"This information is harmful, will be screened out!"

“The Green Dam Youth Escort (Green Dam) could lead to a large-scale disaster.”

Recently, there have been many similar negative comments regarding the Chinese government’s new policy that all the computers produced or imported after July 1st must have the web filtering software “Green Dam” installed. The Chinese government said that the Green Dam software was intended to protect youth from unhealthy and harmful material on the Internet. In order to allow users to use the software and its service free for a year, the Chinese government paid 41.70 million RMB to its developer, Jinhui Software.

The public is not reacting quietly to this. I have read many posts about it and would like to reflect on people’s comments with the following points.

Software with a series of flaws

The Green Dam was tested by many experts but I found it hard to find one single positive comment on its quality. One particular post from the Chinese blog 可能吧 (“ke neng ba”, roughly “probably/maybe”) titled “‘Green Dam Youth Protection’ Is A Joke” had a lot of details and screenshots, talking about how awful the experience was.

Just one point to highlight here:

Installation notice said that “This software can filter out harmful information on Internet, but cannot guarantee that all the harmful information will be filtered out, and cannot guarantee that shielded information is not harmful.” – It seems this software cannot do anything.

As a result, the software removes lots of content with “F-words” and pornography but also other content that is not even close to being “harmful”. The page looked incomplete, with lots of stuff on the site missing, such as user’s logo.

The Green Dam made anti-virus software go crazy, once uninstalled there was no longer an alarm.

The Green Dam eats up internet bandwidth, once uninstalled, the speed of opening websites increased.

There is the need to reformat and reset a PC after uninstalling Green Dam.

Hacking risk

Due to a series of software flaws and the fact it will be widely installed on a massive number of PCs, this could allow hackers to steal users’ private information without a way to stop it. Isaac Mao, a blogger and researcher at Harvard University’s Berkman Center,  and many other experts talked to BBC News here: China’s computers at hacking risk

Internet control

This youth software is not only designed to control youth but also all people who use a PC with it installed… No wonder people have been saying that the government is just trying to use a “good excuse” to control the internet, to avoid information spreading that they don’t want to people to know about. Green Dam is another GFW. Another software expert proved that users could not tell what kinds of information were removed.  Therefore, Government has no right to decide what information were harmful, what information cannot be known by Chinese neitzens.

• “绿坝”过滤了什么？
• “绿坝”，看上去有点“霸”
• 强令安装绿坝软件是否违宪

A waste of tax money

Surprisingly, a software program designed to deal with a social problem brought its developer, Jinghui Software, a huge profit. The government purchased this software for over 40 million RMB to make the first year of service free to users. After a year, how much will consumers have to pay for this service? Many people believe it could be a billion RMB business.  Imagine a software installed on millions of PCs that controls what can and cannot be seen, is there any business model that cannot be developed based on this advantage? With the government’s strong support, this company could easily become the largest software company in China. Well, at a minimum, the company doesn’t need to do marketing themselves. The developer denied it has a special relationship with the Chinese government but most people wouldn’t believe this to be the truth.

• “绿坝”上网过滤软件生产商否认有官方背景
• 今天你绿坝了没有？

Computer producers say yes or no to this government policy

There were over 52 million PC that have already installed Green Dam. I would suppose that all the Chinese producers have already received notice from government: Fouder did, Dell did. I guess they just have to say yes to the policy even if they don’t want to in order to keep their businesses running. For foreign producers, the choice is to give up the Chinese market or allow the software installed to their products.

• “绿坝”争议不止，各PC厂商反应不一
• 下乡电脑试水装“绿坝” 部分厂商提前行动

Methods have been developed to cheat this software

We cannot stop the government’s policy, but can we do something else to protect our rights? Don’t underestimate Chinese talent and determination. Solidot published a method of hacking this “Green” filtering system (Chinese), which was found by a pupil. By replacing the kwpwf.dll file with D0970714757783E6CF17B26FB8E2298F, all the passwords automatically change to 112233. No more “unhealthy” websites would be reported to parents.

Currently a search for “hacking green dam” (绿坝破解) on Google has 108,000 results, Baidu has 348,000 results.

