Skip to main content

Chinese Singer Wu Hongfei and the Risks of Blogging

How would you react if you received a visit from the police only because you posted a joke on your blog? I bet you wouldn't be very happy. Most especially if you lived in a country where you might be sentenced to five years in prison. 

Well, this is exactly what was going to happen to Wu Hongfei (å“č™¹é£ž, pinyin: WĆŗ HĆ³ngfēi), the vocalist and leader of the Chinese rock band Happy Avenue (å¹øē¦å¤§č”—; pinyin: XƬngfĆŗ DĆ jiē). Last month she was arrested because of a post that appeared on her Sina Weibo micro-blog. 



Although Wu deleted the post soon afterwards, it had already circulated and it prompted the authorities to arrest her. She didn't imagine that her post would cause her to be detained for a total of eleven days and face criminal charges for "posing a threat to public order and safety". 



In an interview with the Sunday Morning Post (August 18, 2013, p. 8), Wu Hongfei explained why she posted that threat. She stated that she was having a bad time because she had quit her job to pursue a music career, but things had not gone well with her producers. On that day, the word 'explosion' recurred three times on TV - The Big Bang Theory (in Chinese: Life's Full of Explosions), Stephen Hawking's Universe (in Chinese: The Universe's Big Explosion), and the explosion at Beijing airport. Because of her stress and frustration, she wrote that joke which, however tasteless it might have been, was never intended as a real threat.

At the beginning, Wu didn't think that her arrest was too serious a matter. She believed that the police would release her after a couple of days. But when the police informed her that she might face a sentence of up to five years, she broke down in tears. 

She shared a cell with 20 other women. Her glasses had been taken away, so she couldn't see properly. Every day the detainees would get up at 6 am, have breakfast at 7 am, and then attend to tasks such as sweeping the floor and cleaning the toilet. Sometimes she was interrogated by the police. They asked her if she could make dynamite. "I had never set off a firecracker in my life," she replied.

According to Wu, the police had already understood that her threat was nothing more than a sham. Still, they made clear that if she didn't fully admit that she had made a mistake, she might face consequences. 

Before she was released at 3am or 4 am, a few police officers interviewed her. "They looked straight at me and told me to write a letter of repentance," she stated. And she complied.

What I find most interesting about this letter of repentance (writing such self-criticism seems like an old-style Communist practice) is that apparently the pressure from the police was aimed at breaking her, at making her accept social norms. In fact, in her letter Wu said she was wrong, and she apologised "to her country", but also to her parents, "because I had not got married", as she said. 

From a Western point of view, the reference to country and family seems quite out of place. It has actually very little to do with the charges raised against her. However, if one looks carefully one will soon realise that this letter reflects the traditional Chinese interconnection between state and family. Throughout Chinese history the family and the state had been interdependent, and filial piety was considered the highest of all virtues. In imperial China there was a saying that "a loyal minister can be found only in the family of filial sons" (read my post about filial piety in Chinese culture).

Apparently, Wu found it appropriate to testify that she is a good citizen and woman by stressing nationalism and filial piety. Traditionally, filial piety was a proof of high morality in China, and since getting married and having children was the most important filial duty, Wu's apology for not getting married reiterates this discourse. 

Unfortunately, Wu's detention has had repercussions far beyond those eleven days spent in prison. After her release, she was notified by her landlord that she must move out. And her band can't find work in Beijing any more due to her bad reputation. 

Some Western media interpreted Wu's arrest as a case of repression of free speech.  According to the Telegraph, "[h]er supporters said the singer would never have carried out her threat and is being targeted for her critical views." Democracy Digest even goes as far as to call her a "dissident" and an "activist", words in my opinion used too often in Western media. 

