Illustration copyright AFP/Weibo Image caption This meme depicting Chinese President Xi Jinping and former US President Barack Obama appeared on the Internet in 2013

Chinese Internet censors have banned mentions of Winnie the Pooh. It would seem that what could be seditious about a teddy bear with sawdust in its head? This is simply a striking example of how Chinese bloggers cleverly circumvent the restrictions imposed by the Chinese authorities.

When is a wristwatch not just a wristwatch? When does a river crab mean more than just a river crab? Of course, when you are behind the Great Firewall of China and are trying to write something about the country's leaders.

The popular teddy bear has been added to the black list of intricate designations of the party and government leadership.

Bloggers compared the Chairman of the People's Republic of China to a charming and gluttonous bear, so now posts containing the Chinese name of Alan Alexander Milne's character or his image are blocked.

It all started with a photograph of Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shaking hands. It was written on the faces of the leaders of the two countries how difficult this formality was for them. The Chinese Internet immediately found similarities with the handshake between Pooh and Eeyore.

Then a photo emerged of Xi Jinping receiving the parade, standing in his Red Flag limousine with a specially made hole in the roof. It reminded the wits of the Winnie the Pooh toy in the car.

The point is not only that censors will not tolerate ridicule of the head of state. They cannot allow a beloved children's character to become an online euphemism for the Secretary General.

In other countries, such jokes would be overlooked, and in some places they would even be considered positive PR. But in China this number does not work.

Xi Jinping is a man in a case. He never does anything stupid, has no oddities, and doesn’t make any mistakes, and that is why he is above ordinary people, and this is beyond doubt.

Former Chinese leader Hu Jintao had a favorite slogan about “building a harmonious society,” or in Chinese, 和谐 (hese).

Censorship as "harmonization"

Bloggers began to call censorship “harmonization” - 被和谐了 (bei hese le). But in Chinese, changing the tone or order of characters can radically change the meaning of a word. If you pronounce the word "hese" with a different intonation, you get "river crab" - 河蟹. Therefore, bloggers began to write and post pictures of river crab, and readers guessed from the consonance that they were talking about censorship. This continued until the pictures themselves and the word “river crab” came under censorship.

Another Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin, liked to talk about the “theory of three representations” - san ge diabiao - 三个代表. If you modify the phrase - dai san ge biao - it will mean "wear three watches." This became an ironic designation for his contribution to building “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

Bypassing Chinese censors is not at all easy.

For example, they managed to destroy almost all mentions of the name of leading Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who died last week after several years in prison. In any case, most Chinese citizens have never heard of it.

If you have anything to do with China, try this simple experiment to test how censorship works. In China, everyone uses WeChat—indeed, almost everyone.

Sit next to a friend who also has WeChat. Send a message to "Liu Xiaobo".

On your phone it will look like the message has gone away. Your friend won't get anything.

• China launches virtual police officers on the Internet

Chinese censors can enter any keywords into the censorship mechanism and stop a discussion they don’t want.

Messengers and the party line

WeChat is a private company, but even Chinese tech giants must toe the party line.

Winnie the Pooh, by the way, was already banned. Now it has been banned again because the CPC Congress is approaching.

This event is held every five years, and at it, among other things, the composition of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee is approved - these are the seven highest leaders of the Chinese political system.

Xi Jinping will use the congress as an opportunity to consolidate his power, promote allies and push aside those he sees as rivals.

In the Chinese system, the top leader is considered to serve two terms and then retire. However, this rule is not fixed anywhere; this has simply been the trend in recent years.

And President Xi has made so many enemies with his anti-corruption campaign that many question how safe it will be for him to leave power after five years.

And if he wants to stay, he will have to demand absolute, unquestioning loyalty from his comrades.

Jokes, even the most harmless ones, are completely inappropriate in this environment.

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A teddy bear drawn by the Disney studio: users believe that the ban on the use of images with the cartoon character is due to his alleged resemblance to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The ban has not been officially announced, and the Chinese authorities have not yet commented on what is happening, although censorship is already in place. “MK” remembered which other politicians were compared to popular cartoon characters.

The Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo has prohibited users from not only posting pictures of Winnie the Pooh, but also mentioning his name in the text of posts - when trying to do this, a warning about the use of illegal content is displayed. As users suggest, the restriction is aimed at preserving the reputation of Chinese President Xi Jinping and preventing him from being compared to a teddy bear with sawdust in his head.