Chinese netizens as children

Are Chinese neitzens all children in need of parenting from the government? People hate Green Dam, even before the software has taken effect. I was overwhelmed by this relaction when reading these posts. For this reason, I would not be surprised if there was breaking news saying that the Green Dam was being uninstalled from millions of PCs starting on day one.

It is, surely, a testament to one’s ability to adapt.

I usually ride the Shanghai metro to get wherever I need to be and, like most people, I tend to pass through People’s Square metro hub quite often. That is where the two oldest Shanghai metro lines intersect in the heart of downtown Shanghai and, as you can imagine, it gets a lot of people passing through representing a good cross-section of the population. It is, simply put, a great place to observe the forward marching progress of Chinese urban civilities.

Photo Credit: www.shanghaicalling.com

Now, it wasn’t long ago that the People’s Square station featured, frustratingly, teeming mobs of humanity that swelled forth towards the train doors blocking the very teeming mobs of humanity within that tried to swell out. Of course, jam-packed subway trains are nothing new, particularly within big metropolitan cities in Asia. Moreover, many of us have seen those cute pictures of little Japanese metro attendants wearing white gloves trying to shove yet another sardine into the can. Well, jam-packed subway trains in and subway stations in China, even oh-so-modern Shanghai, are a whole different, ludicrous beast. They rightfully confound many a jostled foreigner, who wonders: “why can’t they obey the damn signs?” Of course, these signs spell out what should be a common sense maxim: let those inside get off first, then board.

If the people in Hong Kong and Taipei can do it, why not the mainlanders?

Photo Credit: www.shanghaicalling.com

Well, the very logical answers to that age-old question are beyond the scope of this piece, and wholly irrelevant because, alas, times are changing. Since I first arrived in Shanghai, the People’s Square metro stop has been redesigned to solve the enigma of why it takes longer to go from Line 1 to Line 2 than going from Line 2 to Line 1. They’ve also, somehow, made great strides in civilizing the masses, as I recently actually bothered to look up from my cell phone Sudoku game (my commute pastime of choice) and beheld the most curious of sights: People waiting with a reasonable amount of patience by the sides of the train doors leaving an exit path open to let the passengers within get off before swelling forth into the train.

It was mind-blowing.

I admit, fully, that I’ve had my nose stuck in my Motorola on the subways for far too long now, paying little heed to anything else save the announcement of my destination stop and the woefully expensive Gucci wallet I received as a gift (arguably the most expensive and wholly unnecessary part of my low-maintenance existence). Have all those Shanghai municipal government and transit authority efforts to teach basic courtesy to the denizens of this great city so they won’t embarrass themselves in front of tourists been paying off?

Good god, they have!

For the briefest of moments, I had snapped out of my daily routine of being oblivious to what I had long ago accepted as commonplace and no longer worth noting.

This was a most reassuring development.

Now, I’m not quite sure if it was precisely at that exact moment that I swiveled my head to the flat-screen televisions installed in the subway trains here, or if it was during some other ride, but I was suddenly face to face with Jeremy Clarkson, on Top Gear, reviewing the Ariel Atom.

Surprise #2.

I love Clarkson in a most non-homoerotic way because I love Top Gear. I love Top Gear because I have loved cars like any red-blooded male who has hung a Lamborghini Countach poster in his room when he was a wee little boy and grew up to discover both the internet and how said internet could bring fantastic BBC programming and British humor to lands dry of, well, fantastic BBC programming and British humor. Here was a man paid handsomly to drive the world’s most exotic, testicle-tingling machines and, for the first time ever, I was able to watch it riding the metro (tube?), crammed with all the other car-less suckers of Shanghai.

Bloody fantastic.

Despite reminding me of my no-car-reduced-to-mass-transit lifestyle here in urban China, it surprised me because it represented an importation of not just British pop culture but also of the increasing Chinese culture of car-ownership. To be sure, China could do with less cars and the people driving them, but Top Gear running segments of its show as advertising half way around the world in Shanghai’s metro was fascinating. It was, for me, such a beautiful sign of culture-crossing, globalizing interests. What red-blooded mainland Chinese male wouldn’t love to watch an overweight Brit carting himself around with oodles of groin-quivering horsepower, looking forward to the day they too can partake in such delights?

