According to an article published in Newsweek (Feb 27, 2006) internet giants like Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have been kowtowing to the Chinese government by helping them maintain the Great Firewall of China filtering out politically sensitive search terms. They even lead authorities to users who have offended the regime. One such user Shi Tao is now serving in prison for divulging state secrets. But now millions of Chinese have taken to blogging in the last couple of years speaking out as fast as they can type!!!

China is a lovely place to be …. the diversity of culture …. the variety of food …. going everyday on a buying spree ….. and the recent economy boom …… I simply fell in love with the place. But i always used to wonder if i’d have felt the same if i was Chinese and living there. May be not!

 All the young Chinese people i met were very energetic, hardworking and dedicated to their professions and their country. But i always got a feeling that you can’t really get too close to them. They can just be your friends, not your best buddies. I could never really tell if they were just like this or it was because i was a foreigner. They were always reluctant to discuss their politics or state affairs but one thing they couldn’t hide was the frustration that years of repression have instilled in them. They were all desperate to get out of their country and they all wanted to end up in the US of A By the way all they know about the US of A is what they have seen in the movies. So they think that all American men are like Brad Pitt. All American women look like Jennifer Aniston. If you ask them what Utopia means they will probably reply “Mei gua” (chinese for America). In fact the word Meiguo literally means ‘Beautiful country’ …..

The locals are not allowed to watch international channels. That’s a privilege only foreigners can enjoy. And even they have to watch censored news. The outside world doesn’t know what’s going on inside China and the Chinese don’t know what’s going on outside China. I felt totally out of touch with the international political scene while i was there. I felt so detached and i am sure that is how everyone else around me felt.

But all in all I would love to go and live there again ……. Zhong gua, wo hen xiang ni …