Seal and Kill

封杀 (Feng Sha) - Seal and Kill.

Everywhere you turn, you'd see this word appearing in news titles, blog entries and online commentaries on many of the Chinese websites.

A cyber Cultural Revolution seems be at full swing in China at this moment. Entering "封杀" in Google, you'll come up with more than 12 million results!

First seal and kill "The Super Girl," then Tang Wei, then Carrefour, then Sharon Stone and then Kungfu Panda... The list goes on and on. What used to be a way that the government exercises its censorship has now become a common artillery carried by Chinese netizens to instigate public outcries. 封杀！Let's call for a kill and seal! But what is missing here are common sense and basic human decency.

In recent months, the Chinese cyber world seems to be run by a bunch of hypersensitive agitators and enablers, who looks out for every opportunity to crush and condemn those whose views differ from theirs. Excessive and often profane languages are used for launching attacks. Deliberate manipulations of truth or even pure lies are also utilized to gain attention and support. This is exactly the same way as it did in the Cultural Revolution. However, unlike in the Cultural Revolution when many attackers used their real names, nearly all of those agitators and enablers are a nameless bunch. Rarely an entry you see on the Chinese web has been posted under one's real name. You can't help but wonder whether these posts are really reflecting the authors' true beliefs or simply a way of lashing out their frustrations, grievances or even revenge.

Let's wait and see who'll be the next to be picked out and be sealed and killed.