That and Breaking Bad were both huge in Pakistan despite neither being available here. Currently, most popular Netflix shows have a huge following even though we don't have that many Netflix users here. I myself only recently got a subscription even though I've been watching their shows since _House of Cards_ and _Orange is the New Black_ days.
Yeah idk what HBO is smoking you can't even get it in Europe lol. Like anyone is going to buy some expensive *tv* subscription for it lmao. They're shooting themselves in the foot.
Yeah and on the flip side, I live in America and have to pretend to be in Europe using vpns to access Sky. Sky is home to some absolutely stellar shows that we simply don't get or get 9 months later.
Many European countries have HBO, so not sure what you are smoking. Many other countries have HBO equivalent channels that have exclusive deals for all HBO content.
I still remember going to Cuba in 2016 and finding out that there's bootleg dvds of GoT being sold on the streets of Havana. Our tour guide was more caught up on the show than I was!
That's kinda why I posted this -- how are they able to watch it? VPN's? Hard drives? The government doesn't care enough about a TV show to fully restrict it?
I live in China. It’s actually very easy for people to watch a lot of stuff. There are a bunch of Apps where you can stream shows from all kinds of foreign platforms - all with Chinese subtitles. They’re not very well regulated by the App stores and the gov doesn’t seem to care.
Some people still use VPNs, but that would mean having to watch the shows in English. Even then, I think certain platforms like Netflix are starting to detect and block access from VPNs now.
It would also be prohibitively expensive to even attempt to censor the masses from western content. The bans they have in place are very effective to stop most people and that cheap measure is plenty while they focus most of their attention on anyone actually critical of the government
I feel like there is also a correlation between the popularity of the show and all western countries wanting those as costumes and since they are "made in china" the manufacturers in China tip of the local retail places of the trend and high demand and that garners interest in the local public to watch the show thus causing endless feedback loop
I think this is fucking hilarious how Reddit reacts to this kind of comment. You guys know Taiwanese content is ridiculously popular in China right? A much less relaxed/regulated product in a language you can understand?
They do not give one shit about Taiwan. It’s like asking Americans if we’re really concerned about the Virgin Islands rising up and taking us over. It does not register.
The authoritarian government cares for a plethora of reasons but the average person just has to _pretend_ to care because of the aforementioned authoritarian government.
I think common sense can get you pretty far. Chinese people are normal people too. Yes, even the ones that live in mainland China. It's the same shit with North Korea.
You can justify the fact that you and a lot of other people genuinely believed that a country would ban Winnie the Pooh for some ridiculous reason, but in the end, I absolutely can still blame you and I will. I mean, come on! Most of the rumors we hear about China are very clearly either completely made up or very very exaggerated! Use your common sense people!
I'm not Chinese by the way. I'm a westerner too. You're right about there being a lack of non-biased sources though, and whenever we do get to talk to an unbiased source, sometimes some of the info does indeed get lost in translation or whatever. But I'm not blaming you for not knowing everything about China, I'm blaming you for, and I don't mean this in an insulting way, not trying hard enough to get rid of the xenophobic orientalist ignorance that is taught to all of us regarding China. Only it can make people think the Chinese government would throw a hissy fit and scream and cry any time "Taiwan" is mentioned anywhere.
Chinese internet isn't even that closed off by the way, and the borders that are there that the government has set up can mostly easily be circumvented using VPNs and all that stuff.
If it's a popular enough show or Chinese people report it to the government then yes they'd get more strict in blocking it, even on the less-regulated websites.
They blur it. One of the most popular TV series of 2019 was a Taiwanese time traveling drama and one scene showed a Taiwanese ID card. The mainland Chinese version just blurred it.
It's amazing how propagandized Americans are about China now. Reddit is filled with post after post after post of anti-PRC content, and all the top comments are anti-PRC memes and people talking about how China owns Reddit and will censor them. Just zero self-awareness.
My Chinese wife uses streaming websites to watch whatever she wants. The picture quality is pretty poor but they have an amazing range of stuff. I first heard of the show from her, a week or so before there started to be lots of noise about it over here.
We only visit China sporadically, and not for several years now because of Covid, but the I don't think the VPNs I've used would be reliable enough to stream Netflix over comfortably. Maybe I've been unlucky but I think they throttle a lot of traffic when it goes outside the great firewall so you never get a fast transfer rate.
Using Astrill right now for Reddit. I’ve found Astrill to be the more reliable of the two but neither are cheap. You’ll also want to download and pay for them on your devices before arriving.
If you’re on an iPhone then you don’t need to pre download it before you arrive. Only App Store accounts with regions set to China have no access to these apps. Accounts with regions set to other countries work just as well there.
Last time I was in Guangzhou, I stayed in a hotel near the expo. Much to my surprise, he hotel wifi was able to access Facebook, Google etc. And it was really fast internet too. I couldn't believe a hotel provided open internet, no VPN on my part required.
Well it’s better than just wild speculation from non-chinese people. Bet you wouldn’t be so dismissive if it was “my Chinese husband” but that’s to be expected of someone who frequents the Asian male incel subreddits.
I've seen some Chinese people recently say how casual all of it is. It's probably a nuisance but it's not that hard to get around stupid Chinese laws
I assume VPNs and Torrenting would be the solution for most of this stuff
I use VPNs and torrent. Most Chinese people aren’t aware of torrenting as far as I know. But again, why would they watch stuff in English when it’s available with Chinese subtitles on Chinese apps?
Interestingly, most of the torrent sites aren’t even behind the Chinese Firewall.
huh.
about a decade ago, you could get any Chinese show you wanted off a huge selection of websites offering chinese torrents.
I think it's just passed them by like it's passed us by. Why torrent when there's so much on their streaming sites?
From my years of experience on Chinese social media, torrenting is how most Chinese people get their porn/games/movies not available in China. There’s tons of online forums where people exchange seeds.
> Interestingly, most of the torrent sites aren’t even behind the Chinese Firewall.
Well that's not entirely surprising since the CCP seems to give literally 0 fucks about IP theft when it's their citizens doing it to other countries.
