Earlier discussion in this thread and its replies:
samuelwa.de@samuelwa.de · 3mo agoDevil in details, proof in pudding etc, but this seems encouraging.
Cindy Carter
@cindycarter.bsky.social
Translator of Chinese film, fiction, non-fiction, poetry
samuelwa.de@samuelwa.de · 3mo agoSome context for recently reported promises to move toward granting access to public services where you live, not just where you're from.
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 4w agoTranslation: “Education for Migrant Workers’ Children Can’t Wait Any Longer” "Whether from a moral standpoint (ending the tragic separation of 100 million people from their parents or children) or a practical one (demographic crisis and technological upheaval), there is no room for further delay."
For any Sinology homies who missed it: I have a *very rough* conversion of Hucker for Pleco that is definitely buggy but may make life easier anyway. If you're up for beta-testing, check it out. 🀄📚
Brendan O’Kane@bokane.org · 2mo agoFriday night, time to go wild.
I’ve been enjoying Andrew Rule’s posts of Chinese netlit recs from fans, authors, translators, editors, and academics. He’s now assembled the entire project into a single page with lots of links to originals and translations. (I’m in there recommending 废土西游 and 此刻我存在.) substack.com/home/post/p-...
[Single-Page Version] The Cold Window Guide to Chinese Internet Literature
Welcome to the Cold Window Newsletter.
substack.com
From another deleted post: "When two young Chinese women danced in the street wearing Japanese kimonos, they were met with outrage. There are posters exhorting Chinese people to travel abroad to a foreign military spectacle on what was originally Chinese territory. This is difficult to reconcile."
@cindycarter.bsky.social epic on useful selectivity of historical grievance. Quote below continues: "These two very different reaction systems operate in parallel and no one thinks it strange, but it is our 'dual-SIM' mentality that gives rise to such absurdities." "Dual-SIM mentality" is a keeper.
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 3mo agoTranslations: Censored Articles Decry Chinese Schoolchildren Being Used as “Props” in Vladivostok's Victory Day Celebrations "On some historical questions, our reaction is knee-jerk, a conditioned response. But when it comes to Russia, there are suddenly all sorts of justifications."
New paper in Nature. The more a government controls its domestic media, the more it dominates AI training data, the more pro-regime outputs we get from AI. By scraping the open web, LLMs are unwittingly laundering state-coordinated narratives into seemingly objective answers.
I’m excited to share a new paper in Nature that shows how large language models launder the strategic rhetoric of authoritarian states. Paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... A thread.
State media control influences large language models - Nature
Government-controlled media influences the output of large language models via their training data, and models queried in the languages of countries with lower media freedom show a stronger ...
nature.com
Insightful interview with rural-welfare activist Zhou Jian: "Legally speaking, farmers don’t actually own their land. They have no say in cases of land expropriation; they can’t borrow a cent using the land as collateral. You’re using a bowl passed to you by others, which can’t be passed on."
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 4mo agoTranslation: “Why Do Urban Chinese Have So Many Misconceptions About the Countryside?” (Part One) "Urbanites think farmers’ land ownership is a special privilege, but in fact 'their' land doesn’t bring in any money, doesn’t get them any subsidies, and isn’t really theirs at all."
Widespread mockery of the MSS broadside against slackerism. Here's one: "I suspect my boss is a 'hostile foreign force,' because we work ourselves to death every day, but we’re still broke. Clearly, our spymaster boss is using this tactic to incite employees to slack off, the diabolical fiend."
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 4mo agoNetizen Voices on MSS Claim That Foreign Forces Are Funding Chinese Slackers: “If Everyone Slacked Off, Who’d Be Left To Exploit?”
Insightful interview with rural-welfare activist Zhou Jian: "Legally speaking, farmers don’t actually own their land. They have no say in cases of land expropriation; they can’t borrow a cent using the land as collateral. You’re using a bowl passed to you by others, which can’t be passed on."
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 4mo agoTranslation: “Why Do Urban Chinese Have So Many Misconceptions About the Countryside?” (Part One) "Urbanites think farmers’ land ownership is a special privilege, but in fact 'their' land doesn’t bring in any money, doesn’t get them any subsidies, and isn’t really theirs at all."
This is a great read if you're interested in learning a bit more about class and poverty in China, because being rural is an incredibly tough life. Makes you understand why someone would leave the countryside to be a delivery driver.
!["It’s not a matter of whether they can do it or not," he answered. "They have no choice but to do it, because a month’s pension won’t even cover the most basic necessities. If they don’t farm, what will they eat? It’s a matter of life and death."
