China Grows Its Own Twitter

Stirfry192 writes "Twitter is banned in China, and the authorities are trying to foster a censored version of the service, but the speed and nature of such services calls into question China's ability to retain control — especially in combustible, highly emotional situations."

Comments

Re:hate to post off topic, but is it just me?

[paiute]

Only Post!

Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[sethstorm]

"A lot of the injustices in China aren't necessarily new, but people are just starting to hear about them."

Wait until they hear what really happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Or what their company town's party boss was really doing to the town.

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[larry bagina]

What happened when you heard about the Kent State shootings?

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[poity]

I wasn't alive at the time, but I did learn about it in history class here in the US years later. I got to hear everyone who had an opinion condemn the national guard rather than the students. I learned there was the memorial paid by public funds, and the commemorations that happened year after year. Not to mention the greater emphasis on non-lethal means of riot control brought forth as a result of the incident.

Were you trying to equate Kent State to Tiananmen? Because you failed really hard.

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think that they don't know, then you are kidding your self. They see the injustice. However, centuries of philosophical teachings (Confucius, the guy really was evil) have made them more accepting of inequality.

I remember, I had been in China for about six months and a friend told me that she wanted to show me something. However, the instruction was that as I went through the gate she was going to tell me to stop. I was to act as if I didn't understand her. At that point she would chase me down (now entering the facility herself). We then wandered around for a while.

What was the top secret facility we entered? It was a school for the party members children. It was the type of showcase school that we see when we look at pictures of Chinese schools. It had air-conditioning, and desks, and chairs. The dormitories were clean and the students had windows. They even appeared to have had modern books. This was nothing like the schools for the peoples children; which were dark, crumbling, plaster buildings with poor equipment and facilities.

The Chinese people are aware of these things. However, they accept that this is the way things are and spend their energy cheating and squabbling with each other under the premise that there is little they can do to bring about meaningful, and positive, structural change. As such all effort goes into improving personal lives, not into improving society as a whole.

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[DigiShaman]

I believe it. Shanghai isn't that bad, so I'm guessing you visited a more rural area. But, you might be speaking of Shanghai too. I don't know, I honestly haven't been all over that city due to it being so big

During one of my trips deep inside the mainland with my Chinese wife, I needed to use the restroom. It's like one of those stand-alone buildings you often see at a national park. But this one was really bad. It reeked of urine, and everything was covered with white tiles stained brownish yellow. Chinese love tiles in and around their buildings for some reason. Anyways, that as the piss trough running the entire length of one wall. The toilets were just holes in the ground with a length of PVC pipe cut lengthwise to capture the waste. But it get's better. Much better.

In order to use this lovely little restroom, I had to pay a usage fee to a man standing outside the door. I think it was 1 or 2 Yuan. Very little really. I felt paying for that little time of hell was both strange and insulting to me at the same time. My wife assured me that this was normal out here. They weren't trying to milk a foreigner here. In fact, I bet I'm the first one they've ever saw.

Throughout all my ordeal, I wasn't upset. Rather, I felt bad for an entire nation with a deep and rich history all but forgotten amongst the people. Because of the CCP, China was a nation that could have been much more than ever dreamed possible, but never had the chance. Here before me stands a man in his 40s working his glorious soul-sucking job of collecting toiletry money. I can only imagine how the educated class in China must feel. Them hearing about the Cultural Revolution and the epic failure that it was must be gut-wrenching to their national pride.

whats it called?

[JimboTheProgrammer]

Chitter?

Re:hate to post off topic, but is it just me?

[tftp]

And here we are on Slashdot on a Saturday holiday weekend night.

But look at the bright side. Other folks have to deal with their relatives, drunken friends, taking stupid, ugly girls to see movies that any normal man would hate, drinking reused "beer", and eating stuff that kills.

Faithful geeks, on the other hand, don't have to go anywhere; if their friends are drunk it's a problem only in `svn diff`; their girls are the most beautiful and the least demanding (being downloadable.) Food, however, is a problem - neither them nor us eat at most exquisite French restaurants.

But the question in the end of each day is simple: what have you done today to make this world better? If you say that you ate a bunch of hotdogs, no brownie points for that. But if you wrote 10 lines of code that someone, somewhere needs, it's a good thing. At least that's what workaholics say :-)