I recently returned from a trip to China and don’t get me wrong, it was pretty great.
But along the way, I was hoping to keep in touch with the Western world and my friends, but nah, that didn’t really happen. Want to know why? Because China bans that stuff. It wasn’t until I reached Hong Kong (although Hong Kong is technically under the People’s Republic of China, it’s free to do it’s own thing most of the time) that I checked my mass of Facebook notifications and the gazillion subscription updates on YouTube. Through those websites, I found out about Steve Jobs resigning from Apple, and Jack Layton passing away. Yeah… I was up until 3 a.m. updating myself. Thanks a bunch, Mainland China…
So I got back and decided to investigate the copious amounts of bans China has placed on stuff (like the words below). I just thought it’d be interesting to investigate.
China Bans 100 Songs due to “poor taste and vulgar content”
(I’m not going to put the entire list down only because it’d look like an iron curtain of text and because some of the songs are unknown to the Western world)
- Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) – Katy Perry
- Run the World (Girls) – Beyoncé
- I Want it That Way – Backstreet Boys
- Americano – Lady Gaga
- Judas – Lady Gaga
- Edge of Glory – Lady Gaga
- Hair – Lady Gaga
- Marry the Night – Lady Gaga
- Bloody Mary – Lady Gaga (Wow, Lady Gaga’s on a roll)
- A bunch of Simple Plan and Owl City Songs
China bans these songs due to their content. A brief mention about sex, politics or religion could get the song banned. Even songs about “youthful independence” may get the song censored.
China Bans Phrases and Words
Oh, trust me. The list goes on and on and on. Obviously China can’t keep track of these words, but the idea is kinda interesting/silly. You can check the image above if you want to see more.
- Chinese Communist Party, Ruling government
- Puppet government, One-party system
- Dictatorship, tyranny
- Human rights in China & Freedom of expression
- Gao Zhisheng (Chinese lawyer and activist)
- Falun Gong (Banned cult in China founded by Li Hongzhi)
- Keywords related to Military, Gambling, Brainwashing & Sex
- Kidney harvesting from live people, Organ Sale
- Tiananmen Square Massacre
- Tibet, Taiwan Independence
- Cheating in Examinations, Fake Diploma courses
- How to make bombs, counterfeit money and so on.
- Rich woman, lonely young woman
China Bans Books
Here are just some of them.
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
- Animal Farm – George Orwell
- The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
- The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinback
- Lolita – Vladmir Nabokov
China Bans Websites
Yep, there’s more.
- YouTube
- Vimeo
- IMBD -Internet Movie Database
- Blogspot
- Google Documents
- Google+ (it’s been since June 28, 2011)
It’s not only China that has had so much censorship. Communist countries have a tendency to shield its citizens from the outside world. Leaders have a fear or revolution and public outcry from ideas floating around in the public, whether it be from Lady Gaga or Lewis Carroll. Yep, just applying my Social -20 skills.