Big Yellow Duck: China Bans Images
China is banning images of the big yellow duck on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square.
At Tiananmen Square 24 years ago, Chinese students tried to halt the progress of a line of military enforcements including tanks heading for Beijing. This led to the massacre of said students as soldiers opened fire and drove tanks over protesters. The protest showed a massive split in the Chinese government, and the military declared martial law, slaughtering a record number of residents on June 4, 1989.
Since then, nobody has forgotten or stopped talking about it, but now China is attempting to ban all discussion of the event on the internet.
The big yellow duck meme was one that copied images from the Tiananmen Square protest, replacing the tanks with big yellow ducks as a joke. China has developed a deep hatred for memes as shown in their decision to ban even the images of said colored birds.
China has gone to such lengths to stop discussion of the event that they have even banned such words and phrases as “1989,” “anniversary,” and, of course, “big yellow duck” from their own Twitter feeds. Emoticons such as candles, used to remember the victims of the protest at Tiananmen Square, have been banned. China is so afraid of said discussions that even the date of May 35, which actually ends up being June 4 after calculations, is being restricted.
China has stated in a state-run Op-Ed that the ban is for the people’s own good:
“Most Chinese are looking forward to free speech on the internet, while at the same time are expecting an orderly social environment. People already understand that free speech can not go against social order. Internet regulation is not only an embodiment of the government’s will, but is also laid on the foundation of the public interest.”
Chinese netizens 1, Chinese censors 0. #June4 #May35 twitter.com/RichardBuangan…
— Richard Buangan (@RichardBuangan) June 3, 2013
Technically, in order to maintain the safety of the people, anything reminding them of the incident on June 4, 1989 at Tiananmen Square is being banned from China’s internet.
What do you think of China banning big yellow ducks over the slaughter at Tiananmen Square?
