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Americas: End of the Year Traditions

lingua → bn · es

One Latinas Blog writes about Las Posadas: A Mexican Tradition

Las Posadas are the remarkable buildup to Christmas Eve. Las Posadas are the most delightful and unique Mexican tradition that begins on December 16th to commemorate the events in the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. After dark, each night of the “Posada,” a procession begins led by two children. The children carry a small pine-decorated platform bearing replicas of Joseph and Mary riding a burro. Other members of the company, all with lighted long slender candles, sing the “Litany of the Virgin” as they approach the door of the house assigned to the first “Posada.” Together they chant an old traditional song and awaken the mast of the house to ask lodging for Mary. Those within the house threaten the company with beatings unless they move on. Continue Reading…

From Nika's Culinaria: Colombian Tamales How-To Guide

Christmas in Colombia is QUITE a production. Its not just one or two days like here in the US and it can be exhausting if you are not used to partying constantly for a better part of some 15 days, day and night after day and night. If you think you will be spending Christmas in Colombia next year be sure to condition your liver with a serious regimen of rum training over several months. Otherwise, you will be such a light-weight that you will not remember past December 15th or so. Get the scoop now…

Now it is time to find out about the New Year's traditions:

From Ecuador, Pacho Lara welcomes the 2008 sharing what is a tradition to do for this festivities:

New year's in Ecuador is also known as the “old year.” As the name suggests, the various traditions not only celebrate the new year, but also commemorate the passing year. There are various secular traditions and rituals that are observed, all of them with some personal or social significance. Some of these traditions are quite peculiar, like eating twelve grapes, lentils, and changing into yellow underware (ladies) at midnight (all supposedly for good luck). If you want to travel during the new year, you should run around the house or the neighborhood with a piece of luggage at midnight. There are other similar small things you can do to bring success in other areas of your life. But the most interesting part about new year´s celebration, for me at least, is the tradition of burning the “old year.” Read more…

From Dominican Republic, Remolacha.net writes about how much they enjoy to wait for the new year with their families: Esperaran Año en Familia [es]

La mayoría de las personas que optaron por quedarse en la capital y la provincia Santo Domingo durante el feriado de año nuevo, dijeron que esperarán la llegada del 2008 “en familia”, con una cena modesta, haciendo cuentos y jugando.

Most of the people who decided to stay during the new year holiday in the capital and the province of Santo Domingo, expressed their plans of waiting for the new year with their families, with a nice simple dinner, telling stories and playing some games…

From Panama, Chiriqui Chatter vividly describes how the 2008 was received in David, province of Chiriqui: David Celebrates the New Year.

The closer it came to midnight, the greater the activity outside. About five to ten minutes before midnight, I gave up and went out to the balcony.

There were a fair amount of rockets going off, but nothing like midnight itself. At midnight the whole world seemed to start exploding. It was incredible. I watched for several minutes before, I decide I should take a few photos to record this event.

I should have taken some photos of all the fireworks stands that have been set up in David. I mean there have been stands set up everywhere. Read the complete post…

From Panama too, Boquete Guide describes with photos the colorful way people in Boquete, province of Chiriqui celebrated: Welcome 2008 Boquete Style

Fireworks in Boquete, Chiriqui (Panama)
Fireworks in Boquete, David (Panama)
Photos by Lee Zeltzer

The Latin Americanist shares a compilation of Latin American New Year's Traditions:

With New Year's just days away, most of us have our party plans set. Part of those plans include partaking in traditions with roots in our native countries. Many of us partake of the ritual stemming from madre Spain, eating 12 grapes at the 12 strokes of midnight, making a wish with each uva and ensuring 12 months of good luck…

From Bolivia, Vania Balderrama revises what people traditionally do to receive the new year: Tradiciones de Año Nuevo [es]

Comer Cerdo -
Se dice que en la cena de año nuevo y en el primer día del nuevo año hay que comer cerdo para tener abundancia el año que viene. Según mi suegra, nunca se debe comer pollo, a menos que quieras pasar el año que viene todo desplumado y sin un quinto en el bolsillo.

Las Doce Uvas - Preparas en un platillo doce uvas de cualquier color. En cuanto den las doce campanadas, comes una por una pidiendo un deseo por cada una que se come.

Contar Plata - Justo a media noche contar un fajo de dinero, esto para que no falte durante todo el año.