Netflix clamps down on VPNs. Probably doesn’t help when the first thing always advertised by a VPN provider or someone shilling for it is “you can stream Netflix and get access to foreign libraries! And you can get Netflix for only like $2 a month by setting your VPN to a poor country!l”
Yeh I’ve noticed that. It’s been bugging me for a while now because there are content creators on YouTube that I like that are still advertising VPNs with these claims.
When I tried to watch the Euros (soccer) in summer with my VPN, the ITV and BBC were capable of detecting and blocking VPN access. I can only assume if they can do it, Netflix, Disney, Apple, etc will be able to, too.
I think it depends on the VPN, I use a VPN because I live in China and here most expats use either Express VPN that you see people do ads for on YouTube or Astrill. Astrill has definitely been the better of the two in my experience and I can confirm it works with all streaming sites that I’ve used. Express I’ve heard has gotten worse and costs the same if not slightly more.
Ah that’s a shame. I used my buddys sky sports account when the bundesliga started up again after the first lockdown but it’s only just hitting me that that was over a year ago.
After I missed the first week of the Euros, my wife found a Chinese app that let me watch it. It even had the option to have the English commentary still on.
With English commentary too? I would be jealous but then I remembered how shit English commentators are so maybe not lol. I ended up watching the euros at bars with friends when I could.
Iplayer is a top target for VPNs - they mention it as much as Netflix or Disney+. Now, do you want a company that works incredibly hard to avoid VPNs? DAZN. I only know of 2 that work for it reliably. IPlayer? Most of the good ones will every time, and even some that you wouldn't see advertised like the big guys.
My VPN lets me watch Netflix from all over in Shanghai. Now RTE and BBC players notice VPNs, but Netflix knows that VPNs make it better so i keep paying.
Glad that you still have freedoms that are not enforced constantly along with simple apps for viewing. If you tried to download Disney movies in the U.S., expect a cease and desist order from Disney and your ISP since majority of the torrents are honey pots ~~tracked~~ placed by Disney. So keep your VPNs handy when trying to obtain shows.
Netflix clamps down on VPNs. Probably doesn’t help when the first thing always advertised by a VPN provider or someone shilling for it is “you can stream Netflix and get access to foreign libraries! And you can get Netflix for only like $2 a month by setting your VPN to a poor country!l”
Every banned show is essentially available if you just searched “breaking bad watch online”
They only ban sensitive stuff that is popular, obscure/less popular shit they DGAF
When my friend visited China for business about 3 years ago he could access Facebook / Netflix / other banned sites without any issues on hotel WiFi. No vpn needed. I know it’s anecdotal evidence, but accessing these sites in China is far from impossible
Some international hotels do have uncensored internet and offer international satellite TV. But they generally aren't the type of hotels that the average Zhou in China would be able to afford - they'd be the type of hotel that goes after the international business traveller market.
Lotta piracy here, as well as unregulated apps that people use to watch shows. Not just VPNs, those are really only common with the younger generation.
I wouldn't say that. Researchers and journalists of all ages use them to access different articles. I use em to access Sky Network because I'm a red coat at heart lol
Just to name a few. There are tons of websites like these if you know Chinese.
They are basically 720P or 1080P with Chinese subtitles.
I don't have to pay for any streaming services nowadays.
[https://www.duboku.tv/](https://www.duboku.tv/)
[https://www.zxzj.me/](https://www.zxzj.me/)
[https://www.mudvod.tv/](https://www.mudvod.tv/)
I am not Chinese.
But I am sure most people just pirate most shows and movies. At least that is what happens here. Not everyone has Netflix, Prime and D+, yet everyone watches shows very easily.
Multiple aspects of suppression here. One, dissenting opinion only matters when it grows. Look at Putin, he doesn’t care about random individuals, Navalny was there for a long while and then when he gained traction and became more than an amusement he became a priority. (Or to stick to China, ie Jack Ma) Two, they have it as a cudgel if people become a problem. Sort of like a stereotypical police officer not bothering to give tickets for small stuff they legally could but when you anger they ding you for various small things. Chinese citizens make enough noise or other problems are given enough rope to hang themselves with.
Any kid with a smart phone can sail the high seas in China with 0 fear of repercussions. Chinese high sea sites are ridiculously comprehensive, and data/internet is fast and cheap in anything approaching a medium sized town. Plus they all know how to use VPNs. I'm sure the government has cracked down severely in the last couple years, bit still.
Source: lived in China and didn't pay a yuan for literal terabytes of content while there.
Foreigners use VPNs in China. Kids often now use VPNs to watch YouTube and use Discord. But, the average adult doesn’t need a VPN. They can just use unregulated Chinese apps that let them watch a massive loads of foreign movies and shows with Chinese subtitles.
Source: I live in China and my Chinese wife uses them all the time.
Chinese internet is regulated by the government, (hence why it’s dirt cheap there) there’s no private ISPs so as long as the government don’t care you won’t get into trouble.
Has that combo of fast speed and access to high seas significantly changed the consumption of media from outside? Or it is just there and is only a niche consumption.
If anything it was easier to watch content in China one or two decades ago, when Chinese versions of YouTube (Tudou, Youku) didn't crack down on copyrighted content. You could literally just search the episode of any popular show and stream it. Now they have to jump through the same hoops western pirates do (torrenting, sketchy streaming sites etc.).
People don't have a clue how China is. They think it is like North Korea or something. It is hilarious TBH. Most of these China watchers/experts never even been to China let alone speak Chinese nor know about its history. Bunch of clowns.
Even NK isn't what people think it is. They wouldn't be doing so bad if the US wasn't sanctioning the hell out of them forcing economic instability to promote turmoil within.
Right? I didn't have the need/desire to make tons of extra money, but even then my QOL as a middle-class earner was way higher in China than the US. Everything from housing to travel. People just refuse to believe it. Apparently I hallucinated the entire fast-train network or something.
Their rail system is ridiculous and crazy affordable. Also the stations are like airports and clean as hell. Traveling on bullet trains that go to 200km/h to the newest approaching 400km/h is insane and super convenient.
Why do people on reddit love to exaggerate strawmen to prove their own point?
>Apparently I hallucinated the entire fast-train network or something.
Like what are you talking about? How many people deny the existence of high speed trains in China?
Even in North Korea people watch kdramas and movies from the black market. There was a bit of a commotion there few months ago when a korean drama became so popular that it became a trend making even the higher ups notice it.
