Internet Censorship Tsar Hit by Shoe

Fang Binxing, professor and president of the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, was hit by a flying shoe when giving a lecture in Wuhan University in Wuhan, Hubei Province.

Mr. Han Junyi (twitter alias @hanunyi) threw an egg, which missed the target, then a shoe, right on. The second shoe was blocked by Fang's servants. The eggs was prepared by Wuhan University Computer Science students @zfangzhou and @lonelydream2, who backed down when they found their graduation reading committee members were on the scene with Fang. Han Junyi took the ammunition and executed the task. Fellow students helped Han got away from pursuing security forces.

Fang, is proud of being the 'Father' of Communists Government's Great FireWall (GFW). Fang is rated a top 3 shameless intellectual in China.

Fang is also credited for the spreading of democratic ideas and thinking in China. Without Fang's GFW, the Internet would be a chat board and game pad for boring Chinese youth. Thanks to Fang's blocking of information, the Chinese online community has become a training camp for anti-government movements. Fang's ever-growing block list includes everything a youth could have kill their time otherwise on, from Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, Flickr to Python (a programming language), Android (a cell phone operating system), the SourceForge (open source platform), to the most recent addition, FlipBoard (block confirmed yesterday).

Technically and economically, the down side of Fang's achievement is that he build a wall between mainland China and the outside world. While people from the rest of the world are trying to easy the 'digital gap', Fang created a 'digital wall' out of nowhere. Unlike some IT workers who work on the Great FireWall project or the Gold-Shield Project for a living, Fang is very proud of his vision and leading role in retraining information exchange and suppressing different voices. In several interviews on the subject, Fang showed great enthusiastic and enjoyment on the project.

Trivial:
1. Fang was obviously furious after having dodged the egg but being hit by the shoe. Fang scolded the host of Wuhan University why they hadn't prepared better for such an event since there had been public discussions on the Internet, particularly on Twitter. Some online community posted varies rewards (including hugs from hot girls, new shoes and iPad2, etc.) for anyone to hit shoe at Fang. Professors of Wuhan University replied the campus was blocked from accessing the Twitter, so they could not have known.

2. Students and online Chinese Netizens argued the shoe did not hit Fang, because Fang as a human being does not exist in mainland China at all. For example, if you search the name no result will be returned by any search engine. After today's event, even 'President Fang' and 'Professor Fang' became 'sensitive words', and became unsearchable.

3. Fang's seminar today was arranged in Room B404 in the School of Computer Building, a page users often see when the website is blocked by Fang's GFW. It is not known whether the room assignment was intentional by some defiant staffs.

