Pincong

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Pincong (2018–)
Type of site
Q & A
Political Internet forum
Available inChinese
URL
  • https://www.pin-cong.com/ (2017–2018)
  • pincong.rocks (current, 2018–)
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedNovember 2018; 5 years ago (2018-11)
Current statusOperating
Pincong
Traditional Chinese品蔥
Simplified Chinese品葱
Literal meaningTasting of onion

Pincong (Chinese: 品蔥) is a Chinese-language internet forum and Q&A website primarily used to discuss politics and adjacent topics. Its users are mainly overseas Chinese people and Chinese netizens who have circumvented the Great Firewall.[1][2]

The "old Pincong" was founded in 2017, but closed down on 30 October, 2018. A new team launched "new Pincong" shortly after.[1]

Background[edit]

The literal translation of Pincong (Chinese: 品蔥) means "tasting of onion".[3] Users of this forum are called "Pincongers" (品蔥人).

While the website does not explicitly market itself as a political forum, the site's users primarily hold discussions on political issues. Pincong's server is located in United States,[1] and as a result, the site is currently blocked by the Great Firewall of Mainland China.[2][4]

Features[edit]

The website's interface is written in Simplified Chinese.[5]

Registration[edit]

To protect users' safety, the server does not record IP addresses nor does the site require an email address or phone number for registration.

Posting[edit]

Pincong allows its users to schedule send forum posts and replies in the event that users wish to delay the posting of their content to a later time and date.

Web access[edit]

The default search engine throughout the website is DuckDuckGo.[citation needed] Pincong users self-report safer experiences accessing the Pincong mobile site using Apple's iOS than the Android operating system found on most smartphones.[6]

Other features of Pincong include open source website architecture, transparent background data, and anonymous private messaging.

Administration[edit]

Pincong users may be promoted to an administrator status through a voting process conducted by experienced users. As users contribute to discussions within the website, they may accumulate points of approval or disapproval in the form of a reputation system found on similar sites such as Reddit's Karma mechanic.[7]

Upon the accumulation of enough points, users with enough reputation are granted "foreground" admin permissions such as banning users who violate sitewide rules, or expanding and hiding posts. Users with particularly high reputation may be granted extended administrator privileges such as proposals to change sitewide rules, but only fellow administrators may vote on these proposals' adoption.[8]

Content[edit]

A majority of its users are from China, but communities of users from Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries/regions exist.[5] Pincong's Mainland China users must access the site with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) as the domain is blocked under the country's Great Firewall ban of numerous foreign websites.[6] As a result, Mainland Chinese users openly share technical experiences regarding internet censorship circumvention.[9]

According to Quartz, Pincong users mostly identify as politically liberal.[10] Some of its users come from Douban.[2]

Influence[edit]

  • August 7, 2019, during Hong Kong protests against China extradition, a Hong Kong protester posted an article in Pincong titled A letter for Mainland fellows from Hong Kong protesters[11][12]。
  • November 13, 2019, many users from Mainland China uploaded their student photo IDs or diploma, partially covered by a piece of paper to anonymously support Hong Kong protests.[10][13][14][15] One wrote "Freedom will not perish, but the CCP will meet its demise."[16]。
  • November 30, 2019, a Pincong user published "Geng Shuang Emulator" on GitHub, a webapp that emulates the clichéd speech of then-Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang. It randomly rearranges Geng Shuang's speeches, with keywords replaced to produce a new speech. That attracted some attention of political activists from Hong Kong and Taiwan.[17][18][19] The emulator was removed on December 30.[20]
  • January 12, 2020, another Pincong user published "Hua Chunying Emulator".[21][22]
  • April 16, 2020, Nature journal in its article China is tightening its grip on coronavirus research,[23] cited a Q&A thread from Pincong, How should one consider the fact that China requires filing and approval of all domestic Covid-19 papers? (Chinese:《如何看待國內規定與新冠肺炎有關的學術論文需審核備案》).[24]

