Posted by
chinambilephone on Thursday, November 05, 2009 9:01:22 PM
The future just isn't what it used to be. In George Orwell's novel 1984, we thought we saw an accurate depiction: china mobile phones dictator whose eyes were on everyone. At a time of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Franco, it resonated. But now, instead of 'Big Brother', we have lots of little brothers and sisters, mums and dads - in fact, everyone - looking at all of us all the time.
Take Jade Goody. The British TV star of reality show Big Brother died of cervical cancer earlier this year. She broadcast her dying days for everyone to see, making that most private and tragic of acts a public spectacle. 'I've lived my whole life in front of the cameras,' she said. 'And maybe I'll die in front of them.' The golden Buddha Heart and Karma model, which resembles a temple ornament, even comes with a certificate to prove it has been blessed by monks.
"You can call shanzhai convenient creativity," says shanzhai expert Scully Meng, editorial assistant of the London-based NGO China Dialogue.
"They create it but do so based on something that's already been created by someone else. I think people are getting tired of big brands and a certain way of life, and this is a way to express themselves." She also points out that shanzhai innovation isn't only about developing new technology, but also fulfilling people's needs TV cell phones
But this new transparent world isn't just for prurient types. China, for example, realises you can no longer control information by just controlling the press. The press, nowadays, is the people. Anyone with a camera phone is a journalist.
Protesters at riots in Shishou city in Hubei province took videos on their camera phones and put them online. Dr Yu Jianrong from the Chinese Academy of Social Science said of the June event that 'it was like a live telecast'. This fact is not lost on media outlets like CNN, which often solicit images from people on the spot.
The case of Neda Agha Soltan, the Iranian student whose death was captured on camera phone, gave the Iranian election protesters a martyr to rally around.
The Chinese government's response to all this has been multifaceted : a failed attempt to put web-filtering 'Green Dam' software on all PCs, jamming iphone clone signals during moments of unrest and, on occasion, even disrupting the Internet.