July 22, 2010 | Filed Under Blogosphere | No Comments
Noted Chinese mainland blogger Han Han seems to be in Hong Kong today, and despite reports that the Q+A is going ahead “the old fashioned way” using pieces of paper instead of a microphone (probably for fear of folks being censored?), that hasn’t stopped Han from pulling out his legendary short’n’snappy responses.
One of which, may we note, considers marriage. Here’s what he said:
As a matter of fact, for me, as to when I become father will depend on fate and chance. I’ve a lot of friends who want to be dad but can’t; but some have become fathers just because they met a girl.
The Chinese believe in “fate and chance”, which is yuan fen in Mandarin, and this concept can be very alien to — well, aliens (ie foreigners).
June 1, 2010 | Filed Under Blogosphere | No Comments
Taiwan’s Central News Agency just has a report in today which mentions arguably China’s more popular Chinese-language bloggers, Han Han. Presently aged 27, the writer-turned-blogger-and-race-car-driver has been equated somewhat with the author of “Charter 08″ Liu Xiaobo in the sense that both are in sensitive territory. (Liu is now in prison on charges of subverting authority.) Han, this time, is quoted as saying that he’s walking a very thin wire and could probably end up arrested one day.
The article quotes a CNN interview with Han where Han is quoted as saying that blogging in China is like walking a tight rope. “You’ve got to be very careful, because there are no associated laws in telling you how you can write a ’safe’ or ‘dangerous’ article,” says Han. He’s also not for imprisonment due to what one writes, but admit he’s powerless if he’s captured.
Han has had clashes not only with other so-called public intellectuals, but more of note, with the censors. Quite a number of Han’s articles, published on Sina Blogs, have been either heavily modded down or altogether taken down. Han is Sina Blogs’ most popular blogger, but at a price: being hosted in the PRC, Sina Blogs benefits by not being “harmonized” by the Great Firewall, but also offers less First Amendment territory. In essence, publish anything taking those in power to task, and step a bit outside what’s acceptable — and you could be in trouble.
Taking blogs outside major portals and going overseas is one way out, but if there’s a number of articles that gets the censors’ goats, that’s it — you’re invisible in China. There’s a quote from this on the Chinese Wikipedia: “It goes without saying that if you’re blogging about democracy or politics and if it gets popular, that site is going to get hit by the Great Firewall.”