The WeChat emoji "Rush Tower" project in June last year

Jun 6

The first step to detoxification: Be aware of the poison of self-censorship.

A few days before June 4 last year, I thought of doing something to commemorate the anniversary. At first, I just used simple geometric shapes to outline the general scene of the tank confrontation at Tiananmen Square, and sent it to the WeChat Stratosphere group. Several group members changed their profile pictures together. Then I thought I could make a GIF based on this and share it as a dynamic expression.

The first version of the GIF and the accompanying text was written as "大大力乱神" because "怪力乱神" was not appropriate. Later it was changed to "排山倒海" to commemorate the courage and momentum of the Tank Man.

This led me to think that I could use the banned topics and memes as a basis to create a series of emojis, and submit them to the WeChat emoji open platform to spread them to more people. What surprised me was that except for one red scarf element that needed to be replaced, the rest passed the review and were successfully put on the shelves. I know that this surprise and even surprise is because of the self-censorship and the result of "successful release" after being reviewed. But in fact, this is just the success of the censorship mechanism, and the failure of the creators who had to succumb and retreat in the face of censorship.

The emoticon package lasted for about a week after it was put on the shelves. When I received a reward from a stranger, I knew it was going to disappear. As expected, it was quickly taken down.

Then I made a second set, based on Zhang Weiwei's widely circulated remarks on the show, and used the last scene of the animated picture to satirize it. It was put on the shelves on the first day, and was forced to be taken down on the second day.

The two emoji packages can no longer be searched, downloaded, or shared as a whole in WeChat. However, if you have downloaded them before, you can still use them. Or click on them one by one in the screenshot interface to save them individually. All GIF files are attached at the end of this article.

The data of download times is generated before the delisting, and the data of sending times is as of now.

Some Chinese directors like to boast that they "dance in shackles." If this is just a helpless sigh, it's fine. But every time I hear any literary and artistic creator say this, I feel a strange taste, always feeling that this sentence is acknowledging and glorifying shackles.

Why do we have to endure wearing shackles? If we can dance well with shackles on, will we gradually get used to the existence of shackles and never take them off? If we take off the shackles, will we still know how to dance freely?

The process of self-examination is the process of adapting to the shackles. It was passive at first, and gradually became active - just like being able to "predict" which direction the whip will come from before the other party swings it. This is not a high level of martial arts, but a self-protection mechanism formed because of being abused to a certain extent. It is a pathological conditioned reflex; just like when I was creating emoticons, I already knew how to avoid obvious "taboos"; just like a bird that has been locked in a cage for a long time, accustomed to life in the birdcage, and finally the cage door is opened, it may not necessarily fly away; just like at this moment, although I am in a free place, I am still troubled and provoked by the poisonous strings in my mind.

I refuse to wear shackles. I refuse to adapt to the shackles. I refuse to create content that has to be revised twice or even multiple times to circumvent censorship.