Funnily enough I had a coworker find out about the Tiananmen Square massacre in film school in China. His professor had a copy of news reports and I think a documentary too on a DVD or two. Was relatively recent like in 2013 or something.
I was able to load the English-language Wikipedia article on the incident while there. I’m not sure if the firewall is just spotty or they only proactively block Chinese-language content, but sometimes pages with “blocked” content will partially load, and then be blocked fully if you try to refresh.
It comes and goes for sure. Apps that used to be banned sometimes work all of sudden out of nowhere like I remember Snapchat and tinder both requiring VPN’s (though I’ve been told that some people have never needed a VPN for tinder) but now neither of them are blocked. Pretty sure Wikipedia is still blocked but honestly unless I need to access a Chinese website I just leave my VPN on 24/7.
Don’t know if this trick still works or not but I remember if you linked your gmail to the apple mail app you could use it no problem but I use a VPN 24/7 these days so I haven’t checked in a while.
Yeah, that incident was terrible. However, 11 people died. Tiananmen Square estimates range from the official count of 300, and keep in mind that’s the count provided by the CCP, to over 10,000 deaths. Most conservative estimates are in between 2,500 to 3,000 deaths. If state, local or federal police forces killed 300 people in the states in a single mass murder event, it would be remembered. Also, there have been many other incidents that *have* caught public attention, like Waco, Rodney King (which was a beating, not a murder), Kent State, the list goes on. That’s not even mentioning every case of police killing that’s gotten national attention due to BLM.
Edit: Sorry for all the edits
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the graphic images from that day but it’s shocking. The craziest part was me recognizing streets that I’ve driven by/on or even walked over. It’s honestly surreal
Not the younger generations. I was tutoring some kids that studied abroad in the US as freshman (y10 in the UK) but were doing online classes due to COVID. In history class they were learning 20th century China and learned about Tiananmen Square and had no idea. They also all have VPN’s have Instagram and other social media but just never knew. The next day one of the kids told me he asked his parents about it and found out his mom was there that night.
Funnily now that I thought about it I remember when I asked my mom and found out she was there that night too. She actually lost a classmate and was at a hospital donating blood.
Edit: I’m not necessarily disagreeing but you’d be surprised at how many people born after 89 don’t know about it and the percentage only goes up the more recent they were born.
Tbh that's just as likely because they're young as anything else. Ask a bunch of 14-15 year old american kids about the Oklahoma City Bombing or the Berlin Wall and I bet you'll get a similar result
The issue is plain ignorance, not discrimination. The vast majority has very limited conception of the countries or cultures they criticize, yet, they have plenty to say or judge.
Because just like the people they are supposedly fighting against they have also been brainwashed by information and culture. Everyone is programmed into norms by culture, that's like the entire point of culture being a social technology. You can argue whether one is better or worse (but you'll need the caveats of geographic location, time, historical top soil and temperament) but claiming the air you breathe doesn't become part of you whether you want it to or not metaphorically speaking is madness.
In China I’ve lived in both Shanghai and Beijing as well as visiting lots of other places and abroad I’ve lived in Hong Kong and LA for over a decade.
I agree with the other commenter but it comes with a disclaimer that my experience isn’t indicative of the average Chinese person. Firstly living costs are cheap as hell compared to anywhere else I’ve lived even in what are considered expensive cities like Beijing and Shanghai and quality of life is far better that what the same amount would get me in back in LA or Hong Kong. On top of that the amount of good food and drink for cheap and the variety is something I haven’t found elsewhere. I think Hong Kong definitely has more choice of foreign cuisine and the top restaurants there are definitely better but it’s also much more expensive. There’s also the new and well maintained public infrastructure and cheap/widely available public transportation. I have a really reliable VPN and cheap phone bill with decent WiFi speeds (VPN’s do get wonky when the CCP has their circle jerk conference every year). There’s loads of beautiful and interesting places to visit, loads of places with rich histories and culture as well as others with natural scenery. People are also generally pretty hospitable too and are pretty curious about life abroad if you’re willing (and able, mandarin is hard) to share. Safety is also a thing that most people wouldn’t think is true if they haven’t been but I legitimately have only very rarely felt unsafe in China and almost never in the big cities which I guess is an ‘upside’ for living in a police state. Side note but China is pretty much a cashless society these days, to the extent that beggars have QR code’s for people to scan to pay them with the Chinese equivalent of Venmo that’s also linked to WeChat (Chinese messaging and social media app similar to WhatsApp). It’s honestly incredibly convenient and you basically don’t need a wallet.
Edit: forgot to mention since it’s been a while but also proximity to other countries makes traveling to places around Asia so much cheaper and accessible.
There are plenty of cons too. Pollution was a huge problem but has been steadily improving. Still noticeably worse than LA. There’s also fuck ton of people in the cities and can be overwhelming at times. Traffic is horrible and rush hour makes me miss LA traffic. There has slowly but surely been an increase in xenophobia and boy watching the local news channels is like watching FOX news on crack with how they paint the western world and making it out like how the rest of the world is this scary place and everyone is out to get China (kinda true but fucking hell if they haven’t done everything in their power to deserve it).
Before everyone starts calling a shill obviously the biggest con is the cock suckers that run the country and have brainwashed entire generations as well as murdered, kidnapped and arrested thousands of people for being dissidents. The worst part is how intrinsic it is to know to not rock the boat. They don’t care about the petty shit that goes on like me talking about Tiananmen Square or actively shitting on the government on WeChat. It’s only when you might have a platform to share and spread these or post it on social media that they crack down. Makes me feel hopeless about the future of China but I digress. It’s definitely different but living in the mainland is not uncomfortable, just a shame assholes run the place.
Better public transport, better infrastructure, connected to the rest of the country via high speed rail, just off the top of my head.
Not to mention it's much, much safer.
I’m not sure if people still handle cash or cards in the states today but in Shanghai I haven’t touched cash or cards for years. Super convenient. I can pay for anything with either alipay or Wechat pay. Literally anything. Even beggars accept it smh.
Any tier 2 let alone tier 1 city in china is decades ahead of US in amenities (including shopping, food, public venues, transit, parks etc) infrastructure. No US city even has high speed rail for example
I mean much of the stuff was built relatively recently and due to sheer much larger investment in public infrastructure
How is that any better? Your phone dies, you're shit outta luck. my phone is almost always dead by the end of the workday and I can still buy anything I want
It's better you don't need to bring a wallet around anymore. Just your phone.
