As some of you may know, I'm currently in China studying during my Easter holidays and I am having to use the internet quite a bit. I'm finding that the censorship wasn't a massive issue at first but the more work I try to do, the harder it actually becomes because general things I want to read are often blocked, for example blogs, which I often use for finding pictures more than anything. Youtube, facebook and other public content sites are blocked, and whilst I see this as a relatively good thing because it means I have to focus on my studies a whole lot more, I'm a bit annoyed to have this sort of discipline pushed on me in such a way.
I've also noticed it is extremely difficult to find any sources that speak negatively of China, for example things about Tiananmen Square or even corporate groups that haven't been treating their employees 100% great. Just lots and lots of random things blocked.
What I really want to know is how you would feel if they decided to block these sorts of things in the UK, and what sort of impact do you think it would have. I think that education standards would probably improve reasonably because although there are things to procrastinate with that existed before facebook and youtube, I find I resort to reading the news instead! But now I'm feeling a bit oppressed and unable to really discuss it with many Chinese people without fearing I might say the wrong thing, and nobody else on my course really wants a heavy political conversation as they eat then go out drinking after classes, and I've too much work to do to be doing that... so I need to offload my need for discussion somehow and my essays aren't really doing it for me. Sadly I can't access my blog to offload these questions and such because 1. it's blocked and 2. I don't know if my privacy is being compromised whilst I'm browsing on a Chinese network.
So please, put me out of my misery
I'd also love to answer any questions about my experience of China if anyone is interested! x