China: Mapping violent evictions for homebuyer awareness

Google Maps, not Ushahidi or Map World, is what one activist is using in Bloody Map, plotting information of forced evictions from across the country with conscientious potential homebuyers as the target audience:


在较大的地图中查看血房地图开放版

Bloody Map, according to its Wikipedia entry:

记录下近年来层出不穷的暴力拆迁案件,提醒人们,拒绝购买在非法、反人性的基础上建造起来的新房

Records the endless cases of violent evictions from recent years, and reminds us to refuse to buy new housing that was built with an illegal and inhumane foundation

Bloody Map also briefly had an entry on Baidu Baike, which in part read:

在地图上可以看到,迄今为止,这一地图已经被网友浏览了七万余次,而标注的血拆事件也达到了82起,覆盖了从上海到新疆、从黑龙江到广西的全国大多数区域,其中大多数暴力拆迁事件集中在东部沿海地区。唐福珍拆迁自焚、江西宜黄拆迁自焚、呼和浩特拆迁通知附带子弹、广西北海白虎头村强拆等轰动一时的案例在血房地图上都有标注,不过记者也发现,地图上也有一些并不准确的信息,例如发生在成都的唐福珍拆迁自焚案在地图上却被标注到了湖北荆门。

“因为网友可以自由更改地图,所以难免会产生小差错,发现错误网友也可以改正。”地图创建者“血房地图”对南都记者说。

As you can see, this map, as of now, has been visited by netizens more than 70,000 times, and over 82 cases of bloody eviction have been plotted, covering regions from across the country, from Shanghai to Xinjiang, from Heilongjiang to Guangzhou. The Kang Fuzhen self-immolation case, evictions and self-immolation in Jiangxi's Yihuang, the eviction notice that came with a bullet in Hohhot, the forced eviction in Hutou in Guangxi's Beihai are just some of the notorious cases which have been plotted on the map. However, journalists have noticed that some inaccurate information can be found on the map, such as the Tang Fuzhen eviction/self-immolation case which took place in Chengdu being plotted in Hubei's Jingmen.

“Because netizens can edit the map freely, it's hard to avoid certain small errors, although netizens who discover them can make changes,” the “Bloody Map” creator told Southern Metropolis Daily reporters.

The Bloody Map creator has been very active on a Sina microblog account which was opened on October 8, highlighting news about evictions and interacting with users, some of them witnesses to ongoing eviction projects; two updates from October 9 read:

“血房地图的目的,在于将那些已经,或将要淡出公众视野的暴力拆迁案收集整理,一些两三年以前发生的事件,单凭我一己之力不容易找到,但有了你们的支持会容易很多。那些带血的土地上,新房正在销售,你懂的。”

“The goal of Bloody Map is to collect and list cases of violent eviction which have, or will, already faded from public view; some cases going back 2-3 years I had to dig up myself, but with your support, it'll be much easier. When I say that new housing is being built right now on land covered in blood, people know what I mean.

一些正在发生的强拆案件,需要引起更多的媒体关注,血房地图并不是一个适合的平台。不能指望这样的方式能够引起关注阻止当下的强拆。这个平台的目的,是为消费者提供选择依据。如果有一天,这份小小的地图能让某个拆迁利益链上的人对他们的行为方式有所顾及,目的就达到了。

There are forceful evictions taking place now which need more media attention, Bloody Map on its own isn't an appropriate platform to that end. People can't expect that an effort like this will create enough attention to put an end to current forced evictions. The goal of this site is to present evidence allowing consumers to make decisions. If a day comes when this tiny map is able to make people within the interest chain of a particular eviction reconsider their actions, then it will have achieved its goal.

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