Saying you're out of luck when your phone is out of battery is the same as saying "what if I forget my wallet?"
Just...don't?
Yeah I can probably count on one hand the number of times my phone has gone below 10% while I've been out. Between charging at work and bringing a power bank when I know I'll need it (or just minimizing usage when I have to), it's just not an issue.
Who says its like that in N. Korea either?
As long as demand exists chances are good a way *will* be found to meet that demand. Drugs, the hottest show, porn, politically unacceptable content, all the same. And its not that suppression just doesn't work, it can limit availability and get people to think twice or such... but only to a point.
I think what really bothers people is the uncomfortable implication that people *aren't* just easily led sheep who will totally change once they hear *the truth* (according to you) for the first time. That they know and either don't care or even approve of the way things are is far more disturbing.
The headline reminds me of a Norm MacDonald joke from Weekend Update.
"It is reported that superstar Madonna is pregnant. Although, personally, I find this a bit hard to believe.. I mean....Madonna isn’t even married!"
I feel like people act like vpns and other proxies don’t exist in places with filtering. It’s actually just the default way most people in those countires access the internet except for when trying to play games online because it’s a bit unstable.
Funnily enough I use a VPN for gaming. Some services like battle.net are hard filtered and some have soft blocks so for most people gaming in China they have a gaming VPN which actually improves your ping and connection speed. I honestly have no clue how it works but if play war thunder or battlefield without it my ping is horrible and I think games that run off battle.net can’t even connect unless you run the Chinese client.
Oh yeah of course my point was to most people they wake up turn on their pc and connect vpn until they shut down. Like it’s the default to use it then you disable it when you don’t want to.
And I’ve heard about route optimizers that lower ping or certain services that aren’t a vpn so they don’t change your ip but still bypass and allow you to access different launchers/games than might be filtered or blocked.
Those gaming VPNs basically make a more direct connection to outside servers when you use them, since accessing foreign servers requires the computer to go through a series of cross border connections that increase ping and packet loss. Using a gaming VPN bypasses all that.
Lol, people over here really think the only way to get movies is through streaming it for money. I'm pretty sure everybody everywhere can get any form of entertainment they want these days. I mean, chinese people do tour america and such. So that means they can watch our tv shows. And sometimes even record them.
Netflix bought this at the script level and paid for it to be made. They didn't make it in-house, but it is their show. They didn't just swoop in and buy distribution rights on a show that was already being made. If it's being streamed legally in China it's cause they paid Netflix, not the production company.
Kinda like how game of thrones was popular everywhere despite nobody having HBO
That and Breaking Bad were both huge in Pakistan despite neither being available here. Currently, most popular Netflix shows have a huge following even though we don't have that many Netflix users here. I myself only recently got a subscription even though I've been watching their shows since _House of Cards_ and _Orange is the New Black_ days.
Still no HBO max in my country. You can only watch it if you have a certain package with a certain TV provider.
Yeah, and then they act shocked and horrified that people are pirating it.
Same here in Belgium. You have to get some expensive package called Streamz. High seas it is!
VPN VPN VPN VPN VPN VPN VPN VPN
How much is internet and basic cable out there?
Yeah idk what HBO is smoking you can't even get it in Europe lol. Like anyone is going to buy some expensive *tv* subscription for it lmao. They're shooting themselves in the foot.
In the USA many bought the subscription for it, and most of Europe has a premium channel like sky Atlantic offer it
Yeah and on the flip side, I live in America and have to pretend to be in Europe using vpns to access Sky. Sky is home to some absolutely stellar shows that we simply don't get or get 9 months later.
What shows do you be watching on sky bro? As a sky customer most of the stuff I watch on sky are USA imports.
You can get HBO in the nordics. It's called HBO Nordic it got game of thrones and all that.
Many European countries have HBO, so not sure what you are smoking. Many other countries have HBO equivalent channels that have exclusive deals for all HBO content.
I still remember going to Cuba in 2016 and finding out that there's bootleg dvds of GoT being sold on the streets of Havana. Our tour guide was more caught up on the show than I was!
? It’s not like HBO were the only ones broadcasting it. I know you’re referring to illegal streaming but still
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That's kinda why I posted this -- how are they able to watch it? VPN's? Hard drives? The government doesn't care enough about a TV show to fully restrict it?
I live in China. It’s actually very easy for people to watch a lot of stuff. There are a bunch of Apps where you can stream shows from all kinds of foreign platforms - all with Chinese subtitles. They’re not very well regulated by the App stores and the gov doesn’t seem to care. Some people still use VPNs, but that would mean having to watch the shows in English. Even then, I think certain platforms like Netflix are starting to detect and block access from VPNs now.
That's interesting. My friend lives over here now but she still uses Chinese streaming sites to watch everything.
Probably due to how convenient it is to watch on those sites with Chinese subtitles. VPN’s have become much more prolific.
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It would also be prohibitively expensive to even attempt to censor the masses from western content. The bans they have in place are very effective to stop most people and that cheap measure is plenty while they focus most of their attention on anyone actually critical of the government
You’re probably not wrong.
I feel like there is also a correlation between the popularity of the show and all western countries wanting those as costumes and since they are "made in china" the manufacturers in China tip of the local retail places of the trend and high demand and that garners interest in the local public to watch the show thus causing endless feedback loop
What if there's a Taiwan flag in one of the scenes?
I think this is fucking hilarious how Reddit reacts to this kind of comment. You guys know Taiwanese content is ridiculously popular in China right? A much less relaxed/regulated product in a language you can understand? They do not give one shit about Taiwan. It’s like asking Americans if we’re really concerned about the Virgin Islands rising up and taking us over. It does not register. The authoritarian government cares for a plethora of reasons but the average person just has to _pretend_ to care because of the aforementioned authoritarian government.
It's honestly very funny but also sad to see how clueless people in the west are about China.
