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Red heart spreads as MSN and QQ symbol of Chinese patriotism

Xinhua and a Zhejiang Province news website report on the spread of "Red Heart China" on IM and e-mail platforms as a pro-Olympic and nationalistic symbol.

Graham Webster
Formerly a journalist and consultant in Beijing, Graham Webster is a graduate student studying East Asia at Harvard University. At Sinobyte, he follows the effects of technology on Chinese politics, the environment, and global affairs. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
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Graham Webster

Xinhua and a Zhejiang province news website report on the spread of "Red Heart China" on IM and e-mail platforms.

A Chinese news story about the spread of patriotic and pro-Olympic symbolism on QQ. Zhejiang News Center

The Zhejiang News Center link, auto-translated here, says the word is spreading via QQ, a top instant message platform in China.

Hexun.com carries step-by-step instructions in how to inscribe your MSN account with slogans declaring "I love the Olympics" and encouraging them to go on strongly.

This is all part of an extensive reaction to foreign press coverage on the recent events in Tibet. Other websites, including anti-cnn.com, have emerged to point out examples of sloppy reporting by foreign media. A popular mistake: using pictures of Nepalese police and saying they're in Tibet.

The nationalist reaction online has been strong. In another example, online challenges to a pro-free-speech journalist led to a printed editorial denouncing him. But it's unclear how much this online passion reflects the opinions of less outspoken Chinese citizens. If we took everything on 2ch to be the gospel opinion of the "Japanese people" we'd have a pretty screwed up idea. Not to mention the U.S. blogosphere.