Eat Pork: people eat pork at the New Year's eve dinner and during the first day of the year for good luck. This will bring abundance during the whole year. According to my mother in law, we should never eat chicken, because you will be broke all year long!
The Twelve Grapes: before midnight secure twelve grapes of any color. At twelve, eat them one by one, each time thinking of something you really want to achieve during the new year.
Count Money: Just at midnight start counting money, with this practice you will always have plenty during the year. Continue reading…

Para recibir a los Tres Reyes Magos, The Cooking Diva prepares Three Kings Tropical Bread with Coffee (Rosca de Reyes al Café) and explains about this tradition:

Rosca Rey de Reyes, or Rosca de los Reyes, is eaten in México, Puerto Rico, and Portugal on Twelfth Night (January 6^th), celebrated in the Catholic religion as the day the Three Kings arrived in Bethlehem bearing gifts for Jesus of Nazareth. A tiny ceramic doll, coin, or bean may be hidden in the bread, and traditionally the person who finds it throws a party on Candlemass (February 2^nd), or is in charge of preparing the “Rosca” for the following year.

In this recipe we are using coffee to re-hydrate the dried fruits instead of the more commonly used port wine or dark rum, adding an innovative twist to the flavor combinations. Please note that this specialty bread involves a 2-day process, so be sure to set aside enough time for the steps involved. Read more…

1 comment · »»

Holidays in Burkina Faso: Days off and good traveling

John Liebhardt · 14:21

lingua → es

For foreigners living and blogging in Burkina Faso, this year’s clustering of Christian and Muslim holidays not only provided a countless number of days off, but gave people the chance to do some good traveling.

Charlie from Blooming Desert tried to make the best of both worlds: Traveling home to the United Kingdom for a friend’s wedding before Christmas before catching a plane back to Burkina Faso in time for hosting 50 guests for Christmas Eve dinner. However, even the best laid plans sometimes fail. The second leg of her flight was overbooked, and Charlie was unexpectedly sent off with a group of passengers to Togo, where she spent the holiday:

Of course, when you are stuck with four strangers in a foreign country for two days you can't help wondering if God has a greater purpose in mind. For sure we were a curious bunch – an unlikely throng comprising a Burkinabe businessman who lives in Norwich, a Muslim returning from Mecca, a French backpacker and a Islamic religious leader who pioneers Mosques around Burkina. All were very friendly and we got on remarkably well, united in our grievances and swapping cards and email addresses at the end of the ordeal.

Burkinamom and her family stayed in Ouagadougou for the holidays, but she found it necessary to negotiate a few cultural barriers in order to celebrate New Year’s Eve at a local restaurant. Those cultural barriers weren’t erected by locals, but other foreigners:

We had come late to the gathering and the others (an all-American missionary crowd) had decided to segregate the seating. There were all the women at one end and the men all at the opposite end of the table. The center was occupied by a hoard of small children. After one look at the table, JP shot me a look of the acutest misery. He's an anthropologist and knows that foreign cultures have their own customs, but he finds this particular one very painful. He sat down among the men and they tried to draw him into the conversation with such gems as “What's your favorite winter sport? and “Where are the next Olypmics being held?” Now, my husband loves to chat about politics, philosophy, current events…anything EXCEPT sports. I could see that action had to be taken. I somehow managed to convince the other women that the kids would be happier at a table of their own and the xx and xy camps could be combined.

For Girl Raised in the South, New Year’s Eve became the tale of two parties. The first took place at her local village bar where she began ushering in the New Year in grand fashion with a bunch of young kids dancing their hearts out. Shortly after, however, the young were escorted out to make room for the adults who wanted to dance. After returning home, she was summonsed to the home of the Prefet, the regional Governor, to celebrate with the town’s “elite,” whom she quickly learned didn’t know how to throw a party:

After that the Prefet stood up and gave a rousing speech telling everyone that the “funcionnaires” (i.e. rich people…compared to everyone else in the village) should stick together, and do these kinds of parties more often. I couldn't help but feel a bit elitist…while we were having this reserved soiree, you could here the blaring music and hollering of the villageois. If given the choice, I might have preferred the villageois/common folk.

For those bloggers who left the country, the coasts and forests of Ghana was the most popular destination. As Ex Africa points out, however, travelers from Burkina Faso may find a different world in Ghana, but that doesn’t always mean a better world:

Ghana is definitely a high-light spot, with great jungles and rainforests, good wildlife, beautiful beaches, and more great people and West African culture…It was such an awesome place. Just the travel. I now realize Burkina actually has some of the best transport in West Africa.