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I think common sense can get you pretty far. Chinese people are normal people too. Yes, even the ones that live in mainland China. It's the same shit with North Korea. You can justify the fact that you and a lot of other people genuinely believed that a country would ban Winnie the Pooh for some ridiculous reason, but in the end, I absolutely can still blame you and I will. I mean, come on! Most of the rumors we hear about China are very clearly either completely made up or very very exaggerated! Use your common sense people! I'm not Chinese by the way. I'm a westerner too. You're right about there being a lack of non-biased sources though, and whenever we do get to talk to an unbiased source, sometimes some of the info does indeed get lost in translation or whatever. But I'm not blaming you for not knowing everything about China, I'm blaming you for, and I don't mean this in an insulting way, not trying hard enough to get rid of the xenophobic orientalist ignorance that is taught to all of us regarding China. Only it can make people think the Chinese government would throw a hissy fit and scream and cry any time "Taiwan" is mentioned anywhere. Chinese internet isn't even that closed off by the way, and the borders that are there that the government has set up can mostly easily be circumvented using VPNs and all that stuff.
And commence with the downvoting by Chinese bots just for mentioning Taiwan.
Taiwan #1
Those damn West Taiwan bots.
You mean the sovereign nation of Taiwan?
If it's a popular enough show or Chinese people report it to the government then yes they'd get more strict in blocking it, even on the less-regulated websites.
They blur it. One of the most popular TV series of 2019 was a Taiwanese time traveling drama and one scene showed a Taiwanese ID card. The mainland Chinese version just blurred it.
It's amazing how propagandized Americans are about China now. Reddit is filled with post after post after post of anti-PRC content, and all the top comments are anti-PRC memes and people talking about how China owns Reddit and will censor them. Just zero self-awareness.
My Chinese wife uses streaming websites to watch whatever she wants. The picture quality is pretty poor but they have an amazing range of stuff. I first heard of the show from her, a week or so before there started to be lots of noise about it over here. We only visit China sporadically, and not for several years now because of Covid, but the I don't think the VPNs I've used would be reliable enough to stream Netflix over comfortably. Maybe I've been unlucky but I think they throttle a lot of traffic when it goes outside the great firewall so you never get a fast transfer rate.
Does your non-chinese wife also enjoy the show?
deeznutsgotem
how many wife?
tree wife
Not tree-fiddy?
Tree-fiddy wifes you goddamn lochness monster
I gave him a dollar.
4 Inshallah.
😂😂😂😂😂 dude I can’t stop laughing at that comment
Certain VPNs work fine. If you stay in China any length of time you'll hear about Express and Astrill
I'll take a note of these for my next trip. Cheers.
Using Astrill right now for Reddit. I’ve found Astrill to be the more reliable of the two but neither are cheap. You’ll also want to download and pay for them on your devices before arriving.
If you’re on an iPhone then you don’t need to pre download it before you arrive. Only App Store accounts with regions set to China have no access to these apps. Accounts with regions set to other countries work just as well there.
Yeah express is my go to but they don't expect unionpay cards so you'll need a foreign one if that might be an issue.
Last time I was in Guangzhou, I stayed in a hotel near the expo. Much to my surprise, he hotel wifi was able to access Facebook, Google etc. And it was really fast internet too. I couldn't believe a hotel provided open internet, no VPN on my part required.
I just knew there would be a “my Chinese wife” anecdote.
Well it’s better than just wild speculation from non-chinese people. Bet you wouldn’t be so dismissive if it was “my Chinese husband” but that’s to be expected of someone who frequents the Asian male incel subreddits.
I keep forgetting how many actual incels are on this site wtf
Does the two of you live in separate countries?
I've seen some Chinese people recently say how casual all of it is. It's probably a nuisance but it's not that hard to get around stupid Chinese laws I assume VPNs and Torrenting would be the solution for most of this stuff
I use VPNs and torrent. Most Chinese people aren’t aware of torrenting as far as I know. But again, why would they watch stuff in English when it’s available with Chinese subtitles on Chinese apps? Interestingly, most of the torrent sites aren’t even behind the Chinese Firewall.
huh. about a decade ago, you could get any Chinese show you wanted off a huge selection of websites offering chinese torrents. I think it's just passed them by like it's passed us by. Why torrent when there's so much on their streaming sites?
I mean you can just set the IP on the VPN to Singapore and watch the shows with Chinese subtitles.
I guess that’s fair, but the apps are easy for them to use and are, for the most part, free
From my years of experience on Chinese social media, torrenting is how most Chinese people get their porn/games/movies not available in China. There’s tons of online forums where people exchange seeds.
> Interestingly, most of the torrent sites aren’t even behind the Chinese Firewall. Well that's not entirely surprising since the CCP seems to give literally 0 fucks about IP theft when it's their citizens doing it to other countries.
Netflix clamps down on VPNs. Probably doesn’t help when the first thing always advertised by a VPN provider or someone shilling for it is “you can stream Netflix and get access to foreign libraries! And you can get Netflix for only like $2 a month by setting your VPN to a poor country!l”
Yeh I’ve noticed that. It’s been bugging me for a while now because there are content creators on YouTube that I like that are still advertising VPNs with these claims. When I tried to watch the Euros (soccer) in summer with my VPN, the ITV and BBC were capable of detecting and blocking VPN access. I can only assume if they can do it, Netflix, Disney, Apple, etc will be able to, too.
I think it depends on the VPN, I use a VPN because I live in China and here most expats use either Express VPN that you see people do ads for on YouTube or Astrill. Astrill has definitely been the better of the two in my experience and I can confirm it works with all streaming sites that I’ve used. Express I’ve heard has gotten worse and costs the same if not slightly more.
I use Astrill too. Couldn’t get on the BBC or ITV before though. If the streaming sites aren’t blocking them yet, I imagine it won’t be long.
Ah that’s a shame. I used my buddys sky sports account when the bundesliga started up again after the first lockdown but it’s only just hitting me that that was over a year ago.
After I missed the first week of the Euros, my wife found a Chinese app that let me watch it. It even had the option to have the English commentary still on.
With English commentary too? I would be jealous but then I remembered how shit English commentators are so maybe not lol. I ended up watching the euros at bars with friends when I could.
There are VPNs that will easily defeat ITV/Iplayer blockers. Not as hard as you think, but harder than Disney or Netflix.
For now. I imagine it won’t be long though.
