"Internet power! The web is where glorious dreams are; Internet power!"
February 12, 2015 12:44 PM   Subscribe

China has just released a tremendous rousing tribute to its clean, clear and incorruptible internet. The song is performed by the Cyberspace Administration of China choral group. Called Cyberspace Spirit, the tune features a large mixed choir and four solo singers who regale an audience while informing them that they are also keeping a close eye on everything they view and type. "Keeping faithful watch under this sky, the Sun and the Moon," they sing. "Creating, embracing everyday clarity and brightness; Like a beam of incorruptible sunlight, touching our hearts." The chorus exclaims: "Internet power! The web is where glorious dreams are; Internet power! From the distant cosmos to the home we long for."
posted by infini (50 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Below is China Real Time’s rough translation of the lyrics:

在这片天空日月忠诚的守望
Keeping faithful watch under this sky, the Sun and the Moon

为日出东方使命担当
Undertaking this mission for the break of dawn [in the East]

创新每个日子拥抱着清朗
Creating, embracing everyday clarity and brightness

像一束廉洁阳光感动在心上
Like a beam of incorruptible sunlight, touching our hearts

团结万物生长的力量
Uniting the powers of life from all creation

奉献地球村成为最美的风光
Offerings to the global village become the most beautiful of scenery

网络强国 网在哪光荣梦想在哪
Internet Power! The Web is where glorious dreams are

网络强国 从遥远的宇宙到思念的家
Internet Power! From the distant cosmos to the home we long for

网络强国 告诉世界中国梦在崛起大中华
Internet Power! Tell the world that the China Dream is lifting Greater China to prominence

网络强国 一个我在世界代表着国家
Internet Power! One self represents the nation to the world

在这个世界百川忠诚寻归海洋
In this world, all rivers loyally seek to return to the sea

担当中华文明的丈量
Bearing the measure of Chinese civilization

五千年沉淀点亮创新思想
5,000 years settle and give light to creative new thinking

廉洁就是一个民族清澈荡漾
Incorruptibility is the clear rippling of a nation

我们团结在天地中央
We unite at the center of Heaven and Earth

信仰奉献流淌万里黄河长江
Belief and giving flow for thousands of miles down the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers

网络强国 网在哪光荣梦想在哪
Internet Power! The Web is where glorious dreams are

网络强国 从遥远的宇宙到思念的家
Internet Power! From the distant cosmos to the home we long for

网络强国 告诉世界中国梦在崛起大中华
Internet Power! Tell the world that the China Dream is lifting Greater China to prominence

网络强国 一个我在世界代表着国家
Internet Power! One self represents the nation to the world

Via
posted by infini at 12:47 PM on February 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


I wonder if the NSA has a choral group.
posted by eye of newt at 12:55 PM on February 12, 2015 [19 favorites]


Incorruptibility is the clear rippling of a nation

Although it's considered trite now, the old aphorism is correct after all.
posted by clockzero at 1:00 PM on February 12, 2015


For an encore, here's the jolly Song of the Grass-Mud Horse (草泥马)*

* Wikipedia article on its anti-censorship origins
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:01 PM on February 12, 2015 [4 favorites]


I wonder if the NSA has a choral group.

Yes, but they only do a cover of Every Breath You Take.
posted by dirigibleman at 1:11 PM on February 12, 2015 [35 favorites]


The NSA's failure to confirm the presence (or absence) of an agency-affiliated choral group is not to be interpreted as a denial of the existence (or nonexistence, respectively) of a choral group or any other group or soloist.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:13 PM on February 12, 2015 [19 favorites]


If you need to know if there is or is not an NSA choral group that can totally bring down the house when they get a little bourbon in 'em, you will be informed.
posted by Kevin Street at 1:14 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Like a beam of incorruptible sunlight, touching our hearts.

Rib spreaders for all!
posted by Sys Rq at 1:15 PM on February 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


The title of the FPP is now stuck in my head, set to my own rousing tune. I hate myself.
posted by infini at 1:19 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


... They're joining Eurovision, too, aren't they?
posted by Omnomnom at 1:24 PM on February 12, 2015 [6 favorites]


Is 网络 the characters for "Internet"? If so I like how it looks like what it means.
posted by bleep at 1:26 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


MetaFilter: Like a beam of incorruptible sunlight, touching our hearts
posted by Kabanos at 1:30 PM on February 12, 2015 [6 favorites]


I wonder if the NSA has a choral group.

Close enough.
posted by weston at 1:36 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Someone really needs to rewrite this song for memes.


Keeping faithful watch from the ceiling
Doing this job 'cause I can haz cheezburger
Creating, embracing a world of boxes and sneakiness
Like a beam of grumpy cheerlessness
Uniting pancake and rabbit, the primal forces of creation
Many offerings, such global village, wow very ideation

Internet Power! Where we pretend to work!
posted by Kevin Street at 1:40 PM on February 12, 2015 [10 favorites]


Why does this sound familiar? Oh, wait.
posted by quiet earth at 1:46 PM on February 12, 2015


I'm gonna sing, too, as soon as I take down the fucker in Guanghan who took down my company's server on Tuesday with 9 solid hours of sending the same two unauthorized file download requests.

It's still not back up.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:48 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Is 网络 the characters for "Internet"?

