Navigating internet censorship in China

Navigating internet censorship in China

Li Zhang

This paper explores linguistic features Chinese citizens use to communicate across the internet and social media in a political environment where the totalitarian government is intent on exerting control and limiting free speech. Ever since access to the internet became widespread, the Chinese government has imposed strict censorship to prohibit (or limit) the spread of criticism of the government, the escalation of alternative viewpoints from political activists and the growth of profanity on the web. This strict censorship has resulted in a great number of words and phrases becoming taboo in the webspace with the result that these words and/or phrases are routinely blocked or deleted by the internet service provider. However, with thousands of years of practice in circumventing taboos, Chinese people never cease to utilize their creativity and linguistic resources to formulate new expressions to communicate important political and social messages. This paper will briefly introduce the current political and social environment that has resulted in a high level of censorship and then focus on the analysis of the newly-coined expressions popular among internet users in China in the last ten years to avoid taboos. This will demonstrate which linguistic features of Mandarin are most often used by internet users to creatively communicate their message and avoid censorship.