In the past several days, I heard people talking about China. And also, I talked to friends about China and Chinese Internet. Something is very challenging to me. I want to make my friends understand: China is complicated. So I always want to tell the story, like, one hand it is that, the other hand is that. You can't just tell a one sided story. I'll give an example. China is a BRIC country. BRIC country means Brazil, Russia, India and China. This emerging economy really is helping the revival of the world economy. But at the same time, on the other hand, China is a SICK country, the terminology coined by Facebook IPO papers -- file. He said the SICK country means Syria, Iran, China and North Korea. The four countries have no access to Facebook. So basically, China is a SICK BRIC country.
過去幾天,我聽見許多人談到中國 我也跟朋友談論中國和中國的網路 我發現有件事極具挑戰性 我想讓我的朋友了解 中國是複雜的 所以在描述一件事情時,我總是會說 從某方面來看是這樣,但從另一方面來看又是這樣 你不能只看事情的一面 比如说,中國是金磚四國(BRIC)之一 金磚四國指的是巴西、俄羅斯、印度和中國 這些新興的經濟體大大提振了全球經濟 然而,從另一方面來看 中國也是「有病四國」(SICK)之一 這個詞在臉書的上市申請書中第一次出現 有病四國指的是敘利亞、伊朗、中國和北朝鮮 這四個國家的民眾都不能上臉書網站 所以簡單來說,中國就是個有病的金磚之國
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Another project was built up to watch China and Chinese Internet. And now, today I want to tell you my personal observation in the past several years, from that wall. So, if you are a fan of the Game of Thrones, you definitely know how important a big wall is for an old kingdom. It prevents weird things from the north.
中國建立了另一套機制 來監視中國和中國的網路 今天,我想跟大家講講我個人 過去幾年對中國網路防火牆的一些觀察 如果你喜歡影集《冰與火之歌:權力遊戲》的話 你一定知道一道堅固的城牆對一個古老的國家來說有多重要 城牆能抵禦北方異族
Same was true for China. In the north, there was a great wall, Chang Cheng. It protected China from invaders for 2,000 years. But China also has a great firewall. That's the biggest digital boundary in the whole world. It's not only to defend the Chinese regime from overseas, from the universal values, but also to prevent China's own citizens to access the global free Internet, and even separate themselves into blocks, not united.
中國也是如此 在北方,我們有座萬里長城 兩千年來守護中國不受侵擾 但中國也有一座網路長城 那就是全世界最大的數字國界 網路長城不只維護了中國的政權 使其不受全球價值觀的影響,但也防止 中國人民接入全球自由網際網路 甚至將中國人民自己也區隔成一塊塊的,而非團結起來
So, basically the "Internet" has two Internets. One is the Internet, the other is the Chinanet. But if you think the Chinanet is something like a deadland, wasteland, I think it's wrong. But we also use a very simple metaphor, the cat and the mouse game, to describe in the past 15 years the continuing fight between Chinese censorship, government censorship, the cat, and the Chinese Internet users. That means us, the mouse. But sometimes this kind of a metaphor is too simple.
所以,基本上“網際網路”有兩種 一種是全球網際網路,另一種是中國網際網路 但如果你以為中國網際網路 就像孤島或一灘死水一樣,我覺得你就錯了 我們會用一個非常簡單的譬喻,也就是貓捉老鼠的遊戲 來形容過去十五年的情況 這是一場角力 一方是中國政府的審查制度,也就是那隻貓 另一方是中國的網路使用者,也就是我們這些老鼠 但這樣的譬喻有時又太簡化了
So today I want to upgrade it to 2.0 version. In China, we have 500 million Internet users. That's the biggest population of Netizens, Internet users, in the whole world. So even though China's is a totally censored Internet, but still, Chinese Internet society is really booming. How to make it? It's simple. You have Google, we have Baidu. You have Twitter, we have Weibo. You have Facebook, we have Renren. You have YouTube, we have Youku and Tudou. The Chinese government blocked every single international Web 2.0 service, and we Chinese copycat every one.
所以今天我想把這升級成 2.0 的版本 中國現在有五億網路使用者 居全世界之最 所以即便中國的網路受到全面審查 中國的網路世界依然蓬勃發展 如何做到呢?其實很簡單 你們有 Google,我們有百度 你們有推特,我們有微博 你們有臉書,我們有人人 你們有 YouTube,我們有優酷和土豆 中國政府封鎖了 所有網際網路 2.0 提供的服務 我們中國人就把每個都複製過來
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So, that's the kind of the thing I call smart censorship. That's not only to censor you. Sometimes this Chinese national Internet policy is very simple: Block and clone. On the one hand, he wants to satisfy people's need of a social network, which is very important; people really love social networking. But on the other hand, they want to keep the server in Beijing so they can access the data any time they want. That's also the reason Google was pulled out from China, because they can't accept the fact that Chinese government wants to keep the server.