Yep. I agree, it's kinda cool.
posted by isthmus at 1:52 PM on February 12, 2015


Well, it's no "You Will."
posted by octobersurprise at 1:59 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]




Hopefully the coming war between China and the USA will finish us all off.
posted by colie at 2:00 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


This seems a good excuse to reccomend 2 good books on China and technology I read recently 1. Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China - Which gave the best "understandable to a western audience of the basics of being Chinese and 2. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China which is just the most detailed observatory account of the lives of individuals in new China Ever.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 2:00 PM on February 12, 2015 [7 favorites]


Well, I'll be tuoed 被 庹.
posted by unliteral at 2:03 PM on February 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


Hopefully the coming war between China and the USA will finish us all off.

You can have my place.
posted by octobersurprise at 2:04 PM on February 12, 2015


I wonder if the NSA has a choral group.

Eavesdropapella.
posted by jbickers at 2:10 PM on February 12, 2015 [6 favorites]


Dang that's catchy.
posted by dougzilla at 2:13 PM on February 12, 2015


Who is this meant to appeal to? Do weird neoclassical pieces still resonate with the majority of modern Chinese culture, or is this just the traditional form that the party uses to express itself because Mao or whatever?
posted by johnnydummkopf at 2:36 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


This kind of music might be a traditional form of glorifying the achievements of the state, but in addition to that the Chinese government really, honestly thinks that their censorship model is a great thing, and if everyone else copied it the world would be a better place.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:47 PM on February 12, 2015


Why is that Metafilter has so many cyberpunk FPPs with no cyberpunk tag on them?
posted by I-baLL at 2:49 PM on February 12, 2015


Because some of us were completing college when some of us were born and have no idea what is bycerkump?
posted by infini at 3:12 PM on February 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


that typo is worthy of remaining unedited...how did I do that?
posted by infini at 3:12 PM on February 12, 2015 [5 favorites]


Well it's no worse than most of the OpenBSD songs…
posted by Pinback at 3:15 PM on February 12, 2015


Kabanos: MetaFilter: Like a beam of incorruptible sunlight, touching our hearts

Obligatory.
posted by brundlefly at 3:31 PM on February 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


Haha.

"The chorus contains an unfortunate (and presumably unintentional) pun: the Mandarin phrase for “internet superpower” that’s repeated four times during the refrain sounds just like another phrase that would be written differently but pronounced the same way: “country of internet walls.”
posted by gemmy at 4:00 PM on February 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


Reminds me of North Korea. Fuck Censorship. They believe in it because technology is a liberating and entrapping force depending on how it's applied. Let's close that "humanity loophole" and create a permanent fake fucking history. fuuuuuck that to hell
posted by aydeejones at 4:01 PM on February 12, 2015


read this one trick about preventing your own Arab spring
posted by aydeejones at 4:02 PM on February 12, 2015


Because some of us were completing college when some of us were born and have no idea what is bycerkump?

You can't argue with this kind of logic.
posted by Edgewise at 4:12 PM on February 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


Die Zauberflöte!
posted by clavdivs at 4:52 PM on February 12, 2015


It doesn't look very bycerkump to me, but it's totally cyperbunk.
posted by sfenders at 5:42 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Metafilter: some of us were completing college when some of us were born and have no idea what is bycerkump
posted by dhens at 6:37 PM on February 12, 2015 [7 favorites]


Well, I learned the NSA did have a choral section. Now to see if the CIA had a glee club.
posted by clavdivs at 7:30 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


There must be enough vocalists on MeFi to answer in kind.

They might sniff our packets
They might block our ports
They might poison tables
They might 404
But there's no censorship ministry
That can silence the power of Timothy

Oh, Tim Berners-Lee
Our thoughts yearn to be free
With HTTP
You've given us the key
posted by Devonian at 8:07 PM on February 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


*toddles in on walker and adds cyberpunk tag while muttering about lawns and those who need to gerroff them*

*burns chrome on the way out*
posted by infini at 12:32 AM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


The title of the FPP is now stuck in my head, set to my own rousing tune. I hate myself.

Net Power!

oh god this works almost too well
posted by emptythought at 5:14 AM on February 13, 2015


bycerkump

Bycerkump: Like Neuromancer, but with accordions and lederhosen for some reason.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:47 AM on February 13, 2015 [6 favorites]


More like Runeocarmen, I thought.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:22 AM on February 13, 2015


It's awesome, I love it. It reminds me of East European military choral songs that made a large part of the soundtrack for my childhood behind the Iron Curtain.

For those similarly inclined, here is a sample from the Polish Kołobrzeg Festival of Military Song in 1978, for a similar spirit, with some folk elements. These events were hugely popular back then.
posted by Ender's Friend at 8:59 AM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


A grand spectacle, with rousing music. Gives me a sense of what what the games in the Colosseum in ancient Rome must have been like, in terms of scale and vastness. We don't have performance art like this anymore.
posted by infini at 9:16 AM on February 13, 2015


NOVA just had a great show on hoist and pulley entertainment.
posted by clavdivs at 3:29 PM on February 13, 2015


The increased censorship and blocking of VPNs is wearing me down. I don't think I could be really happy in China without a VPN and free access to the internet and information. I'm not even doing anything damaging to the Chinese government - just accessing media and facebook and world news. It is increasingly difficult to access foreign websites, no matter how innocuous they are.

It seems like they're moving towards an intranet, which is too bad.
posted by sarae at 8:34 PM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


Does Bycerkump have a StartKicker? I have some coinbits burning a hole in my tockpet!
posted by Chitownfats at 4:18 AM on February 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


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