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Blocked on Weibo: What Gets Suppressed on China s Version of Twitter (and Why) Paperback – August 27, 2013

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

Though often described with foreboding buzzwords such as "The Great Firewall" and the "censorship regime," Internet regulation in China is rarely either obvious or straightforward. This was the inspiration for China specialist Jason Q. Ng to write an innovative computer script that would make it possible to deduce just which terms are suppressed on China's most important social media site, Sina Weibo. The remarkable and groundbreaking result is Blocked on Weibo, which began as a highly praised blog and has been expanded here to list over 150 forbidden keywords, as well as offer possible explanations why the Chinese government would find these terms sensitive.

As Ng explains, Weibo (roughly the equivalent of Twitter), with over 500 million registered accounts, censors hundreds of words and phrases, ranging from fairly obvious terms, including "tank" (a reference to the "Tank Man" who stared down the Chinese army in Tiananmen Square) and the names of top government officials (if they can't be found online, they can't be criticized), to deeply obscure references, including "hairy bacon" (a coded insult referring to Mao's embalmed body).

With dozens of phrases that could get a Chinese Internet user invited to the local police station "for a cup of tea" (a euphemism for being detained by the authorities),
Blocked on Weibo offers an invaluable guide to sensitive topics in modern-day China as well as a fascinating tour of recent Chinese history.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Blocked on Weibo :
"It's an engaging new volume chock full of illuminating, sometimes amusing entries on temporarily or permanently banned terms."
―Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor of History, University of California, Irvine

"This is a fascinating study with important implications for anyone who is interested in the intellectual and political climate of contemporary China. Highly recommended."
―Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Pennsylvania

"What makes his blog―and the book it has now spawned―so attractive is Ng's wit and erudition. Some entries in this
Devil's Dictionary for digital times are simply descriptive, but many open surprising windows onto the wonderfully creative strategies Chinese internet users employ to circumvent blocks."
Times Literary Supplement

Praise for the Blocked on Weibo blog that inspired the book:
"Blocked on Weibo is interesting for those with any knowledge of China and its Internet space, right from beginners to old hands."
―Jon Russell, The Next Web

"Censorship nerds: check out Blocked on Weibo, an amazingly useful blog on what's blocked in China and why."
―Andrew McLaughlin, VP of Tumblr, and former White House deputy chief technology officer

"A treasure."
―Thomson Reuters

About the Author

Jason Q. Ng is a research consultant for China Digital Times and a 2013 Google Policy Fellow at the Citizen Lab. His work has been featured in Le Monde, the Huffington Post, the Next Web, Asia Pacific Forum, and Shanghaiist. He writes regularly on China for Waging Nonviolence. He lives in New Jersey.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 159558871X
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The New Press (August 27, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781595588715
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1595588715
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
14 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2013
This book opens a window into contemporary Chinese history and culture. The word China and Censorship have become synonymous in current Western media. This book serves to showcase how both the government and the people (netizens) deal with changing views and emerging technologies. The "Blocked" words are not only interesting in how netizens have found ways to communicate about censored issues but also exposes current events that would otherwise be unheard in the world.

The book is structured with a blocked word on each page, followed by an explanation of it's meaning and why it was blocked on Weibo (Chinese twitter).

My favorite portion of the books is the detailed explanation of the meaning of the block words which can be both insightful and comical. Who knew Mao Ze Dong is also known as Hairy Bacon?!
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Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2013
This is a thoughtful and detailed book on censorship in China, with an excellent introductory chapter that discusses the layers of formal and informal censorship. Unfortunately, the embedded Chinese characters in the text are impossible to read on a smart phone, even if one pauses to zoom in (I use an HTC One with a very high resolution screen). The characters are small but legible on my 24" screen at home, but this is a book that encourages reading entry by entry so is well suited to reading on the go.

The book puts much emphasis on the dynamism of term blocking on Weibo (the largest Chinese version of Twitter), with an appendix at the back that shows what terms that were blocked when the author did his first research in 2012 and whether the terms were still blocked as the book was going to press. Jason Ng is very clear about how he went about choosing the terms, and this is one of those books where some of the chapter end notes are as interesting -- perhaps more interesting -- than the text itself. Finally, recognizing that China is not the only country that censors the Internet, the author does a good job contextualizing the Chinese system with Internet censorship elsewhere in the world (and Internet monitoring as well).
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Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2013
Learned a lot on a new topic I don't have much background on. Also learned a lot about modern history and culture of China, an opportunity you don't often get when you are only exposed to Western media.
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2015
Excellent nonfiction read! The book was in good condition
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2015
Regardless of how the terms are blocked, the point is that censorship is rampant in China. Anything seen as politically subversive is removed and the author is subject to detention. Sina Weibo exists not because of cultural differences, but because China does not want their citizens to learn the definition of freedom of speech. China has an abysmal human rights record and we should not be jumping in to defend it. This book exposes the "Great Firewall" for what it is. Also, please ignore the one star review as that reviewer likely did not read the book and is a victim of Chinese propaganda.
Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2014
twitter is stupid and china is smart and i offended by this book and would start a riot if an option were readily available
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Top reviews from other countries

Finn Leahy
4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview
Reviewed in Canada on February 13, 2019
Does a good job explaining various terms and why their blocked
Easy to understand and very interesting. Very good read