THE FORBIDDEN IMAGES OF THE CHINESE INTERNET

Kelsey Ables

Nothing reflects the lasting potency of the iconic “Tank Man” photo quite like the dogged attempts to censor it on China’s internet. Practically any image that so much as gestures at the famed photograph of a man in front of a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square risks deletion from the country’s closely monitored web; recreations showing a line of books approaching a cigarette package, a swan before an oncoming truck, and a grasshopper in front of a tire have all been removed. According to Weiboscope—a social-media monitoring project at Hong Kong University—even Francisco Goya’s Third of May 1808 (1814), which echoes the Tank Man in sentiment and composition, could not make it past censors.

A Beijing demonstrator blocks the path of a tank convoy along the Avenue of Eternal Peace near Tiananmen Square. Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images.

Behind China’s Great Firewall—which is more like a continually shifting, dynamic barrier—the Tiananmen Square massacre did not happen, the ongoing Hong Kong extradition bill protests are a mere squabble incited by Western countries, and Winnie the Pooh doesn’t exist. This tightly controlled media climate has given rise to innovative circumvention tactics. While searchable keywords in plain text face automated deletion, digital images require more nuanced monitoring. News articles from banned websites like the New York Times appear in upside-down screenshots on Weibo, a social site akin to Twitter (which is blocked in China). One writer managed to keep a photo from the Hong Kong protests up on WeChat, but only after adding brushstrokes and flipping it sideways. Resourceful netizens also use images of ordinary objects and cartoon characters as symbols in an ever-growing visual lexicon made for dodging censorship.

In recent months, the grip on the internet has tightened. In June, the protests and the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre kept censors on edge. The Washington Post and The Guardian were freshly banned, along with 10 other major news sites. And a series of sensitive anniversaries this month—including deadly riots in Xinjiang in 2009 and the death of democracy advocate Liu XiaoBo in 2017—pose more challenges for Chinese internet censors trying to clean the web of what government leaders call “spiritual pollution.”

Jason Ng, author of Blocked on Weibo (2013), notes that the Chinese government’s utmost priority is discouraging unified, anti-establishment action. But for Ng, the intrigue lies in the gray areas—where the state does more than prevent political unrest. “Clearly, it is not only protests that are being censored. There is some sort of intentionality,” he said. “It is fascinating to think through the moral reasons why things are removed. How does the government try to shape social mores? How do they try to shape culture through censorship?”

In recent months, the grip on the internet has tightened. In June, the protests and the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre kept censors on edge. The Washington Post and The Guardian were freshly banned, along with 10 other major news sites. And a series of sensitive anniversaries this month—including deadly riots in Xinjiang in 2009 and the death of democracy advocate Liu XiaoBo in 2017—pose more challenges for Chinese internet censors trying to clean the web of what government leaders call “spiritual pollution.”

Jason Ng, author of Blocked on Weibo (2013), notes that the Chinese government’s utmost priority is discouraging unified, anti-establishment action. But for Ng, the intrigue lies in the gray areas—where the state does more than prevent political unrest. “Clearly, it is not only protests that are being censored. There is some sort of intentionality,” he said. “It is fascinating to think through the moral reasons why things are removed. How does the government try to shape social mores? How do they try to shape culture through censorship?”.............

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