這就是我所謂的聰明的審查制度 這制度不單單是為了審查你 有時中國的網路政策非常簡單: 封鎖和複製 一方面,政府要滿足人民對社交網站的需求 這點很重要,因為大家真的很喜歡網路社交 另一方面,政府又希望把伺服器留在北京 這樣政府便能隨時取得他們需要的資訊 這也是 Google 退出中國大陸的原因 因為 Google 不肯同意 讓中國政府把伺服器留在中國
Sometimes the Arab dictators didn't understand these two hands. For example, Mubarak, he shut down the Internet. He wanted to prevent the Netizens [from criticizing] him. But once Netizens can't go online, they go in the street. And now the result is very simple. We all know Mubarak is technically dead. But also, Ben Ali, Tunisian president, didn't follow the second rule. That means keep the server in your hands. He allowed Facebook, a U.S.-based service, to continue to stay on inside of Tunisia. So he can't prevent it, his own citizens to post critical videos against his corruption. The same thing happend. He was the first to topple during the Arab Spring.
阿拉伯的專制統治者不了解這兩個面向 比如說穆巴拉克封鎖了網路 想要防止線上公民批評他 但民眾一旦不能上網,就只能上街了 現在結果很清楚 我們都知道穆巴拉克跟死了沒什麼兩樣 同樣地,突尼西亞總統班•阿里 也沒有遵守第二條規則 就是把伺服器留在自己手中 他讓立基於美國的臉書網站 繼續留在突尼西亞境內 所以他不能防範國內的民眾上傳影片 抨擊他的貪污腐敗 同樣的事情發生了,他是第一個 在阿拉伯之春中垮臺的政權
But those two very smart international censorship policies didn't prevent Chinese social media [from] becoming a really public sphere, a pathway of public opinion and the nightmare of Chinese officials. Because we have 300 million microbloggers in China. It's the entire population of the United States. So when these 300 million people, microbloggers, even they block the tweet in our censored platform. But itself -- the Chinanet -- but itself can create very powerful energy, which has never happened in the Chinese history.
但這兩條非常聰明的審查政策 並沒有阻止中國的社交媒體成為真正的公眾論壇 成為凝聚公眾意見的通道,和中國官員的夢魘 因為中國有三億微博用戶 這相當於美國的全部人口 所以當這三億微博用戶聚集在一起 即便微博內容會在審查平臺上被攔截 但中國網際網路自身就能夠創造出 非常巨大的能量 而這在中國歷史上是從未發生過的
2011, in July, two [unclear] trains crashed, in Wenzhou, a southern city. Right after the train crash, authorities literally wanted to cover up the train, bury the train. So it angered the Chinese Netizens. The first five days after the train crash, there were 10 million criticisms of the posting on social media, which never happened in Chinese history. And later this year, the rail minister was sacked and sentenced to jail for 10 years.
2011 年7月,兩輛動車相撞 在中國南方城市溫州 事故發生後不久 官方竟然想借著掩埋列車殘骸來掩蓋整起事件 這激怒了中國網友 動車追尾事故發生後的五天裡 社交媒體上就已經有數量上千萬的批評和聲討 而這在中國歷史上從未發生過 那年年底, 鐵道部部長被停職, 並且被判處十年有期徒刑.
And also, recently, very funny debate between the Beijing Environment Ministry and the American Embassy in Beijing because the Ministry blamed the American Embassy for intervening in Chinese internal politics by disclosing the air quality data of Beijing. So, the up is the Embassy data, the PM 2.5. He showed 148, they showed it's dangerous for the sensitive group. So a suggestion, it's not good to go outside. But that is the Ministry's data. He shows 50. He says it's good. It's good to go outside. But 99 percent of Chinese microbloggers stand firmly on the Embassy's side. I live in Beijing. Every day, I just watch the American Embassy's data to decide whether I should open my window.