He went on to describe a long list of common health issues he’d seen among the rural elderly: an excess of chronic conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Minor ailments go untreated, and major ones are simply endured. When they can’t be endured any longer, you go to hospital; the doctor takes a quick look, and if they say it’s gotten serious, you go home to wait for death. He met a Five Guarantees recipient [food, clothing, medical care, housing, burial expenses] from Zhongjiang, Sichuan last year who cut his toe on a piece of glass. His medical insurance would have covered hospital treatment itself, but he couldn’t afford food or travel costs, so he just cut the toe off with a kitchen cleaver. A living, breathing human treating his own body like expendable parts. Later, he fell ill again, spent two days on an IV drip, and died the day after returning home.
City-dwellers think the rural elderly can live off the land. The reality is they don’t have the physical strength for farm work.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ccrabc6xdnjx4l7btvynnng4/bafkreig6l5bajcs4fttrf5v7qrpunupzamni4euqrxmz73s4qa2nn7clay)
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 4mo agoTranslation: “Why Do Urban Chinese Have So Many Misconceptions About the Countryside?” (Part One) "Urbanites think farmers’ land ownership is a special privilege, but in fact 'their' land doesn’t bring in any money, doesn’t get them any subsidies, and isn’t really theirs at all."
This is a great account of a livestreamed discussion on city-dwellers’ unrealistically sunny views of life in rural China. Worth noting that these misconceptions can easily be transmitted to Westerners and taken as authoritative commentary on “the real China.” There *is* no single “real China”!
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 4mo agoTranslation: “Why Do Urban Chinese Have So Many Misconceptions About the Countryside?” (Part One) "Urbanites think farmers’ land ownership is a special privilege, but in fact 'their' land doesn’t bring in any money, doesn’t get them any subsidies, and isn’t really theirs at all."
RightsCon was delayed by Zambia's Ministry of Information for "thematic issues" and problems with speakers.
World’s Largest Digital Human Rights Conference Suddenly 'Postponed'
RightsCon was delayed by Zambia's Ministry of Information for "thematic issues" and problems with speakers.
404media.co
Rightscon being postponed by the Zambian government days before thousands of people from hundreds of countries fly in is quite chaotic: www.404media.co/rightscon-hu...
World’s Largest Digital Human Rights Conference Suddenly 'Postponed'
RightsCon was delayed by Zambia's Ministry of Information for "thematic issues" and problems with speakers.
404media.co
The world’s largest digital rights conference was just canceled a week before it was supposed to take place. It feels emblematic of the state of human rights right now. But that's not a reason to give up. Everyone deserves rights. Everyone wants rights. That will never change.
RightsCon@rightscon.org · 4mo agoIt is with heavy hearts that we share: RightsCon will not proceed in Zambia or online.
My colleague @samuelwa.de nailed the scare quotes in this Nat'l Defense Times piece: "Illegal 'wall-scaling' is subject to punishment [...], a black mark that may even exact a toll on your children’s lives, affecting their eligibility to enlist in the army or qualify for the civil service exam."
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 4mo agoTranslation: "Scaling the Wall"? You've Crossed the Line "The moment you 'scale the wall,' you’re vulnerable to exploitation by foreign criminal elements and risk being drawn into activities such as online gambling, illegal money-lending, drugs, soliciting prostitutes, etc."
Ai Daxun on her WeChat account ban: "My concerns weren’t unfounded. Last year just before Women’s Day, I tried to organize an offline book-club meeting in Guangdong, but just two nights before the event, it got canceled. I haven’t tried to organize any offline events since then."
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 5mo agoMass Ban of Feminist Accounts on Eve of March 8 International Women’s Day "We are grateful to the relevant authorities for 'optimizing' the online environment on the eve of Women’s Day." chinadigitaltimes.net/2026/03/mass...
it's an insane resources—if you've got a question about basically ANY major story on the Chinese internet/society/politics, there is a page on CDT contextualizing it with links to original source material. It's such a must-read (and don't forget to click into the 中文 site too: chinadigitaltimes.net)
China Digital Times (CDT)
Covering China from Cyberspace
chinadigitaltimes.net
Our new column What China's Thinking is underpinned by the work of my former colleagues at @chinadigitaltimes.net The superlative Chinese team & my friends/role models @samuelwa.de @cindycarter.bsky.social have contextualized so much of recent Chinese history chinabooksreview.com/2026/01/27/w...