This was a most aspirational development.

For those who have never been to China, I can attest that China is probably quite different from what you envision it to be. For those, like me, who have been here for awhile, it might be a good idea to wake up from our stupor every once in awhile and ask ourselves if we’ve noticed any positive non-political changes lately.

Frustrated Chinese complain that CCTV version failed to capture many of the exciting (and in some cases crucial) camera angles and Chinese announcers only managed to provide vacuous commentary. Meanwhile, the American commentators were able to go into great detail about the numerous traditional Chinese elements and symbols used throughout the intricately planned ceremony, displaying a much more complete knowledge of what was happening than in the Chinese version (granted, the delayed broadcasting of the ceremony by NBC gave the commentators time to do their homework). Some even go as far as to assert that Chinese will have to retract their accusations against foreign media for biased reporting since this time they presented China with such creativity and expertise that “even Americans are unable to find fault.”

Here are some of the more glaring faults (translated from original Chinese here)

1. The CCTV version is a confused jumble of close and far shots, but the NBC version captured all the action from every possible angle providing the big picture in a much more complete and exciting way.
2. During the reading of the Analects, NBC provides a shot of the top of the bird’s nest where there is both English and Chinese translation, which shows a consideration for visitors from other countries and welcomes them. The version shown in China does not provide any shots of this and you cannot even hear what is being read!
3. Later there is a shot of children painting with watercolors and then the sequence is over, but in the NBC version there is a close up shot of the whole canvas, allowing the viewers to see that the black circle is actually the adorable smiling face of the sun, complete with two blushing red cheeks, so cute.
4. During the modern China section, the Chinese version jumps straight to the astronauts very suddenly, only after watching the NBC version do we see the picture of the universe and night sky from where the astronauts drop down. And after the Olympic theme song is finished, the 2008 faces are not captured well in the Chinese version, but the NBC version takes it all in and finally in a moving sequence shows close ups of all the different smiling faces of the children from all over the world.
5. Chinese people were really confused by the “footage of legs,” only afterwards did we discover that in front of the blank canvas were plates full of pigment so that each time a person walked across it created a rainbow effect. This was captured very well in the foreign version, but wasn’t captured in the CCTV version.
6. In the Chinese version, when the athletes entered the stadium you could not see the signs held up for each at all, only after watching the later version did we discover that each sign had 3 languages written on them (French, English, and Chinese) and were written with our traditional Chinese brushwork.

Additional source states: “On August 9th, I spoke with a friend in the television industry and he said that the live broadcast of the opening ceremony was the responsibility of Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB). The BOB live broadcast was global, and many television stations around the world (including TVB) all used the BOB broadcast which was excellent. But CCTV held broadcasting rights in China and brought their own cameras and director, so the final broadcast in China included clips from both CCTV coverage and BOB coverage cut and broadcast simultaneously, ruining the overall effect. The odd collection of closeups on famous people and actors and leaders and the shaky video footage was all thanks to CCTV.” (Original source here)

Who to blame? A source says:”

I am really angry! No wonder I have this weird (disconnected) feeling in watching the opening. The answer is that a Swedish broadcast director ruined our 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony and Lao Mouzi’s (Yimou Zhang) talent.”

“NBC’s version is 1000 times better than CCTV’s, it shows the grand overview, super! But all our Chinese were watching a discounted gala.”

“So the broadcast director didn’t show us a real and extravagant opening. The director is a Swedish, not Chinese.”

真的很愤怒！！

怪不得看开幕式的时候感觉怪怪的！！！！

原来答案是这个 S B 瑞典导播毁了我们的2008奥运开幕式和老谋子的才华！！！！

美国NBC制作的奥运开幕式确实比垃圾瑞典导播的好千倍,展示的很全面很大气，超赞，而咱们自己中国人却看到的是打折的盛会，飚泪5555555~~~

所以这次导播的垃圾让我们完全没有真实的看到一个美轮美奂举世震惊的开幕式
导播是瑞典人，不是中国的

But so far, there is no official statement about the program director. Search “奥运会 导播” and you will see more stories.

