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[Witness] A Rectification Campaign on the Chinese Internet: Lists of Websites Exposed in the Nationwide Crackdown on the Vulgar Trend on the Internet (Batches 1 through 9)

Site Matters2009.02.20
[Witness] A Rectification Campaign on the Chinese Internet: Lists of Websites Exposed in the Nationwide Crackdown on the Vulgar Trend on the Internet (Batches 1 through 9)
Rant: 1. Just tell me which website isn’t vulgar, will you… 2. Any site that can make it onto this list is a great website! 3. Ycool is listed only in the seventh batch; looks like its influence is still rather weak. 4. For decades, the mindset of “rectification campaigns” has still refused to die. 5. Governance requires guidance and channeling, not sealing things off. 6. A “ban” must be carried out in the name of law, not in the name of morality. Even if you hypocritically hold high the banner of law, that would be preferable; but in the name of morality, while hardly speaking of legal principles at…
everyday life China internet sociology
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2009年2月20日
An Essay on Freedom of Speech

Culture & Public Commentary2008.10.05
An Essay on Freedom of Speech
“Freedom of thought” is reflected at the social level as “freedom of speech,” and “freedom of speech” at the legal level appears as the principle that one can never be “punished for what one says.” It is necessary to distinguish “punished for what one says” from crimes committed by means of speech, such as incitement, defamation, insult, agitation, deception, and so on. There are countless offenses carried out through speech, and these convictions are not necessarily unreasonable. But one must always remain clear-headed in distinguishing this: none of these charges can be “punished for what one says”; the basis for conviction can never be the speech alone, but must rest…
culture freedom trust law
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2008年10月5日
Violent Sanctions Are a Helpless Compensation for the Limits of Reason

Culture & Public Commentary2008.09.09
Violent Sanctions Are a Helpless Compensation for the Limits of Reason
I once said, “Violent revolution is unreasonable”—because “violence” is always non-rational, and revolution is always illegal. Yet this gives rise to a still more severe problem: if violence may be lawful, then how is the rationality of law possible? We know that laws are made by the government (whether that so-called government represents God, the emperor, or all citizens), and the implementation of law often has to appeal to violence. It is hard to imagine a rule-of-law society maintained without violent institutions such as police and prisons. Even if a social order established without bodily violent sanctions is at least conceivable in theory, once a public “law” is instituted, it…
culture politics public sphere reason
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2008年9月9日
On the Peng Yu Case

Culture & Public Commentary2007.09.11
On the Peng Yu Case
About the Peng Yu case has recently become quite popular online; you can find it anywhere if you search casually, so I won’t quote much here: “On September 5, the Gulou District Court in Nanjing delivered its ruling in the Peng Yu case, deciding that Peng Yu should compensate the plaintiff for 40% of her losses, amounting to 45,876 yuan. The judgment said, ‘From common sense, it is more likely that Peng Yu collided with the old woman. If Peng Yu had not knocked down the old woman, he would have had no need at all to send her to the hospital.’ Once the verdict was announced, public opinion across…
China commentary public sphere sociology
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2007年9月11日
In the discussion on the teachers’ blogs: On “the freedom to engage in pseudoscience”

History of Science & Scholarship2007.04.07
In the discussion on the teachers’ blogs: On “the freedom to engage in pseudoscience”
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/485ea8790100063v On “the freedom to do pseudoscience” 2006-12-07 07:42:42 Sima Nan said on TOM: “The real intention behind these people’s demand to delete those three characters from the Science Popularization Law is actually that they want to strive for the freedom to falsify things, the freedom to do pseudoscience.” (December 6, 2006, TOM Technology) Sima Nan’s wording is “the freedom to do pseudoscience”; we can change it a bit and make it “the freedom to do pseudoscience” for discussion, because we know that any freedom is also subject to constraints, and there is no freedom of freedom. What Sima Nan said touches on a very crucial question: do the masses…
science philosophy of science Liu Huajie law
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2007年4月7日
On the South China Tiger Incident

Life & Notes2006.01.08
On the South China Tiger Incident
http://hps.phil.pku.edu.cn/bbs/read.php?tid=282 Lately it’s felt a bit like repressed feelings have suddenly burst out in one concentrated explosion, with momentum gushing up from the stomach~ Maybe it’s borrowed from Schopenhauer’s stimulation? As for the South China tiger affair, I’d long wanted to say a few things, but had never managed to get them out. Taking the repost on the forum, and riding this surge of momentum, I finally can’t keep quiet anymore. This is a joke post—surely I can see that, can’t I? Of course I can. The moment I saw “reposted from XX forum” and “repost MP,” I knew it was only a joke, and a really brilliant one at…
everyday life internet public sphere responsibility
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2006年1月8日