China’s youth post-Tiananmen: Apathy a fact or front?

They’re known as the "post 1980s" kids or the "Tiananmen-plus-20" generation: 200 million-strong, Web-savvy, pop-culture-conscious and decidedly apolitical. As the world observes the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, pro-democracy advocates abroad lament how little Chinese youth today know or care about the student-led movement that ended with the deaths of hundreds when tanks rumbled through the capital’s streets and troops opened fire. But what is lost in the generalization is whether today’s political apathy is a fact or a front

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Lego Violence

Warning: “This is not a blog for children.” That’s according to the mission statement of the blogger Legofesto, who’s amazingly found a way to use LEGO — the stackable, clickable, infinitely malleable children’s toys — to tell the story of Guantanamo Bay detainees, prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, British bank instability, and civilian deaths in the Iraq War. Legofesto, a blogger located in the United Kingdom, won’t reveal her identity, but her politics are clear.

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A Brief History of Chinese Internet Censorship

One of the sharpest challenges yet to China’s stifling attempts at Internet censorship comes in the form of a lowly alpaca. Actually, the alpaca-like creature starring in online videos and lining Chinese store toy shelves is a mythical “grass-mud horse” — whose name in Chinese sounds just like a vulgar expression involving a sex act and, well, your mother.

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