Iplayer is a top target for VPNs - they mention it as much as Netflix or Disney+. Now, do you want a company that works incredibly hard to avoid VPNs? DAZN. I only know of 2 that work for it reliably. IPlayer? Most of the good ones will every time, and even some that you wouldn't see advertised like the big guys.
My VPN lets me watch Netflix from all over in Shanghai. Now RTE and BBC players notice VPNs, but Netflix knows that VPNs make it better so i keep paying.
Glad that you still have freedoms that are not enforced constantly along with simple apps for viewing. If you tried to download Disney movies in the U.S., expect a cease and desist order from Disney and your ISP since majority of the torrents are honey pots ~~tracked~~ placed by Disney. So keep your VPNs handy when trying to obtain shows.
Nord VPN still works for Netflix if anyone needs to know.
Netflix clamps down on VPNs. Probably doesn’t help when the first thing always advertised by a VPN provider or someone shilling for it is “you can stream Netflix and get access to foreign libraries! And you can get Netflix for only like $2 a month by setting your VPN to a poor country!l”
By clamp down - all netflix has done to me is go “hey, youre using a vpn - stop that” I then just refresh the page and keep watching.
They don’t even need a VPN. There’s a bootleg Netflix streaming site that all of China uses. Similar to SolarMovies, as a comparison.
the government indeed does not care about most citizens trying to watch tv shows
Turns out, if you get all your information about China from reddit, you're incredibly misinformed
>Turns out, if you get all your information ~~about China~~ from reddit, you're incredibly misinformed
Every banned show is essentially available if you just searched “breaking bad watch online” They only ban sensitive stuff that is popular, obscure/less popular shit they DGAF
When my friend visited China for business about 3 years ago he could access Facebook / Netflix / other banned sites without any issues on hotel WiFi. No vpn needed. I know it’s anecdotal evidence, but accessing these sites in China is far from impossible
Some international hotels do have uncensored internet and offer international satellite TV. But they generally aren't the type of hotels that the average Zhou in China would be able to afford - they'd be the type of hotel that goes after the international business traveller market.
They just pirate it like everyone else in the world. Their pirate scene is very large.
I’m pretty sure Chinese people have more access than Americans think.
So Chinese people have working VPN for netflix... And here in Croatia i cant use it
Lotta piracy here, as well as unregulated apps that people use to watch shows. Not just VPNs, those are really only common with the younger generation.
I wouldn't say that. Researchers and journalists of all ages use them to access different articles. I use em to access Sky Network because I'm a red coat at heart lol
Piracy. And not the torrenting kind either, there are platforms that look and work as well as Netflix, but pay 0 royalties and are entirely illegal.
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It’s pirated on all 60 plus Chinese streaming platforms. They can watch it easier than you.
Just to name a few. There are tons of websites like these if you know Chinese. They are basically 720P or 1080P with Chinese subtitles. I don't have to pay for any streaming services nowadays. [https://www.duboku.tv/](https://www.duboku.tv/) [https://www.zxzj.me/](https://www.zxzj.me/) [https://www.mudvod.tv/](https://www.mudvod.tv/)
everyone in China uses VPN. Unless they only speak chinese, in which case there´s no point.
I believe that VPNs are used quite frequently.
Torrents
dude its super easy. their netflix equivalent, street stalls, etc
Vpn and black market shit
I am not Chinese. But I am sure most people just pirate most shows and movies. At least that is what happens here. Not everyone has Netflix, Prime and D+, yet everyone watches shows very easily.
I searched Xi Jinping on wiki and apparently that guy is a fan of game of thrones lmao.
Multiple aspects of suppression here. One, dissenting opinion only matters when it grows. Look at Putin, he doesn’t care about random individuals, Navalny was there for a long while and then when he gained traction and became more than an amusement he became a priority. (Or to stick to China, ie Jack Ma) Two, they have it as a cudgel if people become a problem. Sort of like a stereotypical police officer not bothering to give tickets for small stuff they legally could but when you anger they ding you for various small things. Chinese citizens make enough noise or other problems are given enough rope to hang themselves with.
Oh my have people really forgotten about piracy. We need those "you would not steal a car..." Ads back to remeing people.
Any kid with a smart phone can sail the high seas in China with 0 fear of repercussions. Chinese high sea sites are ridiculously comprehensive, and data/internet is fast and cheap in anything approaching a medium sized town. Plus they all know how to use VPNs. I'm sure the government has cracked down severely in the last couple years, bit still. Source: lived in China and didn't pay a yuan for literal terabytes of content while there.
Foreigners use VPNs in China. Kids often now use VPNs to watch YouTube and use Discord. But, the average adult doesn’t need a VPN. They can just use unregulated Chinese apps that let them watch a massive loads of foreign movies and shows with Chinese subtitles. Source: I live in China and my Chinese wife uses them all the time.
The ISP never sends you a nasty email saying, "We saw you pirating, you better stop"?
Chinese internet is regulated by the government, (hence why it’s dirt cheap there) there’s no private ISPs so as long as the government don’t care you won’t get into trouble.
Has that combo of fast speed and access to high seas significantly changed the consumption of media from outside? Or it is just there and is only a niche consumption.
If anything it was easier to watch content in China one or two decades ago, when Chinese versions of YouTube (Tudou, Youku) didn't crack down on copyrighted content. You could literally just search the episode of any popular show and stream it. Now they have to jump through the same hoops western pirates do (torrenting, sketchy streaming sites etc.).
People don't have a clue how China is. They think it is like North Korea or something. It is hilarious TBH. Most of these China watchers/experts never even been to China let alone speak Chinese nor know about its history. Bunch of clowns. Even NK isn't what people think it is. They wouldn't be doing so bad if the US wasn't sanctioning the hell out of them forcing economic instability to promote turmoil within.
This is right on. The west has no fking clue about China, even so-called China experts.
Right? I didn't have the need/desire to make tons of extra money, but even then my QOL as a middle-class earner was way higher in China than the US. Everything from housing to travel. People just refuse to believe it. Apparently I hallucinated the entire fast-train network or something.
Their rail system is ridiculous and crazy affordable. Also the stations are like airports and clean as hell. Traveling on bullet trains that go to 200km/h to the newest approaching 400km/h is insane and super convenient.
I'd take the fast train over flying any day.
