An interview causes Chinese Internet "chaos"

[wyq614]

In December, 2007, China imposed a rule against illegal Internet audios and videos(mainly unauthorized, sexual, violent and anti-govt. audios and videos). On 27 December, 2007, China Central Television (CCTV)'s 30-minute daily News Report on 19:00 local time(11GMT) broadcasted a short news on this rule. The reporter briefly interviewed Zhang Shufan, a 13-year-old Beijing schoolgirl in order to illustrate the widespread of such illegal audios and videos. The interviewee said to the reporter: "One day when I was looking for some (study) materials online, suddenly a window popped up, it was very erotic and violent, so I closed it in no time."

Just due to these words "very erotic and violent", a large deal of videos, pictures, modified cartoons and posts about Zhang Shufan appeared immediately. The largest Chinese search engine http://www.baidu.com opened up a "very erotic and violent" forum, a very popular entertainment website http://www.mop.com opened up a thread "wanted for" Zhang, a net-pal stated that "very erotic and violent" has been the first "most popular quote" of the year 2008.

--- Posts opened up as soon as the News Report ended.

The first net-pal who opened this post was "lololol", she started the post at 19:40 local time (GMT+8) named "A surprising news report tonight", in which she said "Have you watched the report commenting the illegal audios and videos interviewing a cute Beijing schoolgirl? she said 'One day when I was looking for some (study) materials online, suddenly a window popped up, it was very erotic and violent, so I closed it in no time.' I was having my dinner that time and couldn't help laughing out loud."

As soon as started, the post drew attentions of many people, "pinkbabyfeifei" responded:"Yes, I've watched it, too and burst into laughter immediately. Where can you find a website that is both erotic and violent?" while "leader of the burglars" responded:"This schoolgirl could even distinguish 'erotic' and 'violent' website, what a 'potential genius'! very erotic and violent one! "irissun" said, "I've heard that, too, and I was about to throw up... How could a little girl know that website was a 'very erotic and violent one'? It was strange..."

----- Zhang Shufan "wanted" online
Several days passed, a thread called "Wanted: Zhang Shufan, erotic and violent" appeared on mop.com. It was started by "Tired to death tonight" on 1 January 2008, by January 5, it has received 1200 responds, 12 pages altogether.

A small article was attached in the thread, reading:"I was confused about how we could make a website that was both erotic and violent... But most portal websites are like this, aren't they? Why do we feel so surprise about it... Moreover, how could she know an 'erotic and violent' website? Poor girl, this interview may affect her whole life."

In those 12-page responds, an anonymous posted Zhang's birth date, school and other personal data, even the hospital where she was born. A name list of a 2004 calligraph competition in which Zhang had once participated was also exposed to the public.

-----Modified cartoons and forum ID registrations
In mop.com, a cartoon that carried the image of Zhang Shufan was widely spread, Zhang was modified as a arm-naked girl full of tears in her face, In front of her was a microphone with the letters "CCTV". Some forum users, based on their own imaginations, worked out the possible models of the window that might have popped up when Zhang was surfing the Internet.

"Ghost tree" responded:"baidu.com now even has a 'very erotic and violent' forum! I had been thinking of own such a username, but it already exists now." Our reporter found that in baidu.com, a "Zhang Shufan forum" had already started. And the earliest thread was posted on 3 January. However, a concerned net-pal checked the forum in another way and found that threads had been posted as early as 29 December, with its author taking "Zhang Shufan" as his username, but were deleted by baidu.com moderators.

Now Internet users can see more user IDs that is related to this case in the baidu.com forum such as "erotic-and-violent boy" and "The Window which suddenly popped up". Moreover, from 3 January on, The number of thread in the "baidu.com Zhang Shufan forum" increased sharply. By 5 January, the number of topics has reached 546, with 2807 responds.

[wyq614]

Comments on this interview:

Pro-Zhang net-pals:

"She is nobody more than a cute girl. We shouldn't treat her like this." forum user "xixiwanzi" said when responding the "Wanted" post. "These posts are meaningless." another user claimed.

Some users believe that Zhang had just "said like the adults told her to say. It's not wrong for a child." Zhang did not fail to receive sympathy from "Zhang Shufan forum". "Leave her alone. Everyone has his/her own view towards a certain thing." Some even worried that Zhang may fail to bear such a big psychological pressure that these comments may have caused to her, and vowed that the forum users not discuss this event any more.


Anti-Zhang forum users: Zhang lies to the public.

Some net-pal, while responding the threads, wondering what website had Zhang encountered when surfing the Internet. An user argued that it is not likely that a website is both erotic and violent, so how can a middle-school student easily find such sites? Many forum users believe that Zhang was imposed by the CCTV reporters when saying these words in order to ensure that the report goes smoothly. A net-pal responded:"An excellent middle-school student with various prizes, she lies to the public in front of CCTV reporters without her face turning red. Doesn't she know she is responsible for her own words? For a child, if he/she is not moral, being a top student doesn't mean anything.

Recently, an open letter written by somebody claiming himself as "Zhang Shufan's father" is spreading online. The writer strongly criticized the cartoon modifiers and the critical forum users on the Internet, and expressed his support for Zhang. However, many people don't believe the letter was really written by the schoolgirl's father.

[wyq614]

original image from CCTV


the characters on the right means "Beijing Schoolgirl Zhang Shufan" The subtitle means "very erotic and violent"

modified cartoon

[brunota2003]

Wow...mocking a 13 year old girl. How low can some people go?