最近還發生了一場令人啼笑皆非的爭論 另一方是美國駐京領事館 美國駐京領事館之間的爭論. 北京環境部譴責 美國領事館干預中國內政 因為美國領事館對外公佈了 北京的空氣污染指數 上方是美領館公佈的PM2.5 它顯示148,這對於過敏人士已達危險水準 所以建議大家最好不要外出 而這是環境部的資料,只顯示50 說明空氣是好的,適宜外出 但是99%以上的中國微博用戶 都堅決站在美領館這邊 我住在北京。每天我都會看 美領館的資料空氣品質指數的資料, 來決定我當天是否該開窗
Why is Chinese social networking, even within the censorship, so booming? Part of the reason is Chinese languages. You know, Twitter and Twitter clones have a kind of a limitation of 140 characters. But in English it's 20 words or a sentence with a short link. Maybe in Germany, in German language, it may be just "Aha!"
為什們中國的網路社交,即使有審查也能蓬勃發展? 部分原因在於中文(的特性) 你們知道,推特和推特的複製品都有 140個字的字數限制 在英文中,這只夠20個單詞,或者一句話加上一個短連結 也許在德文中,只夠表示“啊哈!”這個意思
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
But in Chinese language, it's really about 140 characters, means a paragraph, a story. You can almost have all the journalistic elements there. For example, this is Hamlet, of Shakespeare. It's the same content. One, you can see exactly one Chinese tweet is equal to 3.5 English tweets. Chinese is always cheating, right? So because of this, the Chinese really regard this microblogging as a media, not only a headline to media.
但是在中文裡,這是真真切切的140個方塊字 能表示一個段落,能講述一個故事 (140個方塊字)幾乎能涵蓋所有的新聞要素 比如說,這是莎士比亞的哈姆雷特 同樣的一段內容。你能清楚地看到 一則中文推特等于3.5則英文推特` 中國人擅長作弊對不對? 正因為這樣,中國人是 把微博當成媒體本身來看待的,而不僅僅是媒體的標題
And also, the clone, Sina company is the guy who cloned Twitter. It even has its own name, with Weibo. "Weibo" is the Chinese translation for "microblog". It has its own innovation. At the commenting area, [it makes] the Chinese Weibo more like Facebook, rather than the original Twitter. So these innovations and clones, as the Weibo and microblogging, when it came to China in 2009, it immediately became a media platform itself. It became the media platform of 300 million readers. It became the media. Anything not mentioned in Weibo, it does not appear to exist for the Chinese public.
新浪公司 複製了推特 並命名為“微博” “微博”是微型博客的中文翻譯 它有自己獨到的創新 它的評論功能讓中國的微博 更像臉書,而不是原版的推特 微博和其他類似網站,帶著這些創新功能和克隆功能 當2009年甫一開通 就立刻演變成了一個媒體平臺 演變成了擁有3億讀者的媒體平臺 它自身就是媒體 微博上未提及的話題 對中國的公眾來說就不存在
But also, Chinese social media is really changing Chinese mindsets and Chinese life. For example, they give the voiceless people a channel to make your voice heard. We had a petition system. It's a remedy outside the judicial system, because the Chinese central government wants to keep a myth: The emperor is good. The old local officials are thugs. So that's why the petitioner, the victims, the peasants, want to take the train to Beijing to petition to the central government, they want the emperor to settle the problem. But when more and more people go to Beijing, they also cause the risk of a revolution. So they send them back in recent years. And even some of them were put into black jails. But now we have Weibo, so I call it the Weibo petition. People just use their cell phones to tweet.
同時,中國的社交媒體 正在改變中國人的思維方式和生活方式 比如說,它讓沒有發言權的人 獲得了發言的管道 中國有一個上訪系統。這是司法系統之外的一種補償系統 因為中國中央政府希望維持這樣一個神話 皇帝是好的;地方當局的老傢伙才是惡棍 這就是為什麼那些上訪者、那些受害者、那些農民, 希望能坐火車到北京去中央政府上訪 他們希望最高領導者能解決他們的問題 但是當越來越多的人進京上訪 就存在引發革命的風險 所以當局近年來老是把上訪者送回老家 有些甚至進了黑監獄 我們現在有了微博,我稱之為微博上訪 人們用手機上網發微博
So your sad stories, by some chance your story will be picked up by reporters, professors or celebrities. One of them is Yao Chen, she is the most popular microblogger in China, who has about 21 million followers. They're almost like a national TV station. If you -- so a sad story will be picked up by her. So this Weibo social media, even in the censorship, still gave the Chinese a real chance for 300 million people every day chatting together, talking together. It's like a big TED, right? But also, it is like the first time a public sphere happened in China. Chinese people start to learn how to negotiate and talk to people.
