|
Media regulation
Transformers and WikipediaPosted by Jeremy Goldkorn, August 21, 2007 6:47 PM
When asked about problems that China's opening up to the outside world has caused, Deng Xiaoping famously observed that 'when you open the window, some flies may come in' (打开窗户,苍蝇可能会飞进来). But some windows can be closed, or mosquito screens can be installed to prevent some of the undesirables from waltzing in too easily. Today, there have surfaced two good examples of the government trying to keep the fly ratio low: Transformers' success edges out other foreign movies from China market Transformers is an American animated TV and comic book series that was popular in the U.S., China and even your correspondent's home country of South Africa in the 1980s. The film version of Transformers, released globally this July, was a box office hit in the U.S., and in China. A Danwei film industry source had this to say about the box office receipts of the film: "Probably well over 300 million yuan with all the unofficial screenings... It has screwed up the desired ratio of domestic box office to foreign box office. This means that the foreign films in the pipeline for the remainder of 2007 have to cut way back on promotion. A bunch of promotional activities for Shrek 3 was just canceled by SARFT and the China Film Group." Note: see also this report from July 2007 on Chinese government website China.org.cn: Transformers Smash Chinese Box Office Records.
Ah, China's Net Nanny! What she giveth with one hand, she taketh away with the other. Today, Typepad blogs such as Billsdue, Silicon Hutong, Tim Johnson's China Rises and The Useless Tree are now easily accessible on the Mainland. But Wikipedia, whose non Chinese-language versions had been unblocked since June this year, is now completely unaccessible, at least from Beijing. |
Partner Links
Jobs in China
Recent Comments
lyl on
The cult of a Super Girl
Jeremy Gol on
Danwei Canteen: Chestnut Chicken Stew
Gareth on
Gamble your life away in ZT Online
Inst on
The Mouse looms over Shanghai
Anonymous on
Giant Mao Zedong stands alone in the autumn cold
Joel Marti on
A centenarian monk reads the newspaper
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
![]() Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
Xujun Eberlein's Apologies Forthcoming: Hong Kong's Blacksmith Books has published a short story collection by Xujun Eberlein.
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ New Years Past: Other Spring Festivals by Geremie R. Barmé (2007.02): Sang Ye interviews two people about their experiences during Great Leap Forward-era Spring Festivals. Translated and annotated by Geremie R. Barmé. + Trend-spotting in online fiction (2007.06): An interview with Daniel Dan Fei (丹飞), publisher of Notes on Graverobbing (盗墓笔记), Rear Palace (后宫), and Those Ming Dynasty Things (明朝那些事). + China's 50 Most Beautiful People (2005.03): The Beijing News borrows a picture of Maggie Cheung from Cosmo for the cover of today's Entertainment insert, "50 Most Beautiful People in China". Ms. Cheung takes the top spot, with Takeshi Kaneshiro, Little S, Zhang Ziyi, and Liu Ye rounding out the top five in this exercise that is a conscious imitation of People magazine's yearly rundown.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky
or Feedburner |





Comments on Transformers and Wikipedia
Wikipedia is blocked in Shenzhen too. A quick traceback seems to confirm that it is the Great Firewall creating problems..
Nanjing too! Damn you, Great FireWall!
Guangzhou, too. But, at least now I can see my blog!
What is a "Danwei film industry source"? Does Danwei have a film industry?
Should it not be simply "a source in the film industry told Danwei..."?
I can confirm Wikipedia being blocked in Zhuhai too...
If you want to get on Wikipedia, even in Beijing, it is laughably easy....if you know what you're doing. "completely inaccessible" is incorrect.
How about editing Wikipedia pages? You can't do it over the CoDeen proxy network since they forbid POST methods.
What is your solution?
It seems to me that wikipedia has been unblocked again :)
As for D's question, have a look at
link
funny i was just on wiki today (from beijing) and it seemed to be working!?!
Wiki is back for me...
What's the hell going on with Wikipedia? how come it always be blocked? people have not rights to share something for free? Damn it!