Becca Faso did enjoy a good trip down Ghana’s Butri River:

…[W]e climbed in a hollwed-out log/canoe and paddled down the river. It was pretty neat. We were surrounded by mountains and mangrove forest on either side - which is pretty cool if you are a bio nerd like me. There were beautiful birds and mudskippers and crabs. Then, when we were turning around the guy asked if we wanted to see where he makes palm wine. “Hell yes we want to see that!” I felt like Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart as we pulled over to a hole in the mangrove forest and followed a jungle path to the guys palm wine factory. It was pretty cool. They just take the phloem out of the palm tree and ferment it in barrels. The guy also takes the palm wine and distills it into a liquor that tastes like PGA. Yuk. I had a sip and lost a substantial portion of my brain cells. I'll never get ‘em back.

For those living abroad for a certain amount of time, traveling to another foreign country can be a lesson in humility. Not only because the culture is different, but because your hard-earned local knowledge no longer is suitable. Like everyone else, even Ex Pats can become tourists. From Jill and Marcus in Burkina Faso:

In contrast to Burkinabe hecklers, who aggressively shove postcards and leather boxes in your face and walk next to you until they finally give up, often hissing “racist” as they do, Egyptian hecklers are smooth. Really smooth. On our first outing, we savvy Peace Corps Volunteers took the bait on a classic scam–a charming dude lured us away from the Egyptian Museum, where we were headed, by telling us it was closed and ushered us into his buddy's papyrus shop. His buddy then managed to sell us a few pictures by turning the charm way, WAY up, culminating in his giving us a “special price” because he said I looked like his daughter. Even though we knew we were being scammed, the guys doing it were so freakishly polite, we felt bad trying to get away. Now that's good scamming.

3 comments · »»

China: So yellow, so violent

John Kennedy · 10:58

No, not Bruce Lee. The new regulations set to hit Chinese video sharing websites later this month could be regarded as strictly a censorship move, but then there's the fact that most of these sites can't even get properly licensed. Or the hundreds of clips of violence and porn uploaded each day that please anachronistic regulatory bodies to no end.

The inescapable blog story this week, however, and perhaps related, is that of 13 year-old Zhang Shufan, who was interviewed on CCTV late last month for a report supportive of the new regulations, in which Zhang talks of a recent online experience of having a website pop up showing something she describes as both erotic and violent. ‘Websites pop themselves up?' wondered some, as others began speculating on the possible mainstream culprits. True or exaggerated or a line fed to her, her choice of words have seen many bloggers responding with mockery and even malice, making her the victim of what some have concluded addresses an even larger and uglier problem, represented in this case by state mouthpiece CCTV's reporting techniques; all sorts of her personal details were dug up by netizens and posted online, prompting her father to respond in kind with an open letter, translated by Roland Soong at EastSouthWestNorth:

I am the father of Shufan. During the past few days, people have been giving Shufan funny looks. Then I found out that this was the result of the Internet activities. When I got on the Internet and read the posts, I found it impossible to tolerate. You people are really going too far. Shufan is just a child. Her world and personal views are not fully developed, and she might have said something inappropriate. But does it justify your wilfully attacking and insulting her? Not only did you use vicious language to insult Shufan, you even used Photoshop pornographic cartoons to debase her character. Do you know how much mental anguish your have caused Shufan? Meanwhile, will the person who created the Photoshop cartoon dare to stand out and identify himself/herself? I don't know if you people know what conscience is anymore.

I don't think that Shufan said anything wrong. You have started a so-called human search to locate Shufan. I can tell you that we live in Wanshou Road, Haidian District, Beijing City. You are welcome to visit us anytime. At the same time, I am warning you (especially those who did the Photoshop cartoons) that I will use the law to defend the legal rights and human dignity of Shufan and myself!

Comments characteristic of the sort being directed at Zhang can be found in English here, and this spoof video is quite tame in comparison to a lot of what's out there:

MSN Live Spaces blogger Li Lin Psy1982 sums up quite well the response to the bullying in her January 8 post, ‘CCTV might have no shame, but certain mobsters definitely have no shame~~':

看到朋友的msn ID后缀变了，上面写着“2008年首个网络流行语——‘很黄，很暴力’”～～～怎么说呢，最近个把星期，在温哥华这个大村镇呆着，几乎和国内的新闻动态绝缘了，所以我完全不知道这个ID的典故和出处，于是很好奇地开始google～～～结果，很让人……不爽～～～
…
这就是典型的中国式的网络暴民的行为了～～～在GFW的封锁下，言论自由受到了限制，于是大多数网络蠢货（我的意思是，网上大多数人都是蠢货；但是还有少部分不蠢的，比如说本人～～）颇为不忿——但这是ZF的行为，怨有头债有主——长工被地主踢了一脚，于是回家打老婆出气，这种行为只能被鉴定为 IQ过低～～～