你的悲慘故事,就有可能 被記者、學者和名人選中 其中一個是姚晨 她有全中國最受歡迎的微博帳號 擁有2100萬粉絲 這相當於一個全國性的電視臺覆蓋面 如果你的悲慘故事能被她轉發,那可想而知 所以說微博這個社交媒體,儘管有審查制度 還是為3億中國人提供了一個機會 能每天一起談天說地 就像一個大型的TED,對不對? 同時,這也是中國首次 出現公眾論壇 中國人開始學習如何談判 如何與人對話
But also, the cat, the censorship, is not sleeping. It's so hard to post some sensitive words on the Chinese Weibo. For example, you can't post the name of the president, Hu Jintao, and also you can't post the city of Chongqing, the name, and until recently, you can't search the surname of top leaders. So, the Chinese are very good at these puns and alternative wording and even memes. They even name themselves -- you know, use the name of this world-changing battle between the grass-mud horse and the river crab. The grass-mud horse is caoníma, is the phonogram for motherfucker, the Netizens call themselves. River crab is héxiè, is the phonogram for harmonization, for censorship. So that's kind of a caoníma versus the héxiè, that's very good. So, when some very political, exciting moments happened, you can see on Weibo, you see a lot of very weird stories happened. Weird phrases and words, even if you have a PhD of Chinese language, you can't understand them.
當然,審查制度這只大貓也沒睡覺 在中國微博上發佈敏感詞彙是非常困難的 比如說,你無法發佈主席的名字 胡錦濤,你也無法發佈重慶這個城市名 不久以前,你甚至不能搜索國家領導人的姓氏 而中國人 又十分擅長雙關語、別稱 他們甚至為自己命名 用諧音改詞 包括“草泥馬”和“河蟹”的對立關係 “草泥馬”的讀音為caoníma 是網友用來自稱 “X你媽”的諧音 “河蟹”的讀音為 héxiè,是 “和諧”的諧音,意思是審查 這就是“草泥馬”和“河蟹”有趣的關係 於是,每當有重大政治事件發生 你就能在微博上看到各種貌似詭異的故事 用詞千奇百怪 就算你是中文專業的博士,也未必能看懂
But you can't even expand more, no, because Chinese Sina Weibo, when it was founded was exactly one month after the official blocking of Twitter.com. That means from the very beginning, Weibo has already convinced the Chinese government, we will not become the stage for any kind of a threat to the regime. For example, anything you want to post, like "get together" or "meet up" or "walk," it is automatically recorded and data mined and reported to a poll for further political analyzing. Even if you want to have some gathering, before you go there, the police are already waiting for you. Why? Because they have the data. They have everything in their hands. So they can use the 1984 scenario data mining of the dissident. So the crackdown is very serious.
但你也無法再去擴展了 因為中國的新浪微博 在推特被正式遮罩後的一個月就出現了 這就意味著在最開始 微博就已經說服了中國政府 我們不會成為 任何反政權言論的舞臺 比如,你想發佈的任何內容 像“聚會”,“碰頭”,“走動” 會自動記錄和資料採擷 並且被上報,用於政治分析 如果你想要集會 在你到達集會地點之前,員警就已經在等著你了 為什麼?因為他們有資料 他們掌握了一切資訊 他們可以用1984年叛亂來進行情景模擬和資料採擷 鎮壓十分嚴厲
But I want you to notice a very funny thing during the process of the cat-and-mouse. The cat is the censorship, but Chinese is not only one cat, but also has local cats. Central cat and local cats.
但我要向你們指出 貓鼠遊戲中有趣的一個地方 審查是貓,但不只一隻 除開中央政府貓,還有地方政府貓
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
You know, the server is in the [central] cats' hands, so even that -- when the Netizens criticize the local government, the local government has not any access to the data in Beijing. Without bribing the central cats, he can do nothing, only apologize.
你們知道,伺服器在中央政府貓的手中 所以,就算線民開始抨擊地方政府 地方政府可無法染指北京的資料 不能賄賂中央政府貓 地方政府就只能道歉了
So these three years, in the past three years, social movements about microblogging really changed local government, became more and more transparent, because they can't access the data. The server is in Beijing. The story about the train crash, maybe the question is not about why 10 million criticisms in five days, but why the Chinese central government allowed the five days of freedom of speech online. It's never happened before. And so it's very simple, because even the top leaders were fed up with this guy, this independent kingdom. So they want an excuse -- public opinion is a very good excuse to punish him.
