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My project is an artistic book of illustrations that I have titled Sensitive List. To better understand my project, it is important to know about the cultural background as well as about the political and historical frameworks under which this project was conceived.
Born and raised in China, I have grown up in a climate of strict political censorship and limited personal freedoms. One of the most chilling aspects of my culture is the government-generated “sensitive list”. Essentially, this list is comprised of over one thousand words - like “democracy” and “freedom” – which the Chinese government has banned its populace from using publicly. If people fail to comply and choose to write or speak any of these government- censored words in a public forum, these citizens risk grave punishment -- or worse.
Sensitive List is an artistic response to the attempt of the Chinese government to muzzle and restrict its people’s freedoms in expression, including my own. Sensitive List was greatly influenced by the work of Ai Weiwei, a Chinese contemporary artist who landed on the government’s so-called “sensitive list” because of his artistic and political daring. His art questions and challenges the policies of his restrictive government, and so does mine.
Sensitive List is comprised of carefully chosen terms and code words that are part of the government’s collection of prohibited language. The words I chose are ones that are particularly meaningful to me, including “Tiananmen Square Protests”—an event which Chinese people are not allowed to discuss or reference.
In my project, I have included the literal meaning of terms and code words, as well as their Chinese pronunciations. I have also illustrated how the code words have traditionall...
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...free individuals, and we do not need a censor to tell us what is acceptable or not. To me, all censorship is contrary to democratic principles.
Freedom of speech should be guaranteed in China, as it is essential to the preservation of both a free society and a creative culture. Sensitive List, my artistic book of illustrations, aims to educate people, visually, about the restrictive principles and philosophy of a government that attempts to control and repress its people in an undemocratic way. Through it, I want to communicate my belief that freedom of speech must be preserved, not only in art, but also in literature, theatre, music, and public discourse. For it is through free and open discussion of political and social ideas that humans – as well as the whole of society -- can grow, develop, and thrive. Sensitive List is my attempt to see this happen in China.
Rae Yang’s Memoir “Spider Eaters” is a poignant personal story of a girl growing up amidst the political upheaval during the establishment of People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong’s Communist leadership. Yang describes the fascinating journey of her life from her early years as the daughter of Chinese diplomats in Switzerland to a student in an elite middle school then a fanatic Red-guard and eventually a laborer in a pig farm. Her experiences through the revolution serve as an eye-opener and lead to her eventual disillusionment of the Communist revolution in China. There are many factors that contributed to her growing discontent with communism such as the anti-rightist movement which was an effort to rule out any criticism against the government, corruption and violence of the party leaders who abused their power and continued to exploit the peasants, the false claim of proletariat dictatorship used merely to eradicate bourgeoisie and further the interests of party members.
In his poem, “Notes from the City of the Sun”, Bei Dao utilizes obscure imagery consistent with the Misty Poets and veiled political references to illustrate the struggles in Chinese society during the Cultural Revolution. The poem is sectioned into fourteen short stanzas containing imagery that are symbolic of the cultural hegemony in China under the rule of Mao Zedong. Bei Dao, born Zhao Zhen-kai, is an anti-revolutionary poet and one of the founders of a group known as the Misty Poets. The Misty Poets wrote poems that protested the Cultural Revolution led by Mao Zedong. Therefore, a lot of Bei Dao’s poems speak out against the Cultural Revolution and the restrictions that it placed on any form of art. Bei Dao’s poetry is categorized as “misty” because of the ambiguity in its references to Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. An obscure imagery that occurs twice in “Notes” is the sun imagery. Another imagery that depicts the injustice of the Cultural Revolution is the description of freedom as scraps of paper. In the poem, Bei Dao also equates faith to sheep falling into a ditch; this is a depiction blind faith during the Cultural Revolution. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how Bei Dao’s use of the Misty Poet’s ambiguous imagery and implicit political context in the poem “Notes from the City of the Sun” to illustrate the cultural hegemony in China under Mao.
“I don’t want to be part of this kind of denying reality. We live in this time. We have to speak out” (Klayman). Ai Weiwei is an internationally known Chinese artist as well as activist, and his motivation and determination can be summed up by this quote. In all of his pieces, Weiwei critically examines the social and administrative issues facing China today. Many of his works exhibit multiple themes that can be interpreted in various different ways. This lends itself to the universal appeal of his art and makes it a more effective medium of conveying his messages to viewers. Ai Weiwei’s activist artwork—and activist artwork in general—is important to society because it effectively forces the viewer to engage in a self-reflective process that makes the viewer critically examine his or her own beliefs and world. Nevertheless, censorship greatly hinders the dissemination of the critical and thought provoking messages of Ai Weiwei’s art and makes his artwork less effective. In order to gain a better understanding of the relationship of Ai Weiwei’s activist art and the Communist Party’s subsequent censorship, I will examine Ai Weiwei’s influential childhood, his specific brand of activist artwork, the censorship of the Chinese government and the effects of censorship on the effectiveness of Ai Weiwei’s art.
