TED TalkMichael Anti

Behind the Great Firewall of China

Stephanie Nieves

Speaker & Thesis

Michael Anti is a journalist from Beijing who explains what kind of “Internet” that the Chinese have and how it’s evolving to act as a tool for the citizens to actually voice out their opinion.

Anti described the Chinese government and the Internet-using

citizen (Netizen) relationship as a cat and mouse game.

Internetvs.

“Chinanet”

The Chinese government has blocked all sites whose servers were not located in Beijing and

thus not easily available for surveillance.

However, instead of depriving the people of social networking,

clones have been created.

The image on the left shows that sites like Google and

Twitter have Chinese clones such as Baidu and Weibo.

This image illustrates how the limiting 140 character posts in Twitter actually allows paragraphs to be written in Chinese. The Twitter clone, Weibo, takes advantage of this and births a new blogging style called ‘microblogging’, which millions of Chinese Netizens use to voice their

opinions and thoughts. This opens up new potential power for the people.

“China is a SICK country.”

One of the opening statements in the presentation, Anti states that China is a SICK country. This at first doesn’t

sound like it has any meaning beyond the “ill” meaning, and I believe that “shock” statement gathers a large

amount of audience attention.

He then goes to describe that SICK is a terminology coined by Facebook which stands for “Syria, Iran, China, and North Korea”; four countries that have no access to

Facebook.

- Michael Anti

“…[the] Chinese [has] not only one cat, but also has local cats.

Central cat and local cats.”

Even though the subject is serious, Anti lightens up the mood with humor, and many cat pictures. He uses the felines for further illustration of the cat-and-mouse situation in China, but the amount of cats within the presentation makes the audience

laugh in several areas.

- Michael Anti

This does well to maintain

audience attention throughout the talk.

TED Commandments

TED Commandment #3 best reflects the speaker’s performance.

In the beginning, he states that “China is complicated” and does his best to describe the social media situation clearly.

He uses many relevant examples, thoughtful and consistent metaphors, and brought many helpful visual aids to further explain his thoughts.

Dynamism: 3.5/5Michael Anti used hand gestures throughout the presentation, however that was the extent of his body movement. His facial expressions varied and his

vocal tone in delivery was clear and became powerful in important segments.

I would suggest he would move around the stage a bit more instead of staying stationary, but his overall dynamism was good.

Delivery: What I Learned

Even though spoken word is the key deliverer in presentations, visual aids can help the audience retain information better. The viewers will have some image to tie the subject to and it allows them to understand the subject clearly.

I’ve noticed that whenever text is used, its only job is to emphasize a number or a fact (for example, “There are 500 million Internet-users in China”), and it is used sparingly.

Speaker Comparison

Sir Ken Robinson

Robinson was very comfortable with his audience. He made it seem like he was talking to a group of good friends instead of a large auditorium of strangers.

His tone and how he delivered his words sounded very natural and unscripted (in a good way).

Michael Anti

Anti was very professional and sounded like he was giving a very powerful meeting. He treated his audience like fellow peers, but kept close to his facts and puns and did not sound like he was giving a casual conversation.

Speaker Comparison

Sir Ken Robinson

Told many stories that were easily relatable to the audience.

It felt like he was very open with his emotions and wasn’t afraid to tell his personal stories; telling details as to what happened and even adding in commentary.

Michael Anti

Used many metaphors and recent media events to give a different kind of relatable connection to the audience.

He sounded very passionate about his thoughts and voiced his opinion often.

Speaker Comparison

Sir Ken Robinson

Relied mainly on his voice to deliver his message and felt free to improvise on his presentation.

I’ve noticed that he listens to the audience’s reactions to gauge how he should continue.

Michael Anti

Used visuals to connect ideas or to give humor during the talk.

His message was very straightforward and delivered the idea efficiently and thoroughly.

Tips for Students

Be extremely lively! Movement attracts the eyes and holds the audience’s attention. Dynamic voice delivery and hand gestures are fine, but sometimes it isn’t enough.

Don’t be afraid to tell jokes! Don’t fear to laugh yourself either! Humor gives the viewers a short break to relax after a large input of information.

Slides aren’t evil if used correctly! Use a healthy amount of images to transition your ideas from one to the next, but make sure you deliver most of the information through your speech.

Sources

Image sources:

http://cronkitehhh.personal.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Cat-and-Mouse.jpeg

Microsoft Clip Art

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_anti_behind_the_great_firewall_of_china.html