Zhang Feng on China's New Media | China Books Review
The prolific social media blogger explains how censorship works in the era of WeChat, and talks us through a changing media landscape, in our new column on the biggest ideas out of China.
chinabooksreview.com
This roundup of 2025's most sensitive words (courtesy of CDT Chinese editors and @samuelwa.de) includes some new and increasingly abstruse Xi Jinping nicknames: i in ing, 123, 羽哥, 长生不老, 150岁, 新加坡, and more.
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 7mo agoCDT 2025 Year-End Roundup: Sensitive Words "In this battle over collective memory, sensitive words seem like the sparks given off when the two sides cross swords."
From WeChat account Mulan’s Worldview: “The tourism industry in China is a chamberpot [...], picked up when needed, and cast aside when it is not. When it is needed to burnish political achievements, tourism is treated as a key driver of GDP growth, but at other times, it becomes a disposable tool."
Netizen Voices: As Sino-Japanese Tensions Rise, “Tourism is Treated like a Chamberpot, a Disposable Tool”
The diplomatic crisis between China and Japan continues to intensify, following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s affirmation last month of Japan’s willingness to defend Taiwan in the event of ...
chinadigitaltimes.net
Does "reincarnation" mean that the bans are no big deal? No. Porosity is a feature, not a bug (see link). As "Du Fu" writes above, bans mean deleted archives and severed connections. They serve as a deterrent to others. And the authorities can always come for you offline if they feel the need to.
Interview: Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson on China’s “Locknet”
In June, ChinaFile published a new report, "The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters"—the product of 18 months’ work by Jessica Batke, ChinaFile’s senior editor for investigatio...
chinadigitaltimes.net
Some banned users number their new accounts. Another went from "Silent Observer" to "New Silence," "New New Silence," and now "New New New Silence." Another approach: "Du Fu’s life took him from Shihao Village to Huanhua Creek, and on to Baidi Fortress. So now there’s Du Fu of Baidi Fortress."
Words of the Week: WeChat Account "New New New Silence" and China's Online "Reincarnation Party"
Last week’s CDT Chinese 404 Archives podcast highlighted the recent revival of the Silent Observer WeChat account. The account, which for several years has provided a platform for philosophically-incl...
chinadigitaltimes.net
"Du Fu wrote 'The state broken, its mountains and rivers remain,' and 'Crimson gates reek with meat and ale, while on the streets are bones of the frozen dead.' Certain people would have called this 'negative energy.' But a thousand years on, it's positive energy that schoolchildren learn by heart."
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 9mo agoTranslation: Farewell to a Deleted WeChat Account, "Du Fu of Huanhua Creek" "Pointing out society’s problems isn’t 'negative energy'—it comes from hoping society can improve. Today’s 'negative energy' is tomorrow’s positive energy."
Some interesting reflections on the fire from mainland voices. Some mourn Hong Kong's "mainlandisation," as well as the dead; others still see and envy some relative openness there. One is very annoyed with people suggesting that the fire was started by Japanese spies.
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 9mo agoTranslations, on Hong Kong Disaster: "Any Lethal Fire Calls for Serious Reflection" "Unfortunately, we can't remedy current problems with terms like 'once,' 'previously,' or 'in the past.' The past is past, and what’s lost is hard to recover."
"When major accidents like this have happened in the past, we’ve always heard: 'Now is the time for all-out rescue efforts. Please don’t analyze causes, assign blame, or speculate about the disaster.' Those who did these things were accused of hindering the response, or harboring ulterior motives."
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 9mo agoTranslations, on Hong Kong Disaster: "Any Lethal Fire Calls for Serious Reflection" "Unfortunately, we can't remedy current problems with terms like 'once,' 'previously,' or 'in the past.' The past is past, and what’s lost is hard to recover."
(That was actually his response to the second ban, when New Silence, formerly Silent Observer and now New New New Silence, became New New Silence.)
Editor of account recently revived after a third ban: "What would you do if years of painstaking effort were wiped out in an instant? Cry and wail and curse your fate? Sink into dejection and give up? No. The late Ming historian Tan Qian had an inspiring answer: count to four, and start again."
China Digital Times@chinadigitaltimes.net · 9mo agoWords of the Week: WeChat Account "New New New Silence" and China's Online "Reincarnation Party" "To rise above nihilism, we must build islands for ourselves. Perhaps [this account] can be one such island."
Transnational repression at the IndieChina Film Festival: Transnational repression at the IndieChina Film Festival: open.substack.com/pub/donaldcl...
Transnational repression at the IndieChina Film Festival
Some distressing news from New York: a festival of independent Chinese films scheduled for November 2025 has been crippled by Chinese government threats against participants and others connected with ...
open.substack.com