Wall

qiáng 墙

Without the use of special bypassing methods, Facebook, as well as YouTube and Twitter, are blocked by the Great Firewall of China.

A reference to the Great Firewall of China used in several subversive netizen-created terms.

In Mandarin, "wall" (qiáng 墙) sounds the same as the word "strong" (qiáng 强). The character for "strong" is a component in a number of Chinese words. To make reference to the Great Firewall of China, netizens often substitute the character for "strong" with the character for "wall."

A common example is the netizen term "wall nation" (qiángguó 墙国), which plays on the phrase "mighty nation" (qiángguó 墙国) often used in official rhetoric portraying China's rise to its rightful place as a strong global power. Other terms include "Wall Nation Forum" (Qiángguó Lùntán 墙国论坛), used to mock overly-nationalistic web users and deriving from a popular state-run media BBS; "wall rape" (qiángjiān 强奸), a reference to the effect the Great Firewall has on sensitive overseas websites; and "scale the wall" (fān qiáng 翻墙), which is what savvy netizens must do if they wish to access a page blocked by domestic censors.