China Hates Me

Somehow I’ve pissed off China, or at least the part that controls what gets through the Great Firewall. Which shouldn’t have happened—I’m not exactly a dissident. I like their food, I help tourists find their way, I even wrote a school paper about internet control in Beijing. But here we are, probably blocked.

There’s a website called greatfirewallofchina.org that lets you test whether yours made it through. The whole thing exists to prove that one country has decided most of the world shouldn’t see what you’re saying. They block the porn, they’ve strangled Google, they monitor chat rooms and games. If you can see this from inside China, you either know someone or someone messed up.

I assume it’s this post. Or maybe just existing on the open internet without permission. There’s something almost noble about it—accidentally accomplishing something by simply not shutting up. I wonder if anyone there is reading this anyway, finding their way around the censorship, looking at home like you watch an ex on Instagram. Close enough to see but too far to touch.