Uploaded June 2013 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
So we all know about the Chinese government's attempts to censor Chinese Internet but in the wake of the of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre government censorship has soared to new ridiculous heights. Now the term "big yellow duck" has been blocked on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter. You may be wondering what could possibly be sensitive about big rubber duckies? Well, this picture is the reason.
It is a recreation of a this photo taken during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests which shows Chinese government tanks bearing down on an unarmed protester.
Because this topic is very sensitive, Chinese netizens have come up with creative ways to get past the government's sophisticated filtering system. Weibo users have posted a variety of related images, which Sina's censors have had to search for by hand and delete because there is no keywords to automate their deletion.
In another attempt to block discussion of the event, Sina Weibo also took down the candle emoticon for (quote)"re-organizing" purposes. The candle is often used to highlight a group's suffering or memorialize a tragedy, which is probably why it was also blocked at this time last year.
It's clear that the Chinese government is working hard to keep the public ignorant of its history. The Tiananmen protests of 1989, also known as the June 4th Incident, were a series of student-led demonstrations in Beijing which took place on June 4th of 1989. The students were calling for democratic reforms and better civil rights but were met with hostility and violence from the Chinese government. Soldiers armed with rifles and tanks were sent into the square, resulting in the deaths of hundreds and possibly thousands of students and civilians. This is the reason Incident is also called the Tiananmen Massacre, at least that is outside of Mainland China. The incident was quickly covered up by China's state-run media who reported that the students protest was a "counterrevolutionary riot", thus justifying the use of force.
A government official also said on national television that not a single shot was fired. Hmmm, I'm not sure what he would tell the victim's families about how their beloved died that day. A stampede maybe?
Any post directly referring to the June 4th incident is immediately taken down, but Chinese Internet users are using metaphors to discuss the issue nonetheless. According to the Wall Street Journal, posts about a mass of dark clouds covering the skies of Beijing today has generated many Weibo user comments. A historian posted: "Heaven sees what the people see, Heaven hears what the people hear. Today, Heaven's heart feels what's in the people's hearts."
So try as the Chinese Communist Party might to erase the evidence of the massacre it hasn't stopped citizens from remembering it.
So we all know about the Chinese government's attempts to censor Chinese Internet but in the wake of the of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre government censorship has soared to new ridiculous heights. Now the term "big yellow duck" has been blocked on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter. You may be wondering what could possibly be sensitive about big rubber duckies? Well, this picture is the reason.
It is a recreation of a this photo taken during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests which shows Chinese government tanks bearing down on an unarmed protester.
Because this topic is very sensitive, Chinese netizens have come up with creative ways to get past the government's sophisticated filtering system. Weibo users have posted a variety of related images, which Sina's censors have had to search for by hand and delete because there is no keywords to automate their deletion.
In another attempt to block discussion of the event, Sina Weibo also took down the candle emoticon for (quote)"re-organizing" purposes. The candle is often used to highlight a group's suffering or memorialize a tragedy, which is probably why it was also blocked at this time last year.
It's clear that the Chinese government is working hard to keep the public ignorant of its history. The Tiananmen protests of 1989, also known as the June 4th Incident, were a series of student-led demonstrations in Beijing which took place on June 4th of 1989. The students were calling for democratic reforms and better civil rights but were met with hostility and violence from the Chinese government. Soldiers armed with rifles and tanks were sent into the square, resulting in the deaths of hundreds and possibly thousands of students and civilians. This is the reason Incident is also called the Tiananmen Massacre, at least that is outside of Mainland China. The incident was quickly covered up by China's state-run media who reported that the students protest was a "counterrevolutionary riot", thus justifying the use of force.
A government official also said on national television that not a single shot was fired. Hmmm, I'm not sure what he would tell the victim's families about how their beloved died that day. A stampede maybe?
Any post directly referring to the June 4th incident is immediately taken down, but Chinese Internet users are using metaphors to discuss the issue nonetheless. According to the Wall Street Journal, posts about a mass of dark clouds covering the skies of Beijing today has generated many Weibo user comments. A historian posted: "Heaven sees what the people see, Heaven hears what the people hear. Today, Heaven's heart feels what's in the people's hearts."
So try as the Chinese Communist Party might to erase the evidence of the massacre it hasn't stopped citizens from remembering it.
