SubscribeLog in
Connect with us

China Digital

Bye Bye Pinterest: China’s Creatives Cry as Site Is Blocked in the PRC

After Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Picasa, popular image-sharing Pinterest is now also blocked in China. Chinese netizens are angry and disappointed, while some are outright devastated.

Manya Koetse

Published

on

After Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Picasa, popular image-sharing Pinterest is now also blocked in China. Chinese netizens are angry and disappointed, while some are outright devastated.

“Pinterest is blocked, am I supposed to look for fashion pictures on Baidu now?! F*ck!”, one girl named Cherry wrote on Sina Weibo today. She is not the only one who is disgruntled to discover the site is no longer accessible from within the People’s Republic of China (PRC); since the popular image-sharing platform has been added to the list of blocked websites, many Chinese netizens have responded with anger and disappointment, while some are simply devastated.

“These days I suddenly can’t access Pinterest anymore, I feel like crying!”, one unhappy netizen said.

 

“A waterfall of tears now that Pinterest is blocked! Designers are crying in the toilet!”

 

Photo-sharing website Pinterest was launched in 2009 and became popular in mainland China in 2012, which was also around the time when Chinese clones, such as Huaban, Mogujie or Meilishuo, mushroomed in the PRC.

Greatfirewallofchina.org: Pinterest is blocked everywhere in mainland China.

The website allows users to “pin” images from the internet, categorize them on different boards and place and share them with their followers. The site is especially popular among people in creative industries, such as fashion, design, or photography.

“Why are designer websites now also blocked?! Why Why Why!!! All my image material is on Pinterest, aaaaah! Go f*ck yourself!!!”, one desperate commenter wrote on Weibo.

Others are also angered and unhappy with the site’s sudden disappearance: “This is so sad. All my images, all my boards, all my source material…”

One blogger wrote: “A waterfall of tears now that Pinterest is blocked! Designers are crying in the toilet!”

 

“Can someone please explain why Pinterest is shut off?”

 

Besides the anger, there is also confusion among Weibo users on the motivations behind the blocking, as Pinterest is mainly focused on fashion, food, home design, etc, and is not a platform known for any controversial or political issues: “Why is Pinterest shut off? All my images are there!”, one person said. “Why are good things like this shut down? Damn it!”

“Can someone please explain why Pinterest is shut off?”, user @Kerwin德芙 said. “I simply can’t understand why first Medium was blocked, and now Pinterest,” another person wrote. Story-sharing site Medium was blocked in China in 2016.

Judging from Weibo’s search suggestions, many people have entered the question “Why is Pinterest blocked?”; it was the number one suggestion. The number two search suggestion was “Pinterest won’t open” (see image below).

Most-searched results on Weibo for ‘Pinterest,’: “Why is Pinterest blocked?”

Chinese netizens first noticed that Pinterest was unavailable in mainland China on March 9, when a user of online message board Douban said that the platform had suddenly become inaccessible without warning.

Although Pinterest is mainly a design and fashion-focused platform, it also has users who use it for more political purposes. Historical photos are also widely shared on the site – also those of events such as the Tiananmen demonstrations, that are usually censored in China.

According to Techcrunch, the blocking might have to do with the ‘Two Sessions,’ the annual gathering of China’s governing classes, which is taking place in Beijing.

Many foreign websites have been blocked in China over the past decade. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube were all blocked in 2009. Google and Instagram were blocked in 2014, along with Tumblr and many others.

Despite the angry reactions on Weibo, mainland media have not report anything on the blockage of Pinterest.

– By Manya Koetse

©2017 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

Manya Koetse is the founder and editor-in-chief of whatsonweibo.com. She is a writer, public speaker, and researcher (Sinologist, MPhil) on social trends, digital developments, and new media in an ever-changing China, with a focus on Chinese society, pop culture, and gender issues. She shares her love for hotpot on hotpotambassador.com. Contact at manya@whatsonweibo.com, or follow on Twitter.

Continue Reading
1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Avatar

    Wihic

    May 16, 2017 at 9:11 am

    pardon? Meilishuo and Mogujie clone Pinterest?
    i don’t their history, but now they’re online shop working on vertical market.
    Huaban, yes, it’s a copy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

China Digital

Meet Ren Xiaorong, People’s Daily AI Virtual News Anchor

Although their functions are still limited, AI news anchors such as Ren Xiaorong are a sign of the future.

Manya Koetse

Published

on

Ren Xiaorong (任小融) joined the Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily as a virtual presenter/news anchor this week.

Ren Xiaorong is the AI-powered host of an app allowing users to ask questions related to the Two Sessions, the annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that have been taking place this week.

Through the People’s Daily app, you can ask Ren Xiaorong to tell you more about various topics covered during the Two Sessions, including education, epidemic prevention, housing, employment, environmental protection, and many other issues.

According to the introduction video launched by People’s Daily, Ren is also available to discuss other news topics people would like to know more about.

Ren Xiaorong is interactive to a certain (very limited) extent; users can select the topics they want to learn more about, but the app does not yet allow to ask specific questions.

A related hashtag went viral on Weibo on Sunday (#人民日报AI虚拟主播#), triggering discussions on the use of virtual news presenters.

