China limits entertainment sites during mourning

by Steven Schwankert

May 19, 2008 —

The Chinese government has limited access to online entertainment content during
a three-day period of national mourning beginning Monday.

The Web site of the State Council, China's Cabinet, published
the declaration for observation (in Chinese) of the mourning period on Sunday:
"To express the deep grief of all of country's nationalities for the Wenchuan
earthquake victims, the State Council decided that May 19 to 21 will be a period
of national mourning. During that time, national and foreign institutions will
fly flags at half-mast, public recreational activities will be stopped, and
the Foreign Ministry and China's embassies and consulates will set up condolence
books. At 2:28 p.m. (local Beijing time) on May 19, people across the country
will observe silence for three minutes, while cars, trains, ships, and air defense
alarms will sound."

"In accordance with a public notice issued by the Chinese government on
May 18, 2008, Shanda will observe a national period of mourning beginning on
May 19, 2008, for victims of last week's earthquake. Shanda will resume its
game services at 1:00 A.M. on May 22, 2008," game site Shanda
said in a statement. The statement also seems to confirm a separate government
notice aimed at Web sites with entertainment content mentioned by a Shanghai-based
blog.

Major portals Sina.com and Sohu.com limited their home page offerings to news
content. Sohu adopted an all-black font, with most of the links on the top half
of the page relating to earthquake news. Video sites Youku.com and Tudou.com
both offered only quake-related material on their home pages, but other videos,
such as music or amateur clips, could be accessed on both sites using search
functions.

Game site The9, which is the China distributor for the exceptionally popular
"World of Warcraft" MMPORG (Massively MultiPlayer Online Role-Playing
Game), offered no links to any of its games. Instead, it offered information
on how to donate to relief efforts. Players could still access their accounts
for top-up payments and to view account information.

Representatives from the various companies did not respond to requests for
comment.

"The national outpouring of sympathy and grief is very real. I believe
that most people are not treating the suspension as a crackdown of a police
state but as an understandable reaction to a national tragedy," said Jeremy
Goldkorn , editor of Danwei,
a Beijing-based media site, by e-mail. "Americans can get a sense of the
mood here now by recalling the weeks after 9-11, when many people felt that
it was inappropriate to hold parties, tell jokes or have fun," he said.

China is also suspending the Olympic torch relay for the three days of mourning.
The government is asking people to observe three minutes of silence beginning
at 2:28 p.m. local Beijing time, the time when the earthquake, which measured
7.8 on the Richter scale, occurred on May 12. By 2:00 p.m. Sunday, the official
death toll stood at 32,476, with hundreds of thousands more injured.

IDG News Service