of feminism might be grounds for official censure. When the comedian Yang Li posed the query, “How can he look so common and nonetheless have a lot confidence?” she was accused of inciting “gender opposition”—which Weibo now makes use of as grounds for censorship. CDT was additionally accused of this by World Occasions in December.
6. Liedownism 躺平学
Associated censored phrases: involution, Luo Huazhong
Mendacity down is “not acceptable,” in keeping with state media. In an effort to flee the perceived “involution” of Chinese language society, Chinese language youth are “mendacity down”—a lot to the chagrin of the Chinese language authorities. The Our on-line world Administration of China mandated that merchandise branded with “lie down, liedownism, involution” and the like be faraway from e-commerce websites. But the artwork of “liedownism” slouches on: a picture of the actor Ge You reclining on a settee has turn out to be a preferred meme, even making the record of CDT Chinese language’s Prime Ten Memes of 2021.
7. Zhang Xianzhong 张献忠
Associated censored phrases: Zhang Xianzhong, Xianzhongology, Xianzhong gist, Xianzhong, Xianzhong incident, Xianzhong habits, in all places Xianzhong, no totally different from Xianzhong
A Seventeenth-century insurgent well-known for slaughter so indiscriminate that he left Sichuan depopulated centuries later is maybe an unlikely candidate for a meme—nonetheless, Zhang Xianzhong has turn out to be one on-line. His identify has turn out to be a stand-in for two unrelated matters: the mass deaths that adopted Mao’s Nice Leap Ahead and different fanatical Communist insurance policies; and those that “take revenge towards society” by following Zhang’s (probably apocryphal) injunction to “Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.” In a well-known latest case, an impoverished man in rural Fujian murdered his rich neighbors, with whom he had a long-running property dispute, after which fled into the mountains. Regardless of his grisly crime, his plight garnered widespread sympathy, and some even expressed admiration: “If the lifeless and injured have been from the village tyrant’s household, then I’d admire this Ou man for being an actual man.” The now-suspended WeChat account @过桥土豆 sought to elucidate the perspective underpinning the Chinese language web’s adoption of Zhang Xianzhong as an anti-hero: “The underside rung of society is sort of a stagnant pond that grows extra suffocating by the day. Individuals are on their final nerve, they usually’re feeling determined. That’s why they need somebody—anybody, for no matter motive—to point out up and destroy the social order, to smash all the things, and to hell with the results, in order that they will vent their outrage.”
8. Zhao Wei 赵薇
Associated censored phrases: evil-doing artist, Henry Huo, Kris Wu, Zheng Shuang, Fan Bingbing
A “profound transformation” is underway in China’s leisure business. The federal government has cracked down on each celeb habits and fandoms. Zhao Wei was erased from the web for causes that stay unclear—maybe because of her reference to former Alibaba CEO Jack Ma. CDT Chinese language created a chart of essentially the most delicate celebrities and the extent to which they’re censored throughout China’s largest video platforms: crimson=complete censorship, yellow=focused censorship, inexperienced=uncensored.
The highest row lists artists (from left to proper) and their reported offenses: Zhao Wei (offense unknown), Henry Hou (serial cheater), Kris Wu (rape), Zheng Shuang (surrogacy and tax evasion), Fan Bingbing (tax evasion). The left column record the varied platforms (from high to backside): iQIYI, Youku, Tencent Video, Mango TV, Migu Video, Bilibili, Douban
9. Fragile 玻璃心
Associated censored phrases: Wee Meng Chee, Kimberley Chen + Fragile, Fragile + humiliate China
It isn’t obscure why “Fragile,” by Namewee (Wee Meng Chee) and Kimberly Chen, was banned in China. The lyrics mock Xi Jinping, little pinks and their love of claiming “your mother is lifeless (NMSL), the ban on Taiwanese pineapples, and all the remainder. The track is so delicate that even criticizing it brings on censorship:
Even this Weibo put up calling Namewee a bastard is censored
Namewee, in the meantime, has reportedly struck it wealthy by promoting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) tied to the track.
10. Peng Shuai 彭帅
Associated censored phrases: Peng Shuai, ps, Eddie Peng + Shuai, Pu Shu, Vice Premier Peng, Peng Dehuai, Zhang Gaoli, Usury Zhang, Gaoli, zgl, Zhuge Liang, Kang Jie, State Council vice premier, melon, eat melon, large melon, jumbo melon, tennis, “The Prime Minister and I”, Diamond Cup, Yibin Guesthouse, Ladies’s Tennis Affiliation, WTA, tennis affiliation + go away/cease/droop, Ladies’s Tableless Ping Pong Affiliation, Steve Simon
On November 2, in a Weibo put up on her private account, Peng Shuai accused former Standing Politburo Committee member Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. Earlier than an hour had handed, her accusation was deleted. A scorched-earth marketing campaign of censorship adopted. Peng herself additionally disappeared from public view, sparking a world outcry that finally led to her “compelled reappearance.” The fallout impressed the Ladies’s Tennis Affiliation (or the “Ladies’s Tableless Ping Pong Affiliation,” as one censorship-dodging Weibo person dubbed the WTA) to droop all future tournaments in China. The breadth and depth of the censorship of Peng’s accusation is unmatched by every other occasion this yr.
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