话说CCTV这个机构，在平均IQ上也是很低下的——所以它浪费着那么多纳税人的钱，却也没能把自己变得更可爱一点，只会做一个很娱乐的调查，宣布全国人民都喜欢新闻联播——从智力水平来看，网上的蠢货都去看CCTV，倒也不失为一种恰当的组合方式……
…
随手google出无数条恶毒的攻击，一时间竟有些难以想象，竟然有那么多人，如此热衷于向一个孩子谩骂——而谩骂的理由是，这个小朋友应该像江姐一样，面对CCTV的威逼利诱宁死不从……Bull shit～～～～mop完全可以颠倒一下尾字母，从此叫做mob…

I saw a friend on MSN Messenger changed their nickname to “The first popular phrase of 2008: ‘very yellow, very violent'”…so I curiously opened Google and what I saw…not cool.
[…]
This is classic Chinese netizen mob behavior…on lockdown under the Great Firewall, with freedom of expression restricted, most of the morons online (which is not to say everyone) for the most part aren't that angry, but this goes back to the government's behavior, and resentment sprung from feeling something is owed, or having a master: so when the laborer gets a beating from the landlord, he goes home and takes it out on his wife. This kind of behavior can only be attributed to excessively low IQ…

Which bears mention of this institution CCTV, which on IQ also scores quite low—which is why it wastes so much of taxpayers' money, and unable to make itself any nicer, able only to come up with one very entertaining survey, and declaring itself the news network the whole country likes to watch—so with regard to IQ level, that all the morons on the internet also watch CCTV, there couldn't be a more appropriate assembly strategy…
[…]
And the countless malicious attacks I found through Google, at first glance made it hard to imagine that there could actually be so many people so zealous in launching abuse at a child—their reasoning for the abuse being that this little kid ought to have chosen ‘to die rather than surrender' to CCTV's intimidation or enticements, which is bullshit….drop the last letter in Mop and you get Mob[…]

Peng Yi at iZaoBao writes:

再回顾昨天，著名新闻节目上一个小女孩因为一句“很黄很暴力”被广大网友口诛笔伐。我们的这些行为与一群暴徒不看清真相围着一个小女孩轮奸有什么区别？我们要唾骂的，应该是背后那个操控这个女孩儿的主使。

黄和暴力的问题，应该交给分级制度来解决。作为一个具有完全行为能力的公民，爱看什么是他的自由。而一旦这种自由被道貌岸然的喉舌们假借一个花季少女的口来进行批判，这一切就显得滑稽可笑。我相信网友们指向的绝非这位小朋友，而是事件本身。换一句话说，就是“我们被愚弄得太久了”

Looking back to yesterday, because of one line on a well-known news program, “so yellow, so violent,” a little girl is being condemned widely by netizens. If a pack of thugs, not knowing the full truth, surrounded and gangbanged a little girl, would that be any different from our behavior in this? What we ought to be cursing out isn't this girl, but the main actor manipulating her from behind.

With the issue of pornographic and violent content, this ought to be handled by a classification system. For a law-abiding citizen, choosing what to view is his freedom. But the minute this sanctimonious state mouthpiece launched an attack on this kind of freedom in the guise of what a naive little girl says, it all becomes ridiculous and silly. I believe the target of these netizens in by no means this little kid, but the incident itself. Put another way, “we've been made fools of for far too long.”

Cultural critic Wang Xiaofeng, who refers to all his readers as chimpanzees, despite his irreverent tone has a background in law. In Zhang's case Wang takes a position similar to the one he blogged a few days ago with regard to the steamed bun non-hoax, that some regulation is warranted. To that on January 4 he wrote:

第一个报道“国标馒头”的记者是个傻逼；
对国家标准部门群起而攻之的人都挺弱智；
中国人在标准化这个问题上一无所知；
将标准化与政治集权化联系在一起的人脑子都进水了；
中国有广泛的假冒伪劣和缺斤短两的群众基础；
我们从来不去想想自己的权利是怎么受到侵害的；
麦当劳的汉堡都能标准化，我们副食店的馒头为什么不能？

The first journalist to report on “national mantou standards” is a stupid c***;
The people who rose up to attack the National Standards Bureau are imbeciles;
The Chinese people are ignorant when it comes to the issue of standardization;
Those who link standardization with political centralization have water on the brain;
China has a widespread mass base in the counterfeit, bunk and shafted;
Yet we never stop to think just how our rights end up violated;
McDonald's' hamburgers can be standardized, so why can't the steamed buns in the snack shops?

