Videos, photos, and stories of Chinese dissent are quickly edited and vanish online but not those featured on a Twitter account with a cat avatar.
As the Chinese call for greater autonomy and an end to zero-Covid restrictions, the account “Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher” live-tweeted the demos in real-time, showing the world how the Chinese oppose their government’s policies and decisions. “Teacher Li” became a vital source of information for people in China and beyond.
The painter behind the “cat”
Managing the account is Li, a 30-year-old painter, who spent most of his days and waking hours stuck to a chair in front of a monitor thousands of miles away from the actual rallies. He manages the Twitter account from a living room corner in Italy.
In a statement to CNN, Li said “I haven’t seen sunlight in what seems like a long time.”
His daily life consists of wading through a limitless overflow of private messages in his Twitter inbox, sent by people across China with information that talks about the demonstrations and their outcomes. He posted them on their behalf, protecting the senders from the scrutiny of Chinese authorities.
Recently, Beijing has stretched its suppression of dissent to the foreign platform, holding and locking up Chinese Twitter users who disapproved or complained about the government. But with Li’s Twitter account, these nameless voices of dissent have been congregated and amplified.
“This account may become a symbol that Chinese people are still pursuing freedom of speech,” Li said. “When you post something within China, it will quickly disappear. This account can document all these historical events and moments that cannot be saved inside the country.”
Cat avatar staying put
The number of followers in Li’s account has greatly increased thereby catching the attention of Chinese authorities. There was a time when Li was tweeting, and he got his parents’ nervous phone call from eastern China as they informed him about another visit from the police officials.
According to Li’s parents, he had been accused of “attacking the state and the (Communist) Party.” The police showed his parents a list of tweets shared by him as “criminal evidence.”
“They wanted to know if there were any foreign forces behind me, whether I received any money, or paid people money for their submissions,” Li stated. Li assured his parents that no money was involved and that he is not working for anyone. He said that his father requested him to “pull back from the brink” and not post.
“You’re an artist, you shouldn’t touch politics,” his father said.
“I can’t turn back now. Please don’t worry about me. I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong,” Li bravely told his father.
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Twitter with cat avatar shows Chinese dissent