[404 Archives]Issue 95: Official Media Rollovers – Why Chinese National Anthem Lyrics Become Sensitive Words? – China Digital Age

“404 Archives” tells the story of censorship and anti-censorship in China, and is published in text, audio and video. Podcasts can be listened to by searching for “404 Archives” on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or general podcast clients, and video programs can be viewed on the Youtube channel “China Digital Times · 404 Archives”.

Written by: Rain

Welcome to the 404 Archives. Here, we cross the Chinese digital wall together. Today we will pay attention to the recent series of public opinion rollover incidents encountered by Chinese state media.

It is not a new thing on the Jianzhong Internet that Chinese state media has led public opinion to criticize the United States. However, with the disappointing performance of the Chinese government in the past two years in terms of economy and employment, women’s rights, and the new crown epidemic, the grievances have deepened. More and more people are no longer paying for such publicity. They believed that this was an official “trick” to divert domestic conflicts, and jokingly called the move “surrounding the United States to save Zhao”.

However, the recent mass rush to the tower under the Weibo topic #USAIs the world‘s largest human rights deficit country# is still a rare movement of netizens to spontaneously rebel against the official narrative. In this episode, we will sort out the causes and consequences of this incident.

People’s Rush Tower # “The United States is the world’s largest human rights deficit country”

On April 13, CCTV’s official Weibo @CCTVNews posted a comment in response to the “Human Rights Report” published by the United States the day before, and initiated the topic “The United States is the country with the largest human rights deficit in the world.” After being collectively forwarded by many official accounts and fermented for a day, this topic rushed to the top of Weibo’s hot search list. In the middle of the night, comments under this topic gathered a large number of netizens mocking and criticizing Chinese officials. People believe that officials should not ignore the domestic epidemic crisis and various pressing social issues, and try to turn the attention of public opinion to the United States.

This human rights report refers to the 2021 Country-by-Country Human Rights Report of the U.S. State Department released by U.S. Secretary of State Blinken on April 12. The report highlights the atrocities committed by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, and also names and criticizes the human rights situation in several authoritarian countries such as China. In naming China at the press conference, Blinken pointed out that the Chinese government continues to carry out “genocide and crimes against humanity” against mainly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, eroding “basic freedoms and autonomy” in Hong Kong, and in Tibet. “Systematic Repression”.

According to the messages on the Weibo topic square, the dissatisfaction of netizens mainly stems from the government’s improper handling of the recent epidemic and social events. For example, the negative response to the iron chain women in Fengxian County, the misery caused by the closure and control of Shanghai, and the recent accusations of the so-called “extreme women’s rights” by the two official media, the Communist Youth League Central Committee and the Beijing Evening News, etc. Some netizens also mentioned many long-term social and human rights issues, such as 996, which squeezes laborers, high housing prices, lack of protection of women’s rights, ignorant propaganda, lack of freedom of speech, and so on.

The blogger with the online name “Xiao Ke’s Mood Notes” sarcastically said:

Yes, yes, an American woman is chained to give birth to eight children, and the government also subsidizes the man who locked her to build a house. Americans are 996, labor laws are useless, and labor unions directly do not. The US has the highest housing prices and the highest interest rates. During the lockdown period, people have to pay their mortgages without food. The US government is really bad and terrible. Fortunately, I was born in China.

Another blogger named “Bad Girl Monika” said: “Although we put seals on people’s doorsteps, kill pets, and waste medical resources, so that more critically ill patients miss treatment, but our count of deaths is 0!”

Many netizens also borrowed official labels to criticize China by scolding the United States. Some netizens borrowed the title of the famous American movie “call me by your name”/”call me by your name” in the comments, implying that China always borrows the United States to divert public attention, and that China is the biggest human rights deficit countries. The phrase “call me by your name” immediately became a popular meme and a banner for netizens’ anti-official narrative.

Official media reserved program: “Wei Mei Saves Zhao”

As we all know, accusing the United States has always been a reserved program of Chinese state media, and netizens have also adapted the idiom “Besiege Wei to save Zhao” and invented a new idiom “Besiege the United States to save Zhao”. The “Zhao” here refers to the Zhao family, which means that the attack on the United States is to maintain the rule of the Chinese Communist Party in power.

With the intensification of domestic social problems, similar propaganda by the official media has lost its incitement. At the beginning of this year, Xinhuanet published a Weibo report that the cumulative number of confirmed cases of the new crown in the United States exceeded 60 million, and launched the topic “Netizens lament the failure of the United States to fight the epidemic” to ridicule the United States. What the official media did not expect was that the comment area completely overturned, full of netizens’ cynicism towards the Chinese government.