所以在過去的三年中 與微博有關的社會運動 真正改變了地方政府 它們變得更加透明 因為他們無法擅自修改資料 伺服器都在北京呢。 關於動車事故有這樣一個故事 也許問題不在於為什麼在五天之內 就有上千份批評抗議,而是在於為什麼中央政府 允許了網上有這五天的言論自由 這可是從未發生過的 這很簡單,因為高層 也對當局忍無可忍了,那裡就像一個獨立的王國 所以他們需要藉口—— 而民意是一個很好的藉口,來處理這個人
But also, the Bo Xilai case recently, very big news, he's a princeling. But from February to April this year, Weibo really became a marketplace of rumors. You can almost joke everything about these princelings, everything! It's almost like you're living in the United States. But if you dare to retweet or mention any fake coup about Beijing, you definitely will be arrested. So this kind of freedom is a targeted and precise window.
最近薄熙來的案件是大新聞 他可是“太子” 但在今年的2月到4月期間 微博真的變成了謠言傳播的市場 你能對所謂“太子党”開任何的玩笑 隨便來!這簡直就像生活在美國一樣 但如果有誰膽敢轉發或提及任何捏造的北京政變 那就肯定會被捕 所以說這種(言論)自由是一個有準確目標的視窗
So Chinese in China, censorship is normal. Something you find is, freedom is weird. Something will happen behind it. Because he was a very popular Leftist leader, so the central government wanted to purge him, and he was very cute, he convinced all the Chinese people, why he is so bad. So Weibo, the 300 million public sphere, became a very good, convenient tool for a political fight.
對於在中國的中國人而言,審查制度是正常的 而自由卻是蹊蹺的 自由的背後肯定有事發生 因為他以前是一個非常有號召力的左派領袖 中央政府向要除掉他 還採用了非常精明的辦法來說服所有的中國民眾 為什麼他這麼壞 微博,這個3億人的公眾論壇 成為了政治鬥爭的一種十分有效又好用的工具
But this technology is very new, but technically is very old. It was made famous by Chairman Mao, Mao Zedong, because he mobilized millions of Chinese people in the Cultural Revolution to destroy every local government. It's very simple, because Chinese central government doesn't need to even lead the public opinion. They just give them a target window to not censor people. Not censoring in China has become a political tool.
這種科技是新的 而這種戰術卻很有年代了 毛澤東曾將它發揚光大 因為他鼓動了幾百萬的中國人 在文革時期毀掉了所有的地方政府 原理很簡單,因為中國中央政府 甚至不用去引導民意 他們只是提供了一個沒有審查的目標視窗 無審查在中國已經成為了一種政治工具
So that's the update about this game, cat-and-mouse. Social media changed Chinese mindset. More and more Chinese intend to embrace freedom of speech and human rights as their birthright, not some imported American privilege. But also, it gave the Chinese a national public sphere for people to, it's like a training of their citizenship, preparing for future democracy. But it didn't change the Chinese political system, and also the Chinese central government utilized this centralized server structure to strengthen its power to counter the local government and the different factions.
這就是貓鼠遊戲的新進展 社交媒體改變了中國人的思維方式 越來越多的中國人想要擁抱言論自由 認為人權是與生俱來的 而不是美國式的舶來價值觀 同時,一個全國性的公眾論壇 起到了培養公民性的作用 為未來的民主做了準備 這無法改變中國的政治體系 而中國的中央政府利用了(社交媒體) 這個集中的伺服器結構來強化自身的力量 來對抗地方政府或是其他內訌
So, what's the future? After all, we are the mouse. Whatever the future is, we should fight against the [cat]. There is not only in China, but also in the United States there are some very small, cute but bad cats.
那麼,未來會怎樣? 畢竟,我們只是老鼠 無論未來如何,我們都要與貓戰鬥 不僅中國有,美國也有 一些很機靈但也很壞的小貓
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, TPP and ITU. And also, like Facebook and Google, they claim they are friends of the mouse, but sometimes we see them dating the cats. So my conclusion is very simple. We Chinese fight for our freedom, you just watch your bad cats. Don't let them hook [up] with the Chinese cats. Only in this way, in the future, we will achieve the dreams of the mouse: that we can tweet anytime, anywhere, without fear.
像SOPA法案、PIPA法案、ACTA協定、TPP協定,還有ITU(國際電聯) 還有像臉書和穀歌這樣的公司,他們宣稱自己的老鼠之友 但有時候我們看到他們與貓約會 我的結論很簡單 我們中國人為自己的自由而戰 你們也要看好自己的壞貓 別讓他們跟中國貓勾勾搭搭 只有這樣,在未來 我們能達成老鼠們的夢想 那就是能隨時隨地毫無懼意的發微薄
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Thank you.
多謝
(Applause)
(掌聲)