Scale the wall, comrade. View the peaks of Japan
Sometimes the collective behavior of a lot of people discloses information that isn’t apparent any other way. There’s a big word for it in the social sciences, but I haven’t been able to remember it for about five years.
Chinese net users last weekend apparently discovered the Twitter handle of Japanese adult film actress Aoi Sola (@Aoi_Sola) and the information went viral. A lot of Chinese fans (15,000) signed up to follow her. Aoi Sola is very attractive and best known for her “expansive” treatment of bikini tops
There’s nothing unusual in that in this day and age.
However…
Twitter is blocked by the Great Firewall of China. A lot of the twitters were using simplified Chinese which, according to the Dongguan Times, indicated they were from mainland China. That meant a LOT of people had figured out how to defeat Internet filtering by the Chinese government.
Here’s the account from Danwei.org, a site devoted to “Chinese media, advertising, and urban life.”
“From the Dongguan Times:
“Many netizens are suspicious of the identity of Aoi Sola’s fans, because on the Chinese mainland, many netizens cannot use Twitter. ‘You can’t get on Twitter on the Chinese mainland, did your followers come from Hong Kong or China Taiwan?’
“Because Aoi Sola works in the AV industry, which is adult entertainment, it could cause harm to youngsters’ mental and physical well-being. Therefore, whether it’s Twitter or news about Aoi Sola, all information is forbidden. In order to become a follower of Aoi Sola’s Twitter from the mainland, the fan must use software for ‘scaling the wall.’
“However, for the netizens who left a message on Aoi Sola’s Twitter, many of those used simplified Chinese, [so] most of them were from the Chinese mainland. After Aoi Sola’s Twitter account was ‘discovered,’ netizens claims that many Chinese people are learning to use software to ‘scale the wall.’”
Aoi Sola’s response to all the attention:
“Aoi Sola: I’m surprised.Receive many follow messages & RT from China now.aaaaaaaaahhh,I don’t know,anyway THANK YOU!!”
Danwei.org story here: “AV actress entices Chinese netizens to go on Twitter”
And, check out Google Images: “Aoi Sola” (CAUTION: the Peoples’ Republic of China believes these photos “could cause harm to youngsters’ mental and physical well-being” although the first 700 or so that we looked at showed nothing you can’t see on Clearwater Beach on a warm day.)
Tom Kelchner