In its March 2020 edition, China’s People Magazine (note: different from the People magazine in the United States), a publication under People’s Publishing House, published an article called, “The Person Who Handed out Whistles.” However, within three hours, the Communist region removed all posted versions.
The article talked about Ai Fen, Director of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Wuhan Central Hospital, which treated several coronavirus patients in December, 2019. Ai Fen took a picture of the diagnose report of “SARS coronavirus” and sent it to some doctors including Dr. Li Wenliang. Dr. Li Wenliang then sent the message to a WeChat group, including the picture, and became the whistle blower. Ai is thus considered to be the person who handed Dr. Li Wenliang a whistle.
Chinese netizens were very disappointed in the government’s Internet control and started to relay the posting of the deleted article. However, their postings were soon deleted. Then people translated the article into different languages and kept posting it. The different languages that were used include: 1. Traditional Chinese, 2. Mirrored Image, 3. English, 4. Martian language, 5, Braille, 6. Upside-down Image, 7. Garbled version, 8. Obituary (an Ancient Chinese writing style), 9. A rewrite in the Classic Chinese language, 10. Hand-writing, 11. Morse Code version, 12. No Letter version, 13. Vertical layout (read the article vertically), 14. German, 15. Binary code, 16. Voice…
Netizens told Radio Free Asia, each version might exist a few hours, or just a few minutes, before the Communist regime deleted it. Since several versions were not readable, people passed them around not for others to read but to protest and to release their anger towards the authorities’ Internet control.
Related postings on Chinascope:
- Public Opinion: Refusing to Remain Silent Any Longer, a Wuhan Youngman Decided to Speak for the Died
- Public Opinion: People Creatively Protested Government’s “Be Grateful” Education
- Leadership: The CCP Was Forced to Reverse the “Be Grateful to the CCP” Education
- Public Opinion: Intellectuals in China Started Raising Their “Five Demands”
- Public Opinion: Outpouring of Grief and Anger upon Death of Chinese Doctor Who Warned Others About Coronavirus
Excerpt in Chinese:
习近平抵达武汉视察当天，人民出版社旗下《人物》杂志3月刊发出《发哨子的人》一文，三小时内即被迫下架；该刊公众号上的原文亦在午前被删除；转发文章的内地媒体亦已将文章删走。分析认为，《发哨子的人》刺激到官方宣传部门的敏感神经，于是将《人物》封面文章《武汉医生》的第二篇报道——《发哨子的人》下架。于是有网民发起接力，又在微信群将《发哨子的人》变成甲骨文、越南语文或颠倒文字顺序等多种变种版本，继续转发。
关注武汉疫情的网络活跃人士毕鑫周三（11日）接受自由亚洲电台采访时表示，最近的敏感字太多，一旦有深度触及当局神经的文字，会被立即删除：“这些敏感词最终触及到他的神经了。不管你用什么方式写，他们都害怕。这只能证明他们愈来愈害怕，他们愈来愈恐惧。可能你以后用拼音代替，他们都屏蔽，因为已经触及到他最害怕的那一根神经了。”
网民秦霂发文写道，文章被删除后，全网开始了接力赛，先是将文章粘贴复制到其他的平台，但存活的时间普遍很短暂，于是一场前所未有的可以称之为史诗级别的转载奇观发生，1繁文版、2反文版、3英文版、4火星文版、5盲文版、6倒文版、7乱码版、8篆文版、9文言文版、10手绘版、11摩尔斯密码版、12无字版、13最新竖排版、14德文 、15进制编码版、16、语音·····等等这种史无前例发方式复活。
有网民告诉本台，周三，《发哨子的人》各种版本出现在微信朋友圈，有的存活数小时，有的仅数分钟，网民此举已经成为一种情绪的宣泄和抗议，因为有不少版本已经失去了可阅读性。综合各方消息，《发哨子的人》作者艾芬是武汉疫情“吹哨人”之一，武汉市中心医院急诊科主任，她率先将武汉出现新SARS的信息发到医生微信群，其中转发者包括李文亮。艾芬其后遭到武汉市纪委约谈。
Source: Radio Free Asia, March 11, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/ql3-03112020065044.html