Chinese Nobel Prize-Winner Says We Need Censorship Like We Need Airport Security

from the super-silly-or-super-subtle? dept

Fri, Dec 14th 2012 2:56am — Glyn Moody

This year's winner of the Nobel prize in literature, the Chinese writer Mo Yan, was a controversial choice. Some saw him as too close to the Chinese establishment, and thus insufficiently heroic -- unlike the previous Chinese Nobel prize-winner, the imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo.

While Mo was in Stockholm to pick up his prize, he gave a press conference where, inevitably, he was asked about this: In addressing the sensitive issue of censorship in China, Mo likened it to the thorough security procedures he was subjected to as he traveled to Stockholm.

"When I was taking my flight, going through the customs ... they also wanted to check me even taking off my belt and shoes," he said. "But I think these checks are necessary."
Some will see this as confirming his supine attitude to state censorship. But maybe it's just an extremely subtle attack on airport security...

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Filed Under: censorship, china, free speech, mo yan, security

23 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 3:02am

Na
we need censorship because like breathing
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steve white, 14 Dec 2012 @ 3:24am

because Liu Xiaobo support of the Iraq war was heroic
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 3:48am

Re: Na
Censoring airborn toxic waste?
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 3:55am

Looks like he's never been to any American airports.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 3:56am

Not knowing what Mo Yan writes about it would be difficult to discern his statement, knowing the political ideologies of the Nobel committee(statist/socialist) you can get somewhat of a clue as to what he represents.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 3:59am

Dear Leader received a Noble for just getting elected, then went on to star chamber Americans, so I see the award as meaningless.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 4:13am

No, I think he meant it. Talk to almost any Chinese living there for most of his life, and he will probably tell you the same thing. These are people who all their life have been told that things such are censorship are a "good" thing to "protect" the "unity of the society" and against all sorts of "bad stuff".

This is what's so sad about states that censor or do mass surveillance on their people. After about 2 decades or so of doing it, the new generations are born with it, and the whole society will start believing that they are good things, and never were bad things.

And this is the danger that is running in US right now, too. A whole generation growing with things like TSA, Patriot Act, and warrantless spying, and thinking those things have always existed and it's a necessary thing that the government needs to do to keep them safe.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 14 Dec 2012 @ 5:03am

We need censorship in the same way we need utterly redundant organisations like BPI/FACT/RIAA/MPAA
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DUMBASS POLITICIANS, 14 Dec 2012 @ 5:28am

150 year copyright
is totally censorship
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 5:38am

Camilo Jos� Cela y Trulock, 1st Marquis of Iria Flavia (famous Francoist and informer against the republicans) was awarded the prize in 1989.
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Dennis Lane, 14 Dec 2012 @ 5:39am

Camilo Jos� Cela y Trulock, 1st Marquis of Iria Flavia (famous Francoist and informer against the republicans) was awarded the prize in 1989.
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Lord Binky, 14 Dec 2012 @ 6:06am

Come on....
Really?! Not ONE Stockholm Syndrome joke.... I'm not even going to humor you with one then.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 6:14am

You know, when I read the headline, I assumed it was the guy knocking both censorship AND airport security. Turns out he's just insane.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 6:41am

Re: Come on....
But, please? You have such a captive audience right now. We'd love you forever if you did one!
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Richard (profile), 14 Dec 2012 @ 6:50am

We need censorship like...
Kate Bush needed an intellect...

See 1 minute 25..
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Spaceman Spiff (profile), 14 Dec 2012 @ 7:02am

Tongue in cheek?
Really smart Chinese have to be extremely clever to get messages regarding personal freedoms out into the wild without getting in serious trouble with the authorities back home, who tend to be very literal. Personally, I think this was such a message, or at least I'd like it to be... :-)
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Gregg, 14 Dec 2012 @ 7:30am

Hidden message. He knows he can not publicly come out and say anything against censorship or he might disappear in the night or even his family might.

Censorship is one of the biggest evils of the human race. I'm not talking about censorship for children or when you tell a white lie to not be rude, I mean Government and Religions!
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 7:39am

Re: Come on....
Well, in China, do as the Swedes do.

Wait, no, that's not right.
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Quinn Wilde, 14 Dec 2012 @ 8:02am

The important part is clear
Whether he believes that these things are necessary or not is in some ways less important than the equivalence he has, rightly, drawn.

After all, few of us are extremists. Most of us believe that some security is necessary at the expense of some convenience, for example. It is scalar, even if the spectrum on techdirt is likely to be at the more liberal side.

However, almost all of us put less emphasis on the undesireable elements of own culture than we put on the undesirable elements of other cultures.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2012 @ 8:35am

Re:
Glenn Beck - is that you?
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vastrightwing, 14 Dec 2012 @ 8:56am

I agree
I agree with the statement. My argument is we don't need airport security because it's too expensive and the benefit is not worth the price. Censorship is also unnecessary.
Yes, I'd love to go back in time to the 70s when you could walk up to the gate, buy a ticket and hop on the plane minutes before departure time. I argue that we're no safer today than we were then.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Dec 2012 @ 4:29am

I'd be afraid to make more concrete statements if I were him too. He'd probably get thrown in a Chinese prison as soon as he got back home.
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Kelsey, 15 Dec 2012 @ 11:46pm

Stupid
So if we all agreed with the Chinese ideologically we would have virtually no intellectual freedoms is what we should pull out of this article.
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