Just as a general tip, though: don’t trust press reports. On much of anything. There’s a powerful incentive in modern 24-hour news cycles to establish a narrative quickly, ideally a simple one, and then ignore the facts thereafter. Hence it’s “China bans skulls” (or time travel stories or ghost stories or) as a simplistic othering “THEM THAR FURNERS SHOOR IS FUNNAY!” approach, even ignoring the geopolitical motivation (“CHINA IS DUH DEBBIL!” in the USA or “THE WEST IS KUH-RAZY!” in China), so you tend to have to look past the headlines and even the bulk of the stories published to find the truth.
And in this case the truth is skulls and skeletons were removed because it was deemed they would disturb children. 🤷♀️ There are similar issues behind the “time travel is banned” myth or “ghost stories are banned” myth or even the ever-popular “Winnie the Pooh is banned” myth. A tiny kernel of truth wrapped in layers of wilful ignorance, narrative-building, and geopolitical skew.
That’s exactly why I wanted to ask and why I’m appreciative you took the time to give your first hand experiences. Funnily enough, I’ve been trying to do that ever since I ended up playing an MMO that has only been launched in China. Was a very eye opening experience once I was able to handle the language barrier.
No troubles!
Just as a general tip, though: don’t trust press reports. On much of anything. There’s a powerful incentive in modern 24-hour news cycles to establish a narrative quickly, ideally a simple one, and then ignore the facts thereafter. Hence it’s “China bans skulls” (or time travel stories or ghost stories or) as a simplistic othering “THEM THAR FURNERS SHOOR IS FUNNAY!” approach, even ignoring the geopolitical motivation (“CHINA IS DUH DEBBIL!” in the USA or “THE WEST IS KUH-RAZY!” in China), so you tend to have to look past the headlines and even the bulk of the stories published to find the truth.
And in this case the truth is skulls and skeletons were removed because it was deemed they would disturb children. 🤷♀️ There are similar issues behind the “time travel is banned” myth or “ghost stories are banned” myth or even the ever-popular “Winnie the Pooh is banned” myth. A tiny kernel of truth wrapped in layers of wilful ignorance, narrative-building, and geopolitical skew.
That’s exactly why I wanted to ask and why I’m appreciative you took the time to give your first hand experiences. Funnily enough, I’ve been trying to do that ever since I ended up playing an MMO that has only been launched in China. Was a very eye opening experience once I was able to handle the language barrier.