Liu Xiaobo and my host father

The main result of the PRC getting themselves all worked up about Liu Xiaobo's Nobel peace prize is that prior to the award and the PRC attempting to block all news of it, no-one knew who Liu Xiaobo was. Now, they all know... Ah, the wonders of attempted censorship.

As a response, it was quite impressively paranoid. Briefly, all news websites were blocked, CNN went down, and reportedly, even text messages with his name in were being censored. I was sitting in a net bar shortly afterwards, and all the power abruptly went in a shower of sparks. Of course, this could just have been dodgy electrics, but I would not put it past them...

I had in fact just before leaving for Sichuan had a conversation with my host father about Nobel prizes, and he had explained/mimed that China really wanted one, and ironically, the only one they'd ever got was awarded to the Dalai Lama. I explained that Liu Xiaobo had just been nominated, and he shrugged and said he'd never heard of the guy.

Coming back from Sichuan, after helping me with my  rucksack up the stairs, almost the first thing he said was 'Liu Xiaobo got the prize then', to which I replied 'I know, but how the hell do you know?', to which he just grinned, and chuckled at me. He just finds it hilarious that China's two Nobels now belong to the Dalai Lama, and Liu Xiaobo.

He's definitely not a normal Chinese guy. However, at this point, my ayi returned, and all discussion of politics was briefly suspended.


PS I did later find out he knew: I think it is as his daughter is currently living in Taiwan, though there was a longer, more complicated explanation to do with leaders, outside-country-people and the internet, which I did not entirely understand.