Source: http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/limiting-free-speech-19-the-great-firewall-of-china/
This political cartoon was drawn by Peter Nicholson on 1st May 2008, which narrates the elaborate system of internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China – the “Great Firewall of China” (GFC), officially called the Golden Shield Project by Chinese government.
Media are extremely important tool for rulers in influencing the way people think or their ideology. For this reason, the Chinese media have always tightly controlled by Chinese government, especially internet. According to MacKinnon, “the Internet simply because it exists in China will not bring democracy to China…So far, the Chinese government has succeeded through censorship and regulation in blocking activities from using the Internet as an effective political toll.” In the cartoon, the main character who is sitting in the middle of Shanghai Internet Café, has been caught by a People’s Liberation Army as he offended the internet censorship.
However, the GFC, “the Net in China”, can block entire sites located abroad and inside China and ingenious technological methods to filter and inhabit searches for keywords considered subversive. Moreover, those keywords are 8964 or 4th June, Tiananmen Incident, equality, revolution, human right and so on. Therefore, we can find that there is a man who is sitting next to the main character said “Uh oh. He searched ‘Human Rights’ one time too many”. Here we can see that, the words in the cartoon help the image a lot. The audience can know better the image through the words.
In conclusion, the author used a comic tone to highlight a serious issue, which creates a powerful rhetorical impact on readers. People who offend the internet law of China will not be caught immediately which is shown in the cartoon, yet they cannot search the sites that are blocked by government. However, nobody can guarantee that the offender will not be punished at last.
Media are extremely important tool for rulers in influencing the way people think or their ideology. For this reason, the Chinese media have always tightly controlled by Chinese government, especially internet. According to MacKinnon, “the Internet simply because it exists in China will not bring democracy to China…So far, the Chinese government has succeeded through censorship and regulation in blocking activities from using the Internet as an effective political toll.” In the cartoon, the main character who is sitting in the middle of Shanghai Internet Café, has been caught by a People’s Liberation Army as he offended the internet censorship.
However, the GFC, “the Net in China”, can block entire sites located abroad and inside China and ingenious technological methods to filter and inhabit searches for keywords considered subversive. Moreover, those keywords are 8964 or 4th June, Tiananmen Incident, equality, revolution, human right and so on. Therefore, we can find that there is a man who is sitting next to the main character said “Uh oh. He searched ‘Human Rights’ one time too many”. Here we can see that, the words in the cartoon help the image a lot. The audience can know better the image through the words.
In conclusion, the author used a comic tone to highlight a serious issue, which creates a powerful rhetorical impact on readers. People who offend the internet law of China will not be caught immediately which is shown in the cartoon, yet they cannot search the sites that are blocked by government. However, nobody can guarantee that the offender will not be punished at last.
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