To compare and contrast for yourself, download CCTV TVB version (3.26GB); BBC version (2.5GB); NBC version (4.92GB); CCTV version (Bittorrent)

The first section of this page is dedicated to Chinese resources. Good for overseas Chinese who want to hear Chinese commentary on their favorite events. The second section is for non-Chinese language. Feel free to add good resources for your language/country in the comments below thus more readers can view the video online.

Part I: Chinese Language

Bejing Olympic Games Official Website：

• www.beijing2008.cn

Online Live Video Stream Sites

• 　　 CCTV: http://2008.cctv.com/05/index.shtml
• 　　 Sohu 搜狐：http://info.2008.sohu.com/Live/
• 　　 Tencent 腾讯：http://2008.qq.com/live/
• 　　 Netease 网易：http://v.2008.163.com/
• 　　 Sina 新浪： http://2008.sina.com.cn/video/

Video Stream Application/Software (P2P) Live: (need to download and install software; may not be compatible with all browsers and operating systems)

• 　　 UUSEE 优视 网络电视下载:http://nj.newhua.com/soft/44708.htm
• 　　 风行网络电影:http://nj.newhua.com/soft/898.htm
• 　　 PPS网络电视: http://www.ppstream.com/download.html
• 　　 PPLive网络电视:http://www.skycn.com/soft/24106.html
• 　　 QQ视频播放器：http://tv.qq.com/download.htm

Olympic Games Schedules：

• 　　 http://2008.cctv.com/03/index.shtml
• 　　 http://info.2008.sohu.com/Schedule/

Thank Hanger08 for above list.

Part II Non-Chinese Language

Bejing Olympic Games Official Website

• http://en.beijing2008.cn/video/ (English)

Online Live Video Stream Sites:

• NBC: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html (English, 2,200 hrs, up from 100 hrs in 2004, RWW reported.) Just enter zipcode and install Microsoft Silverlight plug-in. （US only)
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/beijing2008 (Available in more than 70 countries where exclusive rights have not been sold like India, South Korea, Iraq. See cNet report here.) How to get around Youtube regional filtering
• Eurosport: http://eurosport.yahoo.com/ (multiple languages, only available to certain regions outside of the US) Also has streaming audio coverage
• Eurovision: http://www.eurovision.net/ops/olympics.php (certain European Broadcasting Union (EBU) territories only)
• CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/livevideo (Canada only)
• BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm (UK only)
• TerraTV: http://www.ar.terra.com/shared/pekin2008/ (based out of Argentina – Spanish – certain regions only)

More options are listed at the Wired How to Wiki:

• Watch Olympics. syndication of user generated feeds
• TV Tonic: download service similar to iTunes. But 32-bit Windows Vista compatible only
• Yahoo7: Australia official Olympics online portal including live streams
• Cox High Speed Internet: Cox customers can access the NBCOlympics content via a Cox portal

Today we’re asking if, in the run up to the Olympics, we’re all turning a blind eye to China ? (Pssst, human rights anyone ?) With just a few days to go until the Opening ceremony are we all just about to be dazzled by the spectacle, the sheer size, the numbers and of course the excitement of sporting excellence – day, after day, after day – for two weeks. Will the Games be so engaging, so absorbing that we forget the other story of China ?

Despite the lively commentary and discussions on the usual emotional baggage surrounding human-rights-violatin’ China being the host for the Olympic Games, I only got a chance to say:

1. Most people have already decided how they’re going to view China;
2. It is too late to stop or change the Olympics Games;
3. People should definitely continue to engage the Chinese and express their opinions, support, or criticisms;
4. But they need manage their expectations and not insist upon hoping for things to happen when they want it and how they want it.

Four is an unlucky number.

Now, I should probably review the other comments or arguments presented by the other speakers on the debate…but just as I wasn’t inclined to interrupt them mid-speech, I’m not really inclined at this moment to rehash what continually gets hashed and rehashed.

And rehashed.

Let’s just say I was glad that most of them were far more balanced and reasonable than I expected…at least more so than the categorical idiocy found in many of the comments on the WHYS blog.

Thanks, BBC, for having me on briefly. You guys rock. Someone tell Jeremy Clarkson he has all my love.