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PALIMPSEST·CN

China censorship monitor — the censor as a sensor
DDTI · SELECTIVITYNOVELTY · LIVE10:10:54 UTC
State read. Censors are most active on humor (OTHER). Surging now: humor. Economic stress: 10% of censored attention is economic. 15 articles · 135 topics · 0 new this window.

Censor attention — top threats

01humor
OTHER4.47
02translation excerpt
OTHER3.51
03online public opinion
INFORMATION2.17
04memes
OTHER1.95
05movie directors
OTHER1.95
06independent film
OTHER1.95
07film
OTHER1.95
08film industry
OTHER1.95

Economic stress — censorship-derived, by theme

10%of censored attention is economic · 2 articles
wages0.4
unemployment0.2
economy0.2
economic0.2
Transparency reading: what the censor scrubs about the economy, ahead of official statistics. Not a market signal.

DDTI — every topic ranked by attention × novelty

topic / sample flagged articlesdomainthreat
humor“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”“Netizen Voices on the Investigation of Comedian Guo Degang for Riffing on a “Red” Tune: “T”“Translation: “AI Has Determined That My Press Card Is a Fake””OTHER4.47
att 1.79 · nov 1.00 · n=3
translation excerpt“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”“Netizen Voices on the Investigation of Comedian Guo Degang for Riffing on a “Red” Tune: “T”“Mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu Win Fields Medal, Prompting Debate About National Pri”OTHER3.51
att 2.19 · nov 0.40 · n=4
online public opinion“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”“Mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu Win Fields Medal, Prompting Debate About National Pri”INFORMATION2.17
att 1.35 · nov 0.40 · n=2
memes“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”OTHER1.95
att 0.89 · nov 0.80 · n=1
movie directors“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”OTHER1.95
att 0.89 · nov 0.80 · n=1
independent film“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”OTHER1.95
att 0.89 · nov 0.80 · n=1
film“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”OTHER1.95
att 0.89 · nov 0.80 · n=1
film industry“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”OTHER1.95
att 0.89 · nov 0.80 · n=1
Viral Content“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”OTHER1.95
att 0.89 · nov 0.80 · n=1
cinema“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”OTHER1.95
att 0.89 · nov 0.80 · n=1
blockbuster films“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”OTHER1.95
att 0.89 · nov 0.80 · n=1
animation“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”OTHER1.95
att 0.89 · nov 0.80 · n=1
movies“Translations: Surprise Viral Hit “Niu Lai” Represents “a Revenge-Vote by Chinese Filmgoers”OTHER1.95
att 0.89 · nov 0.80 · n=1
Caixin“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”“Translation: Migrant Worker Jing Shuren On Trial After Two-Year Detention for Reposting Un”OTHER1.79
att 1.11 · nov 0.40 · n=2
netizen comments“Netizen Voices on the Investigation of Comedian Guo Degang for Riffing on a “Red” Tune: “T”“Mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu Win Fields Medal, Prompting Debate About National Pri”OTHER1.72
att 1.07 · nov 0.40 · n=2
sexual assault“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”OTHER1.60
att 0.73 · nov 0.80 · n=1
abuse of power“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”OTHER1.60
att 0.73 · nov 0.80 · n=1
local officials“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”OTHER1.60
att 0.73 · nov 0.80 · n=1

Surging topics — novelty (newly / bursting sensitive)

humor1.00
memes0.80
movie directors0.80
independent film0.80
film0.80
film industry0.80
Viral Content0.80
cinema0.80
blockbuster films0.80
animation0.80

Attention by domain

OTHER102
INFORMATION19
ECONOMY4
UNREST4
SOCIETY3
LEADERSHIP2
FOREIGN1

Declared event lens · Nepal flood / Tibet–Jilong · public board

What the censorship instruments indicate

VISIBLE · MANAGED ATTENTION

No topic-level blackout detected

The Nepal-side event remained on the permitted Weibo attention surface through 2026-08-30: 30 distinct headlines, 34 title-days, and a best rank of #1. The linked official Tibet–Jilong disaster frame occupied the state-pinned slot on 4 day(s). 1 exact-headline exit flag was followed by later event headlines and is treated as revision churn, not a confirmed takedown. This supports managed visibility, not a topic blackout; it does not prove that discussion was uncensored.

30Nepal-linked distinct headlines in the bounded window
#1best observed permitted-board rank
4days with a linked Tibet–Jilong state-pinned headline
1 resolved · 3 rejected · 0 openexact-headline exit flags: continuity-resolved · sense-rejected · open
  1. 2026-08-30 · 尼泊尔山洪已致675死2498失联 · best rank #2
  2. 2026-08-29 · 尼泊尔山洪 · best rank #1
  3. 2026-08-30 · 吉隆泥石流已致16人遇难546人失联 · best rank #1
  4. 2026-08-28 · 向吉隆泥石流灾害遇难人员默哀
  5. 2026-08-29 · 向吉隆泥石流灾害遇难人员默哀
How to read this

The hot-search board is a curated permitted-attention surface. High rank and continued presence can contradict a topic-blackout reading, while pinned headlines reveal selected framing. Neither proves free discussion. Headline casualty figures are displayed only as unverified source text.

source clock 2026-08-30T08:44:12Zretrieval live_fixed_routeOpen every board title and rank

What this is. Live public-source measurement, built from the China Digital Times feed of documented censorship directives and scrubbed material. Terms are ranked by censor attention and by novelty — how recently a term became sensitive — against a persisted history, so a term marked new really is new to this instrument. The declared event lens separately reads the public Weibo hot-search archive as permitted attention, checks revised headlines for event continuity, and keeps state-pinned framing distinct from deletion evidence.

What it is not. This page carries no deletion velocity: that component cannot be measured from outside the wall and is suppressed across the platform rather than estimated. Attention and novelty are reachable and are what you see here. Every figure traces to a public source, and the reading states the moment it was taken.

Sibling project. Seiche is this page's mirror image: a free funding-stress terminal for US money markets, possible because the Fed publishes its plumbing every week. Palimpsest works the opposite case, a state that curates what may be known. Both read the same China money-market benchmarks, collected keyless by this project and consumed by Seiche's CHINA row.

Full method in METHODOLOGY.md · the deeper board is the Observatory · raw datasets on the researcher page.