Ren Xiaorong is not the first People’s Daily virtual news anchor. In 2019, the very first AI-powered presenter was unveiled at the 2019 Big Data Expo (#人民日报首位AI虚拟主播#). Guo Guo (果果), aka Little Guo Guo (小果果), was based on the real-life Chinese reporter Guo Xinyu (果欣禹).

Guo Guo and Guo Xinyu

China’s state media outlets Xinhua, Beijing TV, Hunan TV, and CCTV previously also unveiled their own AI-powered virtual news anchors at a time when China’s virtual idol market started to explode.

During the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, there was also a virtual host and China’s first AI sign language presenter.

Although news media outlets have started experimenting with virtual presenters for some time now, some netizens are still not convinced about the actual purpose of having virtual TV hosts and news anchors, especially when their AI-driven interactive functions are still limited.

Weibo blogging account ‘Media People Online’ (@传媒人在线) writes: “I’ve never really understood this, is there a shortage of broadcasting talent, or are AI anchors better at it? Why would you use a robot to broadcast the news? Are you spending so much money on an AI presenter just to show technological progress?”

But other bloggers (@夏日之阳新闻传播考研) think that virtual anchors could improve the quality and availability of news, since they could broadcast around the clock while saving on manpower, alleviating the pressure on newsrooms.

Whether people approve of virtual news readers or not, most agree Ren Xiaorong, along with her virtual colleagues, is a harbinger of the digitalization of the media at a time when artificial intelligence has already come to play a pivotal role in everyday activities.

Want to see Ren Xiaorong at work? Click this link on mobile.

By Manya Koetse 


 

Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our newsletter and get access to our latest articles:

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

Continue Reading

China Digital

U.S. Embassy Launches WeChat Stickers Featuring Cartoon Eagle

A Weibo hashtag about the eagle stickers, that feature some phrases previously used by China’s Foreign Ministry, has now been taken offline.

Manya Koetse

Published

on

On January 30, the American Embassy in China announced the launch of its very own series of social media gifs, a special ’emoticon collection’ (表情包), featuring a little, somewhat silly cartoon eagle.

The U.S. Embassy launched the eagle series on WeChat and also announced the series on their Weibo account, writing that the eagle made its first public appearance in light of the festivities surrounding the Chinese New Year.

The eagle is called “Xiaomei” or “Little Mei” (鹰小美). The ‘mei’ is part of 美国 Měiguó, Chinese for the ‘United States,’ but měi also means beautiful and pretty.

The American embassy issued a total of 16 different animated stickers, and they’re intended to be used on Tencent’s WeChat, where users can download all kinds of different emoticons or stickers to use in conversations.

WeChat users often use many different animated stickers in conversations to express emotions, make jokes, or increase the festive mood (by sending out celebratory New Year’s or birthday etc gifs). Users can download new and preferred sticker packages through the app’s sticker section.

One sticker shows Xiaomei with a festive decoration with 福 () for blessing and prosperity, wishing everyone a happy start to the Chinese Lunar New Year. There are also stickers showing the texts “happy winter,” “hi,” and “thank you.”

Another sticker in the series that has triggered some online responses is one that shows the eagle with a surprised look, wiping its eyes, with the words “wait and see” written above. The Chinese expression used is 拭目以待 shìmù yǐdài, to eagerly wait for something to happen, literally meaning to wipe one’s eyes and wait.

This same expression was often used by the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian (赵立坚) during press conferences, and he also used it in 2022 when responding to questions related to Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan and how the Chinese military would respond (e.g. he first used “wait and see” in the context of waiting to see if Pelosi would actually dare to go to Taiwan or not). But Zhao also used “please wait and see” (请大家拭目以待) when foreign reporters asked him how China would respond to the announced U.S. boycott of the Winter Olympics in 2021.

The Little Mei emoji triggered the most responses as some netizens felt it was meant as a sneer to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

One of Little Mei’s quotes is also “remain calm” (保持冷静 bǎochí lěngjìng), which was – perhaps coincidentally – also often used by Zhao in the context of the war in Ukraine and to refer to other international conflicts or tensions (“all parties should remain calm”). The animated sticker also has olive branches growing behind the eagle.

It recently became known that Zhao, who became known as the ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomat, was removed as the Foreign Ministry spokesperson and was moved to the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs.

Especially in the context of Zhao leaving his post, some wondered why the U.S. Embassy would use phrases related to his press conferences for their new emoticons.

Although some people suggested the WeChat stickers were not launched in China with good intentions, others appreciated the humorous visuals and felt it was funny. Some also joked that America was infiltrating Chinese social media with its cultural export (“文化输出”), and others wondered if they could not also introduce some other stickers with more Chinese Foreign Ministry popular phrases on them.

A hashtag related to the topic made its rounds on Weibo on Tuesday (#美驻华大使馆上线鹰小美表情包#), but the topic suddenly was taken offline on Tuesday evening local time, along with some of the media reports about the remarkable WeChat series.

The WeChat stickers are still available for downloading by scanning the QR code below through WeChat.

By Manya Koetse , with contributions by Miranda Barnes

 

Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our newsletter and get access to our latest articles:

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

Continue Reading

Popular Reads