China, cultural exchange, educational tourism, technology, free speech and Internet chat


The flowery kingdom, now divided into China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, is having a difficult time managing the opportunities for dialogue available on the Web in internet chat rooms. The electronic exchange, combining as it does anonymity and directness, is confounding the social engineers of the three polities in distinctive but quite similar ways.

Nicholas Kristof in a New York Times Op Ed piece on December 13 reports on an experiment he attempted in Chinese internet chat rooms. Disguising himself as an ordinary individual and writing in Chinese he tried to post on several chat rooms the question "Why is Prime Minister Wen Jiabao off in America kowtowing to the imperialists when he should be solving more important problems at home." It did not get by the censors. A milder version was also censored but his third attempt was deemed acceptable by, as he put it, a cabianqui referring to the term for a ball that nicks the corner of the table in ping-pong. The third version was: "Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's visit to America has been very successful, but I wonder if he is wasting too much time abroad instead of focusing on our own important problems like unemployment?"

Similar efforts to nuance the politically acceptable in chat rooms is becoming an issue in Hong Kong. This report from Human Rights Watch discusses the problem. Just as with educational tourism and technology transfer there is in Internet chat rooms great potential for both great liberation and empowerment but simultaneously control and manipulation. One great paradox of technology is that it always presents itself in the guise of freedom, offering an easier and more effective life, but at the same time it enforces uniformity and compliance to external standards.

Kristof concludes his column noting that historically the Chinese would rebel when they had the chance and not necessarily when most oppressed. Thus we can anticipate, he believes , significant protest to come in China. Given the expansion of cultural exchange programs and educational tourism and the ease of communication made possible by technology a Tiananmen like violent repression is unlikely. But this is one reason why a "one China" policy is important despite the fact that political reunion between Taiwan and China is not going to happen. The point is to define a culturally Chinese form of freedom of expression, a form permitting cabianqiu but no more.

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Posted: Sun - December 14, 2003 at 08:11 PM      

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