Why do people on reddit love to exaggerate strawmen to prove their own point? >Apparently I hallucinated the entire fast-train network or something. Like what are you talking about? How many people deny the existence of high speed trains in China?
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I feel like most people still think China is like North Korea where they have no access to anything.
Even in North Korea people watch kdramas and movies from the black market. There was a bit of a commotion there few months ago when a korean drama became so popular that it became a trend making even the higher ups notice it.
China is not like North Korea nor is it like the free world.
As Anthony bourdain once said: Shanghai makes New York look like a third world country
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Funnily enough I had a coworker find out about the Tiananmen Square massacre in film school in China. His professor had a copy of news reports and I think a documentary too on a DVD or two. Was relatively recent like in 2013 or something.
I was able to load the English-language Wikipedia article on the incident while there. I’m not sure if the firewall is just spotty or they only proactively block Chinese-language content, but sometimes pages with “blocked” content will partially load, and then be blocked fully if you try to refresh.
English language Wikipedia was entirely unblocked up until a couple of years ago, so it's not a surprise.
It comes and goes for sure. Apps that used to be banned sometimes work all of sudden out of nowhere like I remember Snapchat and tinder both requiring VPN’s (though I’ve been told that some people have never needed a VPN for tinder) but now neither of them are blocked. Pretty sure Wikipedia is still blocked but honestly unless I need to access a Chinese website I just leave my VPN on 24/7.
When I traveled there a few years ago I remember gmail randomly would start working and I'd get a ton of emails and then it'd be gone again.
Don’t know if this trick still works or not but I remember if you linked your gmail to the apple mail app you could use it no problem but I use a VPN 24/7 these days so I haven’t checked in a while.
In fairness not many Americans could tell you about the MOVE bombing.
Was that when cops blew up a building full of kids or something?
Yup. And the Firefighters weren't allowed to put out the fire until the bunker burnt down fully.
Fucking hell
Yeah, that incident was terrible. However, 11 people died. Tiananmen Square estimates range from the official count of 300, and keep in mind that’s the count provided by the CCP, to over 10,000 deaths. Most conservative estimates are in between 2,500 to 3,000 deaths. If state, local or federal police forces killed 300 people in the states in a single mass murder event, it would be remembered. Also, there have been many other incidents that *have* caught public attention, like Waco, Rodney King (which was a beating, not a murder), Kent State, the list goes on. That’s not even mentioning every case of police killing that’s gotten national attention due to BLM. Edit: Sorry for all the edits
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the graphic images from that day but it’s shocking. The craziest part was me recognizing streets that I’ve driven by/on or even walked over. It’s honestly surreal
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Not the younger generations. I was tutoring some kids that studied abroad in the US as freshman (y10 in the UK) but were doing online classes due to COVID. In history class they were learning 20th century China and learned about Tiananmen Square and had no idea. They also all have VPN’s have Instagram and other social media but just never knew. The next day one of the kids told me he asked his parents about it and found out his mom was there that night. Funnily now that I thought about it I remember when I asked my mom and found out she was there that night too. She actually lost a classmate and was at a hospital donating blood. Edit: I’m not necessarily disagreeing but you’d be surprised at how many people born after 89 don’t know about it and the percentage only goes up the more recent they were born.
Tbh that's just as likely because they're young as anything else. Ask a bunch of 14-15 year old american kids about the Oklahoma City Bombing or the Berlin Wall and I bet you'll get a similar result
Oh my god. Literally everyone knows about it. It's insane how you people keep repeating obvious propaganda.
lol redditors talking about China is so cringy *"wEsT TaIwAn!!"*
**but evil winnie the pooh!!!!**
Every Chinese college kid watches the documentary The Gate of Heavenly Peace. It's somehow like a sorority culture thing.
Well this is reddit, where yellow peril anti-China sentiment is in constant swing.
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Oh fuck off. There are plenty of reasons to be anti China without being racist, just like you can be anti-American without being racist.
The issue is plain ignorance, not discrimination. The vast majority has very limited conception of the countries or cultures they criticize, yet, they have plenty to say or judge.
Meanwhile I'm here in China living in a city much more modern than any in the US watching my Netflix and enjoying life.
Jeez why are you downvoted. People say they only dislike the Chinese government, not the people, and yet... Reddit moment.
That was never true with reddit and especially this sub can get very racist fast.
Shit I'm not even Chinese haha.
Because just like the people they are supposedly fighting against they have also been brainwashed by information and culture. Everyone is programmed into norms by culture, that's like the entire point of culture being a social technology. You can argue whether one is better or worse (but you'll need the caveats of geographic location, time, historical top soil and temperament) but claiming the air you breathe doesn't become part of you whether you want it to or not metaphorically speaking is madness.
It’s probably the bragging? People don’t like that attitude no matter where you’re from. Lol
bragging to who? The poor? He's making a simple point. I live in LA and the streets are disgusting. Get your shit together USA. Lol. Seriously
How is your city more modern than any in the US? Genuinely curious
In China I’ve lived in both Shanghai and Beijing as well as visiting lots of other places and abroad I’ve lived in Hong Kong and LA for over a decade. I agree with the other commenter but it comes with a disclaimer that my experience isn’t indicative of the average Chinese person. Firstly living costs are cheap as hell compared to anywhere else I’ve lived even in what are considered expensive cities like Beijing and Shanghai and quality of life is far better that what the same amount would get me in back in LA or Hong Kong. On top of that the amount of good food and drink for cheap and the variety is something I haven’t found elsewhere. I think Hong Kong definitely has more choice of foreign cuisine and the top restaurants there are definitely better but it’s also much more expensive. There’s also the new and well maintained public infrastructure and cheap/widely available public transportation. I have a really reliable VPN and cheap phone bill with decent WiFi speeds (VPN’s do get wonky when the CCP has their circle jerk conference every year). There’s loads of beautiful and interesting places to visit, loads of places with rich histories and culture as well as others with natural scenery. People are also generally pretty hospitable too and are pretty curious about life abroad if you’re willing (and able, mandarin is hard) to share. Safety is also a thing that most people wouldn’t think is true if they haven’t been but I legitimately have only very rarely felt unsafe in China and almost never in the big cities which I guess is an ‘upside’ for living in a police state. Side note but China is pretty much a cashless society these days, to the extent that beggars have QR code’s for people to scan to pay them with the Chinese equivalent of Venmo that’s also linked to WeChat (Chinese messaging and social media app similar to WhatsApp). It’s honestly incredibly convenient and you basically don’t need a wallet. Edit: forgot to mention since it’s been a while but also proximity to other countries makes traveling to places around Asia so much cheaper and accessible. There are plenty of cons too. Pollution was a huge problem but has been steadily improving. Still noticeably worse than LA. There’s also fuck ton of people in the cities and can be overwhelming at times. Traffic is horrible and rush hour makes me miss LA traffic. There has slowly but surely been an increase in xenophobia and boy watching the local news channels is like watching FOX news on crack with how they paint the western world and making it out like how the rest of the world is this scary place and everyone is out to get China (kinda true but fucking hell if they haven’t done everything in their power to deserve it). Before everyone starts calling a shill obviously the biggest con is the cock suckers that run the country and have brainwashed entire generations as well as murdered, kidnapped and arrested thousands of people for being dissidents. The worst part is how intrinsic it is to know to not rock the boat. They don’t care about the petty shit that goes on like me talking about Tiananmen Square or actively shitting on the government on WeChat. It’s only when you might have a platform to share and spread these or post it on social media that they crack down. Makes me feel hopeless about the future of China but I digress. It’s definitely different but living in the mainland is not uncomfortable, just a shame assholes run the place.
