I have some questions for Chinese and China-based bloggers out there. (Please forgive my rusty Chinese… I'm much better at reading than writing, I'm afraid.)
The extent of China's web filtering is often dismissed in the West as not such a big deal because people can use proxies to get around the blockages. People seem to have different opinions about how widespread the knowledge of proxies actually is in China. If you're in China right now or have been spending a lot of time there recently I'd like to know what you think about the following questions:
在国外经常有人说，因为有代理，中国有很多网站上不了没有太大关：真想看这些网站的人总有办法。不同的人对这个问题有不同的看法, 所以我想问中国的 blogger 几个问题:
- Of the people in China who use the internet regularly, what percentage do you think know how to use proxies? Of the people you know, what percentage know how to use proxies? 在中国经常上网的人当中，你估计百分之多少知道怎么用代理？亲自身边的人当中，你估计百分之多少会用代理？
- Out of that group of people, what percentage do you think frequently use proxies to access blocked sites? 会用代理的人当中， 你估计有百分之多少经常用代理上被封的网站？
- In other words, among the proxy-savvy Chinese internet users, to what extent does it matter if things are blocked or not? How much does filtering impact these people's information experience on the internet? 换句话问：在会用代理的中国网民当中，一些网站被封不封有多大的关系？中国政 府封一堆网站对中国 网民的“网上经验” 有多大的影响？
- More generally, amongst all internet users in China at large, how do you think internet blocking and filtering impacts what Chinese internet users do and do not know about their own country and about the world at large? 总的来说，在中国国内访问不了很多网站的情况之下，你觉得这个情况怎么影响 到中国网民对自己的国家和国外的理解？
It would be great to know your views. If you want to answer this on your own blog, please post the link in the comments section here if the trackback doesn't show up automatically. I would especially love to know what the Chinese bloggers think about this question. 麻烦blogger们在自己的 blog 上,或者在下面的“comments” 里面发表自己的意见!