In his Jan. 8 post on Zhang Shufan, ‘Just who is very yellow, very violent?', after apologizing to readers he might have offended with the frequently vulgar language he uses on his blog, and admonishing them if they don't like it not to come back, Wang writes:

言归正传，说说张◇◇的事情。事情既然从CCTV引发的，那我们先从CCTV说起。这个新闻我没看，其实根本不用看，看了这么多年CCTV，还不知道他们的路数——就是编导或制片人希望听到一句他们想听的话，用诱供的方式逗出被采访者说出这句话。如果仔细分析，每句话都可能有代表性，但要看你怎么说，看你把什么当成重点。你看做电视的人都这样，采访一个人可能录像一个小时，但最后用的时候可能就几句话，选择这几句话很讲究的，被采访者必须说出编导和制片人的心声，比如张◇◇小朋友就做到了，然后掐头去尾，断章取义。其实央视的记者完全可以上各大门户网站，把页面打开，对着电脑屏幕拍一些很黄很暴力的页面，但是他们为了更有震撼力，一定要把一个未成年人揪出来对着镜头说这句话，而且说得那么精辟、深刻。这五个字充分体出了中央电视台的伪善新闻价值观，同时也暴露了所有中国人都习以为常的传统——意识不到保护未成年人。

To the point, about Zhang ◇◇. Since this thing was started by CCTV, let's start there. I didn't see the news report, but I don't need to, I've been watching CCTV for so many years, as if I don't know the way they work. Directors or producers have the line they want to hear, and they use trickery and entrapment to force that out of the of the interviewee. If you analyze closely, every word has possible significance, but it depends on what you say, and where you place your emphasis. TV people are all the same, you see; they might interview someone for an hour, but only end up using a few words, choosing them very deliberately, making the interviewee say what the director or producer wants to hear. Like they did with little kid Zhang ◇◇, cutting off the beginning and end of what she said, and quoting her out of context. In fact, the CCTV reporters could have opened up any major portal website's front page and taken a few very yellow very violent screenshots, but in order to make it all the more shocking, they had to drag a minor in front of the camera and say it instead, cutting straight to the essence to leave a more lasting impression. Those four words fully embody the hypocrisy of CCTV's value of what qualifies as news, at the same time exposing all Chinese people's long-accustomed tradition: unawareness when it comes to protecting minors.

[…]

事实上，我没有看到反思，我看到了暴力，我没有看到央视获得什么道德分数，却看到了他们的无知和不负责任，虽然中国的《未成年人保护法》里面没有规定未成年人不能接受媒体采访，但是从未成年人保护的角度出发，也该慎之又慎，甚至我认为，CCTV把张◇◇的名字打出来都算侵犯她的隐私。

In reality, I haven't seen any reflection from this; all I see is violence. I don't see CCTV earning any morality points; all I see is their ignorance and irresponsibility. Although there's nothing in China's “Protection of Minors Law” about minors not being allowed to conduct media interviews, but from the perspective of child protection, one ought to err on the side of caution. But as far as I can tell, in airing Zhang ◇◇'s name, CCTV has violated her right to privacy.

[…]

网民们像是被捅到了G点，立刻兴奋了起来，当他们拿这件事去说事，去恶搞，也都忽略了一个对未成年人保护的意识（他们又能有什么意识呢）。可见，对未成年人保护在中国是长路漫漫。而众多网民狂欢式的恶搞，实际上在伤害着一个未成年人的心灵，她的图片遍地都是。他们图的是过瘾，比如很兴致勃勃地宣称这五个字是今年第一条流行语，妈了逼的，当然这个小朋友不是你女儿或你侄女。

Netizens, it seems, had their G-spot poked, and immediately got all excited. As they wrote about this incident, spoofing it, they also overlooked any sense (as if they had any to begin with) of protection of minors. You can see from this that protection of minors is a long road China has yet to travel. As the many netizens got carried away in parodying this, they were in fact damaging a young person's spirit, and now her photo is everywhere. They just said it was all in fun, like declaring these four words to be the first pop phrase of the year, which is bullshit, because of course this little kid isn't their daughter or niece.

