Banned in Beijing
Was it something we said? According to the Great Firewall of China, Rainy Day is being blocked by the regime in Beijing. Why? Maybe it's because of what we recently quoted from page 459 of "Cultural Amnesia", the new book by Clive James, to wit: "Mao had so organized his colossal abattoir of a state that information rarely travelled further than a scream could be heard. But that was inside China. Outside China, the story went everywhere, and there was never any excuse for not hearing it. The idea that there was is part of the lie — the part fated, it seems, to last longest."
Meanwhile, here's the lead from a front-page story in today's edition of the International Herald Tribune: "With the aid of sophisticated software, government censorship of the Internet is spreading into a global phenomenon, with tech-savvy governments filtering forbidden themes from politics and human rights to sexuality and religion, according to a new academic survey of 40 countries." As Joni Mitchell sang in Big Yellow Taxi: "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone."
Comments
They used to say among mid-20th century writers that you weren't anybody unless you were banned in Ireland. I think you should similarly take it as a badge of pride to be persona non grata in China, Eamonn. It's a decrepit, dangerous regime and one that has the potential to destroy culture in a way that the worst governance of the 20th century could only have dreamed about. Chapeau, as we say here in Paris. :)
Posted by: seanachie | May 18, 2007 10:18 PM
Yes, I was very much aware of that when I wrote the post. But the lot of the writer in 20th century Ireland was much worse than that of the blogger in 21st century Europe. Materially, anyway. Money was always scarce and one had to be content with the same threadbare overcoat for years. Being banned back then was more romantic, though. And once your name was on the index, it was free drinks for weeks after in the regular haunts. Fat chance of that today.
Posted by: Eamonn Fitzgerald | May 18, 2007 10:46 PM
I don't mean to rain on your parade, Eamonn, but anybody can be banned in China. I'm banned, and I think I last mentioned that country in 2003, when I noted that Norman Mailer had a tendency to babble. I suspect all of Blogspot is banned -- me, Biased BBC, kitten-fanciers, doting parents, shoe fetishists, etc etc etc.
You can see how this would run into serious money for drinks.
Posted by: Angie Schultz | May 19, 2007 12:05 AM
OK, but at least Eamonn has had the guts to stand up and say something. A lot of people stay silent about China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia etc.etc. because they don't want to rock the boat or maybe lose their jobs or be seen as not swimming with the pc tide. Blogging is an easy option compared with going face-to-face with these regimes, but it is better than saying nothing.
Posted by: con mcgovern | May 19, 2007 11:27 AM
My university department website is banned too. We never mentioned China.
Posted by: hans ze beeman | May 19, 2007 11:49 AM
I've just done the test and come up banned too - and yet I know I've had readers in china, they show up sometimes in my stats. Maybe I'm only blocked by some servers?
Then again I've always thought that doing this test was probably enough to get you banned.
Posted by: Ms Baroque | May 23, 2007 12:30 AM