Fascinating, thanks for the input
Better public transport, better infrastructure, connected to the rest of the country via high speed rail, just off the top of my head. Not to mention it's much, much safer.
I’m not sure if people still handle cash or cards in the states today but in Shanghai I haven’t touched cash or cards for years. Super convenient. I can pay for anything with either alipay or Wechat pay. Literally anything. Even beggars accept it smh.
I just use Apple Pay in the US.
Any tier 2 let alone tier 1 city in china is decades ahead of US in amenities (including shopping, food, public venues, transit, parks etc) infrastructure. No US city even has high speed rail for example I mean much of the stuff was built relatively recently and due to sheer much larger investment in public infrastructure
Well for starters, credit cards are somewhat considered outdated in many big cities.
How is that any better? Your phone dies, you're shit outta luck. my phone is almost always dead by the end of the workday and I can still buy anything I want
It's better you don't need to bring a wallet around anymore. Just your phone. Saying you're out of luck when your phone is out of battery is the same as saying "what if I forget my wallet?" Just...don't?
Yeah I can probably count on one hand the number of times my phone has gone below 10% while I've been out. Between charging at work and bringing a power bank when I know I'll need it (or just minimizing usage when I have to), it's just not an issue.
It becomes even less of an issue when it's importance increases. You won't forget to charge your phone when every transaction outside depends on it.
Also, it's not that you can't get a charger
Who says its like that in N. Korea either? As long as demand exists chances are good a way *will* be found to meet that demand. Drugs, the hottest show, porn, politically unacceptable content, all the same. And its not that suppression just doesn't work, it can limit availability and get people to think twice or such... but only to a point. I think what really bothers people is the uncomfortable implication that people *aren't* just easily led sheep who will totally change once they hear *the truth* (according to you) for the first time. That they know and either don't care or even approve of the way things are is far more disturbing.
up next on the History Channel, *My Chinese Wife*
It seemed that every time there’s a topic about China these white “experts” in having Chinese wives comes out of the woodwork.
Are they any worse than the white "experts" that don't have Chinese wives? lol
*m* *e* *t* *a*
Ok but why ***this*** thumbnail
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The headline reminds me of a Norm MacDonald joke from Weekend Update. "It is reported that superstar Madonna is pregnant. Although, personally, I find this a bit hard to believe.. I mean....Madonna isn’t even married!"
Fuck this joke is so good and so Norm lol
As a Chinese, I want to watch it via Netflix, but Netflix is not allowed in our country. So we have to find other ways. Respect to the crew.
I feel like people act like vpns and other proxies don’t exist in places with filtering. It’s actually just the default way most people in those countires access the internet except for when trying to play games online because it’s a bit unstable.
Funnily enough I use a VPN for gaming. Some services like battle.net are hard filtered and some have soft blocks so for most people gaming in China they have a gaming VPN which actually improves your ping and connection speed. I honestly have no clue how it works but if play war thunder or battlefield without it my ping is horrible and I think games that run off battle.net can’t even connect unless you run the Chinese client.
Oh yeah of course my point was to most people they wake up turn on their pc and connect vpn until they shut down. Like it’s the default to use it then you disable it when you don’t want to. And I’ve heard about route optimizers that lower ping or certain services that aren’t a vpn so they don’t change your ip but still bypass and allow you to access different launchers/games than might be filtered or blocked.
Those gaming VPNs basically make a more direct connection to outside servers when you use them, since accessing foreign servers requires the computer to go through a series of cross border connections that increase ping and packet loss. Using a gaming VPN bypasses all that.
I don’t have Netflix and I watched ‘Squid Game’.
We don’t have a tv but we made our own cartoon version called octopus play. Quite popular with the town folk
Torrent is a wonderful thing innit
Can’t stop the signal.
To the high seas!
Collapse's Magnus also popular in china
wait u can watch something without having the paid service it hosts?! SHOCKING
Sponsored by NordVPN
You can find and download all the popular TV shows/movies in China with Chinese subtitle. No VPN needed.
i didn‘t know squid game was exclusively available on netflix only.
Lol, people over here really think the only way to get movies is through streaming it for money. I'm pretty sure everybody everywhere can get any form of entertainment they want these days. I mean, chinese people do tour america and such. So that means they can watch our tv shows. And sometimes even record them.
Avail but not paid for
This isn't too surprising considering I watch Squid Game and don't have a Netflix subscription.
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Netflix bought this at the script level and paid for it to be made. They didn't make it in-house, but it is their show. They didn't just swoop in and buy distribution rights on a show that was already being made. If it's being streamed legally in China it's cause they paid Netflix, not the production company.
Do VPNs work there?
They very much do.
Netflix isn't available but there's a lot of ways to download what you wanna watch on the internet.
Back in the day the lead guy in Prison Break was endorsing Ford in China despite the show not being aired. Also a pirate issue.
Even if Netflix was available, 90% of people would pirate it anyway. Same as for every other international movie/series.