4. Some of the reward offered by Chinese Twitter user for anyone who would shoe attack Fang:
- a movie in Shenzhen, plus a cup of milk-tea;
- a gourmet meal in Guangzhou (except a few insanely expensive restaurants);
- RMB Y200 ($35);
- a meal of Xinjiang delicacy;
- one BitCoin, and Tibetan Beef Noodle in Hong Kong;
- a dinner in Nanjing;
- a dinner at Suzhehui Restaurant in Shanghai;
- tour of Beijing, plus RMB Y300 book voucher;
- nine meals in Chengdu, guest house;
- one hug, accompanied tour of Chengdu (best on weekends);
- a Vancl T-shirt (value RMB Y29);
- a kiss and a hug and a free meal;
- a gourmet meal in Hangzhou;
- Xi'an BBQ;
- one night hotel in Suzhou, complementary tour and meals;
- $100 Apple gift card, can be converted to RMB;
- Guiyang tour, all covered;
- authentic photo book of Sola Aoi;
- a puff account;
- a bag of American pistachio bought at Giant Towson;
- a post card stamped in Krakow Poland the place of the Schindler's List, and a key chain bought at the Gaudí House Museum in Barcelona;
- a covered tour of red light district of Singapore (offer expires in three months);
- a tennis game in Beijing, or buffet in Golden Jaguar with local transportation;
- RMB Y2,000 allowance Taobao purchase;
- one SSH account;
- "China Mist" authored by He Qinglian;
- three months of local transportation in Wuhan, safety shelter and emergency financial support;
- a gourmet meal in Shanghai wine included;
- a movie in Shanghai or Wuhan;
- a covered tour in Dali, Yunan;
- 2 nights in Chiang Mai, Thailand plus a meal;
- a pair of shoes, please post size;
- a Disney stuffed animal;
- lifetime guided tour in Qinghai, all covered;
- RMB Y10 via Zhifubao;
- an IMAX ticket in Shanghai or equivalent cash;
- Suzhou Garden Collection stamps and a night at a Youth Hostel;
- an authentic porn DVD, by default featuring Sola Aoi if not specified otherwise;
- a pair of shoes under RMB Y300 on Taobao or equivalent cash;
- a round-way ticket to Hangzhou, or equivalent cash;
- a buffet at Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong;
- RMB Y50 via Zhifubao;
- a collection of Stanley Kubrick's movies;
- one day travel in Beijing, fully covered;
- two movie tickets in Shenzhen Pacific Theaters;
- a dedicated VPN account with user name and password preset;
- a gourmet meal in Hong Kong;
- "Path of Reform" authored by Zhao Ziyang;
- will split if win lottery tomorrow;
- a pair of shoes;
- a fully covered tour of Beijing;
- one iPod Touch;
- a pair of Nike from US for a shoe within 2 meters range of Fang;
- family meal with hot girls;
- one month shared use of Xunlei FTP service, extension possible;
- 10 VPN accounts;
- Shanghai BBQ with local transportation;
- a gourmet meal in Nanjing with wine;
- a meal in Shanghai, roasted duck and hot pot at Xiangyanglu Restaurant;
- one night top hotel in Suzhou plus escorted tour;
- Paid full membership of Gaming hosted in Taiwan plus two season tickets;
- one toilet;
- a one night stand in Shanghai;
- one QQ super group account and one Tornado download VIP account;
- one iPad 2;
- a round-way ticket to Hangzhou and a one night stand;
- 9 California crabs;
- EUR E100;
- fully covered escort service by a model in a four star hotel in Dongguan, Guangdong;
- one year VPN or SSH service;
- one week covered tour in California;
- RMB Y300 worth of books, can be selected at major online book stores;
- a round-trip ticket to Shanghai;
- lifetime free meals in Hangzhou;
- one Disney admission and one Ocean Park admission in Hong Kong;
- one Republic of China 100 anniversary scarf bought from the President's Mansion;
- ......
The list is really long. After the successful first attack, one person even posted a one year term job with full benefit offering for a second attack.

Kimono Does not Go with Cherry Blossom

A group of local tourists were booed away from Wuhan University campus last Friday afternoon.

Wuhan University was taken as the headquarters of occupation force during WWII. The first batch of cherry trees were planted on campus around 1939 by Japanese army as a symbol of victory. Although cherry trees dies in 20-30 years, cherry tree populations has enjoyed a steadily growth ever since. Every year in the cherry blossom time, hundreds of thousands of Wuhan residents will come to Wuhan University to appreciate the scene. Wuhan University students will round up the entire campus, including adjacent road, hills and lakes with ropes, in order to charge a 'special cherry blossom fee'. However, guide brochure distributed at the entrant tells you the trees has been on campus 'forever'. It is a taboo to make any connection between cherry trees in Wuhan University and Japan.

When a group of 4 people, all with local accent, went to Wuhan University on March 21, 2009 to appreciate the cherry blossom, they were booed by a mob of Wuhan University students because a lady and a young woman were wearing kimono. Soon other tourists joined the students, and shouted anti-Japanese slogans. The group immediately stopped taking pictures, and took off kimonos. A reporter at the scene interviewed the family. They said they did not have specific intention, only thought kimono looked pretty with cherry blossoms.

A student who preferred to be anonymous told the reporter that it's unforgivable to make such connections between Japan and Wuhan University. The University would be ashamed if was connected to the humiliation of Japanese occupation which resulted more than 30 million Chinese civilians death. They would probably have to cut the symbols of Japanese occupation. However, it's crucial to the financial stability to keep the trees and revenue from cherry blossom tourism. A campus security officer interviewed vowed they will tighten up the security at entrance, and will not allow similar incidents to happen again.

According to the official web site, the Washington DC cherry blossom will take place between March 28 to April 12 in 2009. The peak bloom period will be from April 1-4.