笑话

This is a joke my 16 year old student told me. Her English isn't very good so her translation of it wasn't very clear, but it was good enough for me to get the gist of it.

Q. Why didn't [a famous terrorist's name] try to attack China?

A. Apparently he did.

He sent four men to do his dirty work for him. The first man is was told to blow up some famous bridge (I don't remember the name) but there were too many bridges and could not find it. The second man was sent to set a bomb off in a public space but before he did, someone stold his bag. The third man was to blow up a bus but failed to do so because there were too many people inside for him to even get on. The last man was sent to blow up a coal mine. This man was successful but no one heard about it because these coal mine explosions happen too often to be worthy of news.

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Statistics show that the number of people who use the internet in China has reached over 450 million people, almost a third of the country's population. The Chinese government, notorious for its censorship, is scrambling to come up with ways to control what can get published on the internet. My teacher has told me that for every major city, there are thousands of people that monitor messageboards or forums and promptly delete or pursue these 'dissidents' to uphold 社会和谐- or social harmony. However, with the growing number of users online in China outnumber the number of people keeping them in line and news travels fast. I frequently visit a number of websites that are translated from Chinese to English (such as this and this) and while there are still some things posted by these netizens that make me uncomfortable (nationalism and gay issues), its refreshing to see that people have the ability and access to the social injustices that occur everyday. Its something I guess.

The popular catch phrase and story behind"我爸是李刚" or "my father is Li Gang" is an excellent example of the power of people online. Check it out!