Some netizens sarcastically said: If you care so much about the old beauty, you should just change your name to the Associated Press! And netizens @ found the magic capital and asked: Will American pregnant women be stillborn at the door of the hospital? Some netizens commented: “The United States is about to die, the leaders will bring the children back.”

This time, netizens dug up a series of past US-bashing remarks by the foreign ministry spokesman, implying that the criticisms were fully applicable to China. For example, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that “smearing others can’t prove his innocence”, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying opposed Twitter’s “banned account”, and Zhao Lijian commented on the issue of U.S. human betrayal, saying that the inaction of the U.S. government led to human trafficking phenomenon, and his remarks accusing the U.S. government of neglecting people’s lives.

Immediately afterwards, “Stealing music” and “Zhao stealing music” also became the favorite stalks of netizens participating in the protest.

The origin of the word is that Zhao Lijian told foreign reporters at a press conference: “During the epidemic, if you can live in China, you should have fun.”

Pictures from the Internet

So “Stealing Music” began to be interpreted by netizens in various ways, and related emoticons were also widely circulated on social media. Some netizens began to refer to Shanghai by the name of the movie (La La Land) “La La Land,” the city of “love (sneak) music,” satirizing the Chinese government’s whitewashing of the crisis.

In addition to the endless stream of humorous irony, there is no shortage of serious reflections and heavy emotions in the comments. A man named “TheDude” The blogger of this short-lived free speech in the Weibo square thought of the square in the June 4th incident. TA said:

Those who should take a group photo in the evening have also joined, and those who should be admonishing are also advising. Looking at the new comments that can be brushed every second, I can’t help but doubt their existence tomorrow. Even if the bamboo basket is empty, it won’t matter. Everyone with lofty ideals will gather tonight. I can’t imagine the past without the Internet. The land speaks. Always keep your blood boiling, so maybe there is a future. ‘Because it’s my duty’.

As TA said, under the severe scrutiny over the years, so many netizens gathered here to express their dissent, which is really rare in the Chinese Internet. Some netizens lamented that a large number of people are awakening, and called the movement the “414 Cyber ​​Parade.”

However, there are also netizens who are pessimistic, thinking that after these comments are reviewed and cleaned up tomorrow, everything will be business as usual; it’s just that they can see each other in the short-lived freedom and chat for comfort.

Stigmatized by the official media as “Internet cancer”, Weibo feminism has become the main force in the tower

Weibo pan-feminists are clearly the main force in this online protest with the participation of the whole people. The reason is: just one day before CCTV slammed the US human rights issue, two official media, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Beijing Evening News, fired on Weibo. The so-called “extreme feminism” has angered the pan-feminist group on Weibo.

The origin of the matter dates back to April 2. As if to boost the morale of the recent anti-epidemic movement, @Communist Youth League Central’s official Weibo posted a group of Weibo with the topic “The Long March of a Generation” and distributed 6 pictures. The picture shows the group of Chinese youths who have contributed to “major historical events” such as the Long March, Resisting America and Aid Korea, digging the Red Flag Canal, fighting floods and other “major historical events”, while the last one is a group of people wearing protective clothing during the new crown epidemic. Big White”.

This propaganda put China’s recent new round of anti-epidemic movement into the grand narrative of the country’s history to demonstrate positive energy and mobilize the recognition and participation of young people.

The post has been retweeted by tens of thousands, but in the comments, some careful netizens pointed out that there is not a single woman in these pictures, which means that the efforts and achievements of Chinese women in the history of the country are not attributed to the official media. Acknowledge and manifest. Especially during the fight against the new crown epidemic, most of the doctors and nurses stationed on the front line are women, but they are not presented positively by the media. Their contributions were covered up, which was originally a pain point for feminists, and this time it once again caused their dissatisfaction.

However, after many netizens made similar criticisms, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, instead of reflecting and adjusting, launched a long Weibo together with the Beijing Evening News on April 12 to bombard “extreme women’s rights”. The wording of these blog posts is very intense. They respectively typed online “big-character posters” such as “Don’t let ‘women’s boxing’ make waves and spread poison! It’s time to control the fake feminist wielding a big stick” and “Extreme feminism has become a cancer on the Internet”. In addition, they accuse women’s rights of being “business“, “gathering money”, “creating confrontation”, “ripping apart society” and “devastating”, and calling for a severe crackdown on it.

The end of the two official media’s “tear” feminist behavior caused an uproar, and was met with collective protests by Weibo pan-feminist users. Some netizens said that it is a common fact that the rights and interests of women in China are being ignored and harmed. However, instead of facing up to and promoting the improvement of women’s issues, the official media has become angry and attacked the feminists who spoke out because a few pictures were pointed out inadequacy. It is incomprehensible.

