- Chinese censors blocked a viral video featuring residents complaining about Shanghai's harsh lockdown.
- "Voices of April" is a six-minute montage of audio clips that reflect locals' suffering.
- Users got creative to bypass censors and continue sharing the video, even minting it as an NFT.
Beijing's censors may have blocked a viral video that features Shanghai residents complaining about the city's harsh lockdown, but that hasn't stopped Chinese social media users from sharing the banned clip through creative means.
"Voices of April," first uploaded on the social media platform WeChat last Friday, is a six-minute montage of audio clips of people's experiences during Shanghai's strict lockdown in the past month. Many of the snippets reflect the residents' suffering amid food shortages and the struggle to receive hospital treatment for non-Covid illnesses.
Created by a WeChat user who goes by the name Strawberry Fields Forever, the video does not feature any faces — only sweeping aerial views of the mega financial hub, home to 26 million residents.
In one video segment, a woman says she's been blocked from returning to her own home after receiving chemotherapy at a local hospital. A man then appears to stand up for her to argue with a worker blocking her entry.
"She says she lives here, you don't let her inside, does that make any sense to you?" he said in the video.
In another part of the video, a woman describes how the quarantine facility she was sent to is still under construction.
"The ceiling is not even finished yet," she says, before adding that people are fighting for blankets and beds, with some sleeping on the floor.
The video received more than five million views on WeChat before it was quickly taken down, per MIT Technology Review. But that only prompted users to find other ways to bypass the censors and continue circulating the video.
Besides reposting it on other sites, such as YouTube — which is blocked in China but can be accessed via VPN — some users embedded QR codes linking to the video on entirely unrelated pictures.
There is one, for example, that put a QR code right in the middle of Batman's chest, along with the tagline "Shanghai remembers."
Another embedded the video inside the picture of an empty fridge, seemingly in reference to the food shortages which have plagued the city in the past month.
—Manya Koetse (@manyapan) April 23, 2022
According to MIT Technology Review, some even minted the video as an NFT, while others paired the audio with footage of party propaganda.
Despite their enthusiasm, the video's anonymous creator has since urged users to stop sharing the video, per California-based outlet China Digital Times. In a WeChat post, the creator said that he was "touched" by the supportive messages he received from others about the video.
"However, I don't wish this video to be distributed in the directions I don't want," the filmmaker added. "I hope everyone stops sharing, or please asking people you know to stop sharing."
Since late March, Shanghai has been under strict lockdown amid a surge of COVID-19 cases. Public anger continues to mount over the authorities' handling of the situation, with people claiming they are running out of food — and patience — across the city.
Despite the controversies, Chinese health officials have stood by what they're calling a "dynamic" "zero-Covid" policy, which entails rapid lockdowns, mass testing, and travel restrictions whenever clusters emerge.