With this powerful information comes means for people to understand different viewpoints and ideas. These ideas and arguments may sway them to alter their opinions and thoughts. In Communist China, these ideas and opinions cannot be publicized. The Chinese constitution states that its citizens have limited rights to privacy:
It is interesting to note that some of the new Internet regulations contradict International Laws signed by the Chinese government. China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1998 that states that “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print…or through any other media of his choice”.
Freedom of expression has been enshrined as one of the fundamental rights in constitutions of most of the democratic states of the world. This right is hallmark of an egalitarian democratic state. There cannot be an easy access to this right under a dictatorial regime or monarchy. But under democratic structure, it becomes an imperative feature and censorship or gagging of liberal ideas becomes questionable. Censorship consists of any attempt to suppress information, points of view, or method of expression such as art or literature as anti-social or profane. A human being cannot consider his/her social environment free unless he/she is subject to limitations asfar asfreedom of expression of opinion is concerned. Such condition of existence is not even calmly borne by
Freedom of speech and expression is one of the most important rights that we have in this country. Our forefathers knew this and acknowledged this in our great constitution which protects our rights as citizens in America. Censorship is a complete contradiction to this concept that has helped make America the greatest country in the world. If we do not stand up for our rights for free speech, someday it may be taken away all together. Everyday there are people out there trying to ban and censor things from Americans, things that as an American you have the right to view. Censorship must be stopped at all costs.
Everyday people in China are suffering from their government. From being wrongly accused to being executed for petty crimes. In a country where you cannot speak your opinions, talk poorly about government officials, speak about Chinese communist failures, or even browse the internet freely. China has kept its citizens in the void. One example is the great firewall of china, which sensors most social media and other sites. This essay will go into some individual stories of the Chinese government's unfair social injustices towards its people.
Tripathi, Salil. "Drawing a Line." Index on Censorship. 2 (2005): 162-168. EBSCOhost. Accessed March 22, 2010.
China is a communist country, whose citizens faced many difficult situations while trying to fight for their human rights. According to the “Freedom Rankings” from the database CountryWatch China is not a free country. Specifically the Political Rights and Civil Liberties are in their maximum numbers; this means that these rights are confiscated from the people. Therefore freedoms of press, expression, speech, religion, and movement are all severely limited in China. The government has also kept a close watch on art in China; Chinese art went through many different stages starting from the year 1842. But the massacre of Tiananmen Square in the year 1989 was a turning point in the political life of China and on the country's art. Until the year 1992 art in china was underground, but it kept expanding. As a result of that some Chinese artists started to do art works that rebel against their government and express their feelings towards China. One of these artist is the famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei who expressed in each piece of art he did, his feelings that China should let its people break away from the rotten traditional, in order to express their thoughts freely.
Censorship is usually considered “official” censorship because it is action taken by governmental institutions such as government committees, or universities, to limit the view of a specific artwork or a group of works by the public. However, these concrete official actions taken to limit public view of specific artwork are only the results of the abstract “censoring attitudes” of individuals or groups of individuals, encouraging the actions. Censoring attitudes can arise from feelings of race or gender discrimination, discrimination against the gay community, fear of taboos and controversially issues, and assumed moral or Christian authority. It is these attitudes that are the basis of censorship, not necessarily the artist’s intentions of their artwork, because each individual viewer of the artist’s specific piece will unconsciously project his/her own anxieties and fears into the artist’s artwork. What drives the individual to censor the artist’s work is the product of their attitudes being reflected in the subject matter of the artwork, and the result of censorship is keeping the artist’s work from being exposed or even from being created.
Throughout history, the use of information censorship, usually by control of the press, has been common. Though not common in the new digital age, this form of censorship still occurs. Countries, such as China,Russia, and North Korea, use this prolifically in order to keep its people ignorant of the ruling party’s short falls(Chang 30 ). China, for example, has become politically famous for its iron grip on any type of journalistic media. To enact this type of political blackout, the government had to create a specific government department aptly named, the department of publicity. This department, at first, only censored articles that it believed would incite riots or insurgents against the government. Over time, specifically during the 1990s and into the 2000s, this agency began to censor any type of political backlash. This increased grip on the media has been directly proportionate to Jiang Zemin being enacted into the office of general secretary of the communist party (Chang 30). Zemin, with the help of department of publicity director Ding Guangen, ...
Even some of the most authoritarian regimes around today allude to the fact that democracy is desirable. In the 2012 EIU's Index of Democracy, North Korea is ranked 167th in terms of level of democracy (the lowest ranked country on the index). Yet they mention democracy in their countries official name, “Democratic People's Republic of Korea”. Those outside of North Korea might look at this as some sort of sick joke, but it highlights peoples desire for fair and democratic process across the world. North Korea is an extreme case for lack of democracy, as well as an extreme case of government mandated censorship, but censorship is not limited to the low end of the democratic spectrum. It comes many shapes and forms and exists in some level in the majority of nations across the globe. This paper will outline and analyze ...
Thornton, P., (ed.) (2010), ‘Censorship and Surveillance in Chinese Cyberspace: Beyond the Great Firewall’ In Gries, P. H., and Rosen, S., (eds) Chinese Politics (London and New York: Routledge).
Xu, Beina. "Media Censorship in China." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .