China's Great Firewall of Silence

                                                                    
The government of the People's Republic of China employs a vast horde of people, reputedly over 300,000, whose job it is to censor the worldwide web from the Chinese people. Alternately to my disbelief, astonishment, amusement, and regret, that censorship has included Public Occurrences since the fall of 2009.

There are reasons why the Chinese civilization has endured for 5,000 years and one of them (among the most benign) is the resourcefulness of Chinese. Last week I received an email from a Chinese friend asking for my mailing address because someone wanted to send me something.  I provided it with an insouciance that I wouldn't have dreamed if the package was coming from someone in America, or at least from certain zip codes. A few days later I got the package.  A note accompanied it:

Dear Ben,

With the help of Guanchha (www.observechina.net), I mail you the new movie “The Red Arts.”  It was directed and produced in 2007 by Hu Jie and Professor Ai Xiaoming.  The Red Guard in the movie is me.  I hope you like this movie.

Your endeavor to investigate events in China’s Cultural Revolution is widely told on China’s internet.  I really appreciate what you have done.

I am very sorry that my English is so poor that I can’t communicate with you freely.  But I believe we can fully understand each other in heart!

Best regards,

[name withheld]

The author of the note lives in China and, as he writes, is a former Red Guard. The package he sent me travelled the modern-day equivalent of the Silk Road.  I don’t know all the details but the friend in the U.S. who emailed me had the package. The author refers to "help" received from ObserveChina in D.C., run by another friend, and one of my personal heroes, Harry Wu.  Whether ObserveChina had the package at some point or what help they provided, I don’t know, the silk was very tangled on the road this package travelled. 

The government's censorship hassles and discourages but it does not stop the flow of information.  Determined Chinese get around the Great Firewall by taking their discussions onto bbs boards, into chat rooms, through blogs and, as here, resorting to true snail mail. The author of the note had previously sent me things via email.

My interest in China is deep. I have been at a "deep depth," in Yogi Berra phraseology, with China for four years now. But I cannot get accustomed to this. Every sentient human being knows that the PRC censors. I, a sentient human being, know that.  Knew it. Still can't get accustomed to it. 


My thanks to the person in China who sent me Hu Jie's film--and to Hu Jie--and to my friend in the U.S. who forwarded me the package, to Mr. Harry Wu, and to others who may have helped.