Reviews[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "不要命了？小說連載驚現《重生之我是習近平》 網一看嚇傻" [Don't want to live anymore? Web fan fiction "Rebirth: I am Xi Jinping" scares netizens]. 三立新聞網. 2019-11-08.
  2. ^ a b c d Li, Jane (14 October 2019). "'We feel like cyber-refugees': The decline of the last online sanctuary for China's liberals". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-12-28.
  3. ^ 孫飛 (2019-12-20). "輿論場：「左」「右」不討好的內地高校風波" (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). 香港01. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  4. ^ "Web browser claiming to be China's first legal VPN just a smaller firewall". South China Morning Post. 2019-11-15. Retrieved 2019-12-28.
  5. ^ a b 鹿ㄦ (2019-08-15). "新品蔥，是牆外版的「知乎」嗎？(Is New Pincong an oversea Zhihu?)". Medium (in Traditional Chinese). Retrieved 2019-12-24.
  6. ^ a b Li, Jane (6 August 2019). "How people in China are trying to evade Beijing's digital surveillance". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-12-28.
  7. ^ "【置顶】品葱新手指南 - 新·品葱". 2020-05-22. Archived from the original on 2020-05-22. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  8. ^ "【RFC-123】习惯法制定规则 - 新·品葱". 2020-05-24. Archived from the original on 2020-05-24. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  9. ^ Feng, Emily (5 January 2020). "In China, A New Call To Protect Data Privacy". www.wclk.com. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  10. ^ a b Li, Jane (2019-11-21). ""30 years ago, you supported us": Hong Kong campus sieges strike a chord with Chinese students". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-12-27.(subscription required)
  11. ^ "【We connect】我寫左一封《香港抗爭者致內地同胞書》，已經上左「品蔥」內地論壇。" [I wrote A letter for Mainland fellows from Hong Kong protesters on the Chinese forum Pincong]. LIHKG.
  12. ^ "港反送中抗爭者致大陸同胞書：共同敵人是極權政府". Central News Agency (Taiwan). 2019-08-09. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
  13. ^ "高牆擋不住良心！ 中國各大學學生冒險拍照聲援香港". Liberty Times (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
  14. ^ Su, Xinqi (2019-08-02). "Hong Kong protesters win rare support from mainland as posts go viral". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
  15. ^ ""Tenez bon à Hong Kong !" : quand les internautes chinois apportent leur soutien aux manifestants". Asialyst (in French). 2019-11-23. Retrieved 2019-12-28.
  16. ^ "全球陸生挺香港！ 匿名嗆「自由不死、中共必亡！」" [Chinese students around the globe supports HK! Anonymous post says "Freedom will not perish, but the CCP will meet its demise."]. 壹週刊 (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 壹傳媒. 2019-11-14. Archived from the original on 2020-05-20. Retrieved 2019-12-28.
  17. ^ "酸爆耿爽千篇一律氣噗噗！網友製「耿爽模擬器」瘋傳台港" [Geng Shuang's angry sour repetitive special! Netizen's "Geng Shuang Emulator" goes viral in Taiwan and HK]. Liberty Times (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 2019-11-30. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
  18. ^ 周家豪 (2019-11-30). "耿爽準備不爽中！網友製作「耿爽模擬器」嘲諷NPC回應" [Geng Shuang is going to be unhappy: Netizen makes "Geng Shuang Emulator" to make fun of his NPC-like replies]. 新頭殼. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  19. ^ "耿爽會不爽！中國網友製作「耿爽發言模擬器」 網全笑翻" [Geng Shuang is going to be unhappy: Chinese netizen makes "Geng Shuang Emulator" and the Internet laughs]. CTS News. 2019-11-30. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  20. ^ "「他」不怕失業了！「耿爽模擬器」不到1個月遭下架" [Someone's not going to lose his job: "Geng Shuang Emulator" removed from the net]. Liberty Times. 2019-12-31. Retrieved 2020-01-06.
  21. ^ "才發現耿爽模擬器已經下架了,所以華春瑩模擬器正式上線啦" [Just found out that Geng Shuang Emulator got taken down. Here comes Hua Chunying emulator.]. 新·品葱. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  22. ^ "Hua Chunying Emulator". Github. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  23. ^ Silver, Andrew; Cyranoski, David (2020-04-15). "China is tightening its grip on coronavirus research". Nature. 580 (7804): 439–440. Bibcode:2020Natur.580..439S. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01108-y. PMID 32296161. S2CID 215793345.
  24. ^ "如何看待國內規定與新冠肺炎有關的學術論文需審核備案" [How should one consider the fact that China requires filing and approval of all domestic Covid-19 papers?].
  25. ^ Shih, Gerry (2019-11-15). "Chinese Internet users are fascinated by a mysterious Web browser promising legal access to banned sites. They're also very skeptical". Washington Post.
  26. ^ "武汉卫健委副主任临阵逃去上海?人在前线照片曝光". Global Times. 2020-01-22. Retrieved 2020-02-12.

External links[edit]

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