On Tiananmen Square 24th Anniversary, Chinese Communist party authorities, fearing a threat to their legitimacy, forbid open discussion of the so-called “June 4th incident” in the country’s media and on its internet.
Jonathan Kaiman wirtes in his article posted on The Guardian:
‘…Internet users have reacted by using ever-more oblique references to commemorate the tragedy, treating censors to an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse. Many of their posts have been embedded in pictures, which can often elude automatic detection: a girl with her hand over her mouth; a Lego man facing down three green Lego tanks; the iconic “tank man” picture with its tanks photoshopped into four giant rubber ducks, a reference to a well-known art installation in Hong Kong’s Victoria harbour.’
Below: Twitter image mocking Chinese censorship of Tiananmen Square, adapted from AP’s 1989 photograph (the search term ‘Big Yellow Duck’ is banned). Photograph: Twitter/weibo.com/weibolg.
Original Tiananmen Square Photograph: Jeff Widener/Associated Press.