I don't know if one can ascribe her arrest to a crackdown on freedom of speech. Nevertheless, there is something quite unsettling about a person jailed for a simple joke written online, most especially if the whole life of this person is negatively affected by the subsequent social stigma attached to him or her. Chinese netizens indeed have to be extremely careful when they express their thoughts online. In fact, the PRC has a so-called Internet Police, whose job is to patrol the internet. Even netizens who are accused of "spreading rumours" can be prosecuted.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Window Trick of Las Vegas Hotels

When I lived in Hong Kong I often passed by a residential apartment complex commonly known as the " monster building ".  " Interior of the Yick Cheong Building November 2016 " by  Nick-D  is licensed under  CC BY-SA 4.0 . _____

Living in Taiwan: Seven Reasons Why It's Good to Be Here

Chinese New Year can be a pretty boring time for a foreigner. All of my friends were celebrating with their families, and since I have no family here, nor have I a girlfriend whose family I could join, I had nothing special to do. Shops and cafes were closed - apart from big chains like McDonald's or Starbucks, which were overcrowded anyway. So I had a lot of time to think. On Saturday evening I went out to buy my dinner. While I was walking around, I heard the voices of the people inside their homes, the sounds of their New Year celebrations. Then I suddenly asked myself: "What on earth are you doing here? Why are you still in Taiwan?"  Before I came to Taiwan, some Taiwanese friends of mine had recommended me their country, highly prasing it and going so far as to say that Taiwan is a "paradise for foreigners" (bear in mind that when I say foreigners I mean 'Westerners').  "It's easy for foreigners to find a job," t

Is China's MINISO Copying Japan's MUJI, UNIQLO and Daiso?

Over the past few years Japanese retailers such as UNIQLO and MUJI have conquered foreign markets, opening shops in cities such as Paris, Berlin or New York and becoming household names in several countries. But the success of their business model seems to have inspired people with dubious intentions. As the website Daliulian recently showed, a new chain called MINISO, which claims to be a Japanese company selling ‘100% Japanese products’, seems to be nothing more than a knock-off of UNIQLO, MUJI and Daiso, copying their logos, names and even the layout of their stores. The company’s webpage proudly announces – in terrible English – that “ MINISO is a fast fashion designer brand of Japan. Headquartered in Tokyo Japan, Japanese young designer Miyake Jyunya is founder as well as the chief designer of MINISO, a pioneer in global 'Fashion & Casual Superior Products' field. ” According to the company’s homepage, MINISO advocates the philosophy of a simple,

Macau: Gambling, Corruption, Prostitution, and Fake Worlds

As I mentioned in my previous post , Macau has different faces and identities: there is the old Macau, full of colonial buildings and in which the pace of life seems to resemble a relaxed Mediterranean town rather than a bustling, hectic Chinese city, such as Hong Kong or Shanghai. On the other hand, there is the Macau of gambling, of gigantic hotel and casino resorts, and of prostitution. These two Macaus seem to be spatially separated from each other, with an intact colonial city centre and nice outskirts with small alleys on the one side, and bombastic, modern buildings on the other.  The Galaxy - one of the huge casino and hotel resorts The Importance of Gambling for Macau's Economy Dubbed the 'Monte Carlo of the East', Macau has often been portrayed as the gambling capital of China. Media reporting on Macau tend present pictures of the city's glistening, apparently luxurious skyline. But a visit in Macau suffices to realize that it is fa

Trip to Tainan

Tainan Train Station Last weekend I made a one day trip to the Southern Taiwanese city of Tainan (Chinese: č‡ŗ南, pinyin: TĆ”inĆ”n), the former capital and one of the most important centres of culture, history and architecture of the island. This blog post is also intended as a special thank to Grace, a Taiwanese friend who was so kind to show me around, and very patient, too. Since Tainan doesn't have an extensive public transport net, Grace picked me up at the train station with her motorcycle, a vehicle that, along with cars, is regarded by locals as indispensable for living comfortably in Tainan. To my great embarrassment, though, I had to admit that I cannot ride a motorcycle. That's why we had to take busses to move around. It was the first time she ever took a bus in Tainan. And now I know why: busses come more or less every half an hour, and service stops early in the evening. No wonder Tainanese snob public transport. Grace had no idea about the routes and about whe