[…]

中国的互联网和中国电影一样都面临这样的一个问题：内容该分级。比如新浪网站，我一直是把它当成色情网站来看，就是把男盗女娼和仁义道德完美结合在一起的那种门户网站。当然，其他网站也好不到哪里去，有一个算一个。这就好比把妓院开在超市里面一样，谁都能看到。如果网络不分级，好多问题都解决不了。有了分级制，至少可以加强公众对未成年人保护的意识。

China's internet, like China's movies, face the same problem: the content should be classified. Sina.com, for example, which I've always seen as a porn site, the kind of portal website which perfectly brings pimps, prostitutes, virtue and morality all together. Of course, other websites are no better, they're all more or less the same. This is no better, though, than opening a brothel inside a supermarket, where everyone can see. As long as no classification system is used for the internet, there are a lot of problems which will never be solved. With a classification system, at least there would be a stronger public sense of protecting minors.

The discussion has gone semantic over at Bullog, with web veteran Beifeng defending the check-and-balance role Chinese netizens have come to play in Chinese society, arguing that netizens should be using Zhang and her phrase to say a thing or two, and about who or what that actually is, he writes, everyone is perfectly clear: at thirteen years old, she is old and capable enough to know not to lie about something like this, and to know that one only finds erotic and violent websites if one is looking for them (assuming she wasn't referring to “Skinhua”). He states, however, that this can't be taken too far, adding that it already has:

张殊凡承受的压力，就是她说谎所必须付出的代价。我们不会与一个说真话的小学生过不去，只要张殊凡愿意告诉大家，她说谎了，或者告诉我们，她在什么情况情况下看到了这个网页，看到了一个什么样的网页，我相信，广大网友绝对不会难为她。甚至，会为她勇于承认错误面对真相感到骄傲。

最操蛋的就是她的父亲。如果张殊凡是被授意而说谎，她的父亲以其“未成年”作为杜悠悠之口的借口，与欧阳志远的“侮辱”之辩有何两样？他首先应当代表其女儿说明真相，甚至向公众道歉。

在我看来，以“未成年人”的理由来指责网友“ 畜生”的人，与欧阳志远之流也没什么两样。

The pressure Zhang Shufan is facing is the price she must pay for lying. We wouldn't have anything to say about a middle school student who told the truth, and as soon as Zhang Shufan tells everyone that she lied, or tells us under which situation it was that she saw said web page, and what sort of web page it was, I absolutely believe that the majority of netizens will stop embarrassing her. What's more, they'll feel proud of her courage to admit her mistake and face up to the truth.

What's most messed up about this is her father. If Zhang Shufan had been encouraged to lie, her father and his excuse of calling for others to be silent about this because she's a “minor”, would that be any different from Ouyang Zhiyuan's “insulted” argument? First off, he should represent his daughter in telling the truth, and then make a public apology.

As I see it, people accusing netizens of being “beasts” in this with the reasoning that she's a “minor”, are no different from Ouyang Zhiyuan.

The “beasts” comment he refers to comes from humorist Wang Pei, who on January 7 wrote a post “Beasts, be nice!”, since changed to read “Non-beasts, be nice!”:

那个说出“很黄，很暴力”的小姑娘成为某些网民口诛笔伐的牺牲品，以至于她的父亲不得不出来发表了一封公开信。
对于这件事，我很愤怒！未成年人有免受黄色暴力内容侵害的自由，即使在你们崇拜向往的西方国家也是如此。
我不是道德家，我承认我比你们还黄，我有钱了，就会买一台双核8Tb的服务器，里面装满毛片。
我也不赞成网络扫黄，反对一切伤害表达自由、浏览自由的管制。
但这不等于你们可以为所欲为，这不等于没有底线！
~~畜生们~~非畜生们，行行好吧！放过这个小姑娘！

That little girl who said “very yellow, very violent” has become the sacrificial lamb to certain netizens who are attacking her, to the point where her father felt he had no choice but to write an open letter.
Regarding this incident, I'm furious! Minors have the freedom to be protected from being subject to pornographic and violent content; even in the West you yearn so much to worship, this is the case.
I'm not a moralist, and I'll admit that I'm more “yellow” than any of you; if I had the money, I'd buy a double-core 8 terabyte server and fill it full of porn videos.
I also don't condone crackdowns on internet pornography, and I oppose all regulations which hurt freedom of expression and freedom to browse.
But this is not the same as you being allowed to do that whatsoever you desire, or that there is no bottom line!
~~Beasts~~Non-beasts, be nice! Let this little girl go!

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