A blogger with the online name “v also be happy today” commented: “Have you paid attention to Baidu Tieba Hupu’s insulting remarks? Have you paid attention to women living alone who were sexually harassed during the quarantine period in Shanghai? Did you pay attention to Shanghai Xiaohonglou? Have you paid attention to the shocking issue of abduction of women and children? You haven’t. You took the time to find a few comments that no one likes and hang them up to provoke confrontation, you can really do it.”

Some netizens continued to use the slogan of “surrounding the United States to save Zhao” and coined the new term “surrounding women to save Shanghai”, which means that the official media attacked women’s rights to maintain positive energy propaganda and divert the public’s dissatisfaction with the government due to the Shanghai epidemic.

In this public opinion incident, a large number of criticisms of the official media’s “doing nothing and diverting contradictions” emerged, and these criticisms quickly spread to the comment area of ​​CCTV criticizing the US human rights issue the next day.

Many netizens called themselves “extreme feminists” and “social cancers” in their comments to satirize CCTV’s propaganda. Some netizens commented: “It’s true that the United States is not comparable to China. After all, half of China’s population is a social cancer. How can it cause a human rights deficit?”

After the censorship was dispatched, serial rollovers continued to emerge

After the Weibo topic “The U.S. is the country with the largest human rights deficit in the world” topped the trending search, dissent under the topic was very active, but no censorship has been seen for the time being. not working”.

Until about 4:00 in the morning, the suspected Weibo censors started to work, the trending search of the topic #United States is the world‘s largest human rights deficit country# was removed, and all the comments of netizens under the topic were cleaned up, and only the reposts from the official account were displayed.

But the ban did not stop the protests of netizens, who quickly took over several trending topics in the next two days that officials blamed the United States, and continued to use official propaganda to satirize and criticize the Chinese government. These topics include “The new coronavirus is suspected to be related to American bio companies”, “The United States conducts biological experiments with Ukrainian mental patients”, “Zhao Lijian said that many ethnic minorities in the United States come to the United States with broken dreams”, “The murder rate in the United States is increasing at an alarming rate.” speed increase” and so on.

Liu Lipeng, a former Weibo censor, commented: “Because netizens’ rebellious comments, the so-called “harmful content”, are not only focused on one topic, but rush to multiple topics, and these are the topics of official propaganda. Great difficulty for reviewing machines.

After that, the People’s Daily launched the topic of “People’s Daily talks about the past ten years of chasing dreams”, which praised the achievements of the Communist Party. After reviewing comments, click on the latest comment content to display only “Featured Comments”. However, after the content censorship was turned on and the participation of netizens was frozen, the popularity of this topic also plummeted. The latest topic data shows that account participation has dropped sharply.

Weibo screenshot

Some observers have given positive comments to Chinese netizens using the official propaganda label “rebellion”. “I especially like the idea of ​​’occupying’ anti-American keywords and quietly adding criticism of China. It’s very creative,” said Georgia State University professor Dr. Maria Lepnikova.

In addition to occupying the propaganda topics of the official media, netizens are constantly launching new topics and racing against censorship. They started the topics “call me by your name” and “Chinese version of call me by your name”, and immediately opened up derivative topics such as “call me by your name 101” after being blocked.

In addition, after the topic of “Lalaland” was blocked, they launched topics such as “Ming Zule”, “Zhao Steole”, and “lalaland” on the basis of this popular label, but they were all criticized one after another. shield. Up to now, many netizens have gathered under the newly launched hashtags such as “Han Yuefu”, “Yongle Grand Ceremony”, “winwinland” (that is, the place to win), and “List of Delights” to continue to compete with the official.

Facing the magical development of the situation, a blogger named “Looking” commented: “If this trend continues, will the word ‘le’ be deleted from the dictionary?”

At present, Sina Weibo has also set a quasi-banned search for the word “le”.

As the creative resistance of netizens deepened, the first line of the Chinese national anthem “March of the Volunteers”, “#Get up unwilling to be slaves,” was also censored on Weibo. People who do not want to be slaves by searching for #rising on Weibo will show: According to relevant laws and regulations, the topic page is not displayed. Some netizens started using the new hashtag #上，people who don’t want to be slaves.

Netizen @Pyla Lemon commented: Can you punish Sina first according to the national anthem law? Another netizen said: “Lying down” was banned a few months ago, and now “rising” is banned. It seems that only “kneeling” is the correct posture in the new era.

China Digital Times CDT is dedicated to documenting and disseminating censored information on the Chinese Internet, as well as people’s efforts to combat censorship. You are welcome to submit articles to us through the Telegram platform, and make your contribution to documenting and combating Chinese Internet censorship!

Read more:
[404 Archives]Issue 85: The Disappearing Black Clothes: The State Violence Behind the Chain Girls in Fengxian County
[404 Archives]Issue 61: Red Building, see Red Building again