Lung Ying-tai is one of the people I look to for inspiration. Her new book just came out and I hope I get the chance to read it soon.

The most used metaphor in describing and understanding internet censorship in China, is the one of the Great Firewall, often shortened to GFW. In this essay, I argue that our (ab)use of the Great Firewall metaphor leads to blind spots that obscure and limit our understanding of internet censorship in China. A metaphor is a way to understand one thing in terms of another ( Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). While metaphors are often useful for understanding new, complex and often contradictory situations, they do that by highlighting and focusing on one certain set of characteristics but not others. The reduction in complexity through the use of metaphors is at the same time useful for gaining understanding but also creates blind spots in other areas. What I call ‘the myth of the great firewall’ then, is a rhetorical tactic to point out the existence of these blind spots. In constructing our narrative about the internet in China, we focus on one set of characteristics, the Great Firewall, but ignore or neglect other facets of its incredibly complex situation that now already counts over more than 120 million users online. By calling the Great Firewall a ‘narrative we construct’ or a ‘myth’, however, does not mean I am denying the existence of internet censorship in China. There is no denying about the materiality of internet censorship in China, as extensive documentation has shown. By using the words ‘narrative’ and ‘myth’, however, I do want to highlight that our understanding of a complex situation, such as the internet in China, is constructed through a selective process of often powerful imagination. These acts of imagination and fantasies often reveal a lot about ourselves and the way we come to understand and make sense of the world. Therefore, it is more productive to think about myths as alive or dead, rather than true or false. In our case at hand, I argue that the myth of the Great Firewall is very much alive. This essay will discuss two questions: first, what is the Great Firewall metaphor telling us about internet censorship in China, and more importantly, what is it not telling us? Second, what does the myth of the Great Firewall tell us with regard to how the West attempts to understand internet in China and how does this affect policy making?

But having come to this step, I already know it’s time. The occurance of Bingdan incident, I felt, was the time to make things clear. That is to be prepared that, alright, the price I have to pay for are: First, never be able to obtain a visa again. Second, all my books have to be unloaded from shelves. Third, essays will never be published again. These were factors that were being factored in and then you can write this kind of essay.

It would have been more accurate if the BBC instead had written that they provide an insight to ‘what the internet means for people in China who highly depend on freedom of speech and press‘. This is not an incidental case, as the Western press is often obsessed with reporting about the internet in China through a democratization frame, disproportionally interested in the question whether the internet leads to democracy, turning a blind eye to other developments such as the large spread popularity of online gaming.