Such an allusion occurred not only to China, but also to the world community back in 2013, when one of the Internet users noticed that Xi Jinping and former US President Barack Obama walking next to each other resembled Winnie the Pooh and Tigger from the Disney cartoon. Later, a number of comparisons continued, noting that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resembles the sad Eeyore from the same cartoon. For Chinese society, where censorship of the Internet has long been common practice, such parallels are unacceptable.

However, Christopher Robin's tree friends are not the only ones with whom Internet users compared famous politicians. So, for example, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was compared by the Russian public with Freken Bock from the cartoon about Carlson, who lives on the roof - and precisely in the episode where the housekeeper exclaims “I’ve lost my mind... What a shame!” Later, she, along with the Kid, began to be depicted on Internet memes in the image of the new French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte - we recall that the significant age difference, and in favor of the French first lady, became a reason for ridicule immediately after the announcement of the results elections in Paris.

The new US President Donald Trump is luckier - he is being compared... to himself on the cartoon screen. In the animated series "The Simpsons", and in the episodes of the 2000s, there is an episode where the main characters discuss certain candidates in the elections - among them was Republican Trump.

The world famous characters Winnie the Pooh and Peppa Pig are banned in China. The Chinese authorities have decided to reduce the “ideological flow from the West” and promote their own literature and cinema, writes life.ru.

The State Administration for Press and Publishing, Cinematography, Radio Broadcasting and Television of the People's Republic of China demanded that the publishing of foreign children's literature in the country be limited. Chinese publishers have been ordered to cut foreign picture books, films and cartoons. Quotas will be introduced for Chinese authors and artists. In this way, officials intend to promote a national culture rich in its own characters.

Among children's works, dozens of books and cartoons were banned. Among them were such popular characters all over the world as Winnie the Pooh and Peppa Pig, as well as the work “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Analysts from the newspaper of the Chinese People's Liberation Army actively criticize the cartoon "Zootopia" for its corrupting effect on children.

At the same time, the Internet giant Taobao was forced to ban the sale of all foreign literature on its platform. Previously, the country's universities were also subject to restrictions, which were recommended to exclude foreign teaching aids if possible.

Parents opposed the ban

But parents do not want to support the policy of banning foreign works in the country. Social media users called criticism of the cartoon “Zootopia” a return to the times of the “cultural revolution,” which the current authorities condemn.

Context

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Winnie the Pooh and Peppa Pig have become favorite characters of Chinese children. American and British publications dominate all children's picture books. Local authors are not popular in the country. According to a Hong Kong resident, books by Chinese authors have “too many words and moralizing.” However, under conditions of strict censorship, it is very difficult for authors to write a “living” work of fiction. This can explain the enormous popularity of the American cartoon “Kung Fu Panda” based on Chinese culture, which caused bewilderment among the Chinese authorities.

The children's book market in China is huge: more than 220 million readers under 14 years old, more than 40 thousand publications published per year. There are fewer and fewer books by local authors, since it is more profitable for publishing houses to acquire already known works.

Recently, films and cartoons produced jointly with China have become increasingly popular. On the one hand, this allows foreign films to bypass the foreign film quota and strict censorship. On the other hand, the works are increasingly acquiring a Chinese flavor and bear the stamp of Chinese ideology.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

Many citizens are alarmed by the country's Communist Party's desire to change legislation to allow the current head of state to remain in power indefinitely. Censors took it upon themselves to stop criticism of this proposal from citizens.

Too much criticism forced the authorities to take unprecedented measures

In general, it cannot be said that Xi Jinping does not enjoy popularity in the country and the support of the people. However, the movement to abolish the terms of the head of state has revived deeper fears in Chinese society, where memories of the personality cults of China's founding father Mao Zedong and the fear of a return to past events remain.

In an attempt to suppress criticism of Xi Jinping, the country's Communist Party censors have attempted to infiltrate the internet and social media to curb popular rumors deemed subversive. On this wave, it was forbidden to use images from the children's fairy tale “Winnie the Pooh,” through which dissenters portrayed the current head of the PRC.

The ban was imposed on two works by George Orwell, 1984 and Animal Farm, and on books about the civil war in China. It was also forbidden to use queries - “my emperor”, “lifelong” and “shameless”, “disagree”. Even the English letter "N" has been censored, coming under attack for its use in the phrases "N terms in office", where N stands for an unspecified number.

It is worth noting that the ban is applied in one sense or another in different countries. For example, in Belgium they decided to limit access to this method of communication for children under 13 years of age. But in this case, the ban is absolutely understandable; it was supported by citizens of the state, since everyone has long understood the destructive impact of adult content on the fragile child’s psyche.