For Video Art final project, my team made a video installation addressing the media
regulation policy and censorship in China. Experiencing everyday struggle of accessing
information while surrounded by propaganda made us rethink the power dynamic in media
regulation. In return, we reverse the power relation between the authority and the ruled - the
Chinese citizens. We as the citizens, filtered and censored official content using the same
sophisticated techniques that the media regulation department is using. But instead, we made our
statement by making the “unacceptable content” visible.
We recreated a workspace for a censor accompanied with decorations of stationery items
and slogan. For the decorations in the office, we featured some key components that are common
in a Chinese office, the iconic red big Slogan (“伟大, 光荣, 正确”) - “the great, the glory, the
flawless” is the most nationally acknowledged adjectives that the party uses to describe
themselves in slogan. And the content of two Codes of Conduct posters is simply tongue
twisters. We mirrored the characters to symbolize how censorship can twist the content and
make it lose its original meaning.
Finally, I actually questioned the whole
idea when we were halfway through. I was wondering whether the initial idea to borrow the
whole methodology from the authority and apply it back to its media products made us equally
evil and tyranny? When I looked into the newscasters’ eyes, I don’t see the manipulation or
overreaction as I usually perceive the government, instead, I see they fake a smile and try to be
elegant in front of the camera. They are puppets who don’t really have a choice under the
circumstances of Chinese media policies. My dad was a journalist and through him, I understood
a lot of their difficulties to voice. I somehow think taking it all out on them is not fair as well. It
is a sophisticated control system that we Chinese have learned to bear with. And I don’t see any
hope it can be changed or improved in a short time, it will get worse, more and more. And I feel
deeply, deeply, powerless, angry, and sorry about it.