Winnie-the-Pooh is a good-natured, trusting bear. This makes him an unlikely protagonist for a slasher film. “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey”, which released earlier this year, has been panned by movie-lovers around the world. It was pulled from cinemas even before it opened in Hong Kong. It didn’t go that far in mainland China either. The reason for this is not because of the incredible amount of gore that has been unleashed, nor because the entire premise of the film is absurd. Any depiction of Pooh is guaranteed to attract the attention of the Chinese authorities. Why?
When Xi Jinping met Barack Obama at the White House in 2013, a social-media frenzy remarked how the pair resembled Bear’s imaginary friends Pooh and Tigger. America’s presidents were tall and well built; In comparison, China’s leaders seemed sloppy and a little jittery. Mr Obama’s wiry frame reaches 1.87 metres. Mr Xi’s height, although a matter of some mystery, is believed to be between 1.75 and 1.78 metres. Whatever the truth, a meme was born.
Censoring China’s Internet is an easy task. Direct criticism of the Communist Party and its general secretary is immediately captured, so netizens must seek inventive methods Rave or joke before the authorities catch up. For a while, a harmless bear he became the elusive shrew. Online mentions of Pooh’s Ark were known to be references to the leader of China. During a military parade in 2015, a picture of Mr Xi looking through the sunroof of a limousine was widely compared to a picture of Pooh sitting in a toy car. It became China’s most censored image of the year, according to Global Risk Insights, an organization that analyzes political risk. Until 2017 小熊维尼, the Chinese characters for Winnie-the-Pooh (literally “Winnie the Little Bear”) were actually banned on China’s Internet.
Given that Mr. Xi’s comparisons were often light-hearted, the reaction may sound like hyper-sensitivity. World leaders often try to hide their authoritarianism with a cute alter-ego: Mr Xi himself once enjoyed the nickname “Xi Dada”, used with gusto by the state media, until some Didn’t start making fun of him for this. But China’s leaders suffer from a still more common trait among authoritarians: thin skin. Mr. Xi has wielded more power than any of his predecessors since Mao Zedong. Like Mao, he has ignited a cult of personality in which he must be considered infallible. He is obsessed with image. party cadre expected Cram Xi’s wisdom. There is no room for ribs, no matter how tender.
and so China forwards Armies of censors and secret police to trace online posts. Internet companies employ moderators in their thousands to ensure that banned ideas and images – including those with attractive ursines – are detected and removed within seconds. The sensitivity of the sensor can reach ridiculous. Last year a man live-streamed himself eating a cake. Officials worried that the delicacy looked like a tank, so it was pulled off the air over fears that it was a nod to those who killed student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. was removed. Last year, the Cyberspace Administration of China made a rule All comments on Chinese news sites should be checked before posting.
Bill Clinton in 2000 famously predicted China’s authoritarian regime, determined to police what people say about it, will prove impotent in an age of smartphones and freely disseminating information online. Indeed Mr. Xi’s government – leave a few rogues – has shown itself to be more than capable of maintaining control. As AA Milne (as it happens, an acquaintance of Winnie-the-Pooh) reportedly said: “Organization is what you do before you do something so that when you do it, it’s not all mixed up.” “
© 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under license. Original content can be found at www.economist.com
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UPDATE: July 03, 2023, 01:34 PM IST