JSB WIRE REPORTS

Update:  Juiced Sports now reports that China’s version of Twitter, Sina Weibo, appears to have deleted tweets or prevented searching for certain keywords related to the fight with the Georgetown Hoyas. Previously, Juiced Sports reported on a memo to media outlets telling them not to report on the fight and the fact that Youku had deleted videos of the fight. Now keywords were found with no results in Sina Weibo:

The keyword for “Bayi Rockets” (1), “Georgetown” (2), and “Bayi basketball” (3) all came up with no result. (Text says, “Cannot find this weibo, return to search for other.”)

Some Weibo users commenting on the fact that the story is buried have said:

Even sports news also receives the river crab’s* attention?

* “River crab” in Chinese is a pun on “harmonious society.”

One user jokingly commented on the Guangzhou program manager’s post about the memo:

You’re going to want to delete this post.

The post is still there at the time of reporting.

News of the fight isn’t completely censored. Here are just a few headlines that are still online at lower tier news websites:

“Bayi and NCAA big shots erupt into fight! Backup players with chairs, punches take the court”

“Bayi vs Georgetown University completely erupts into a brawl”

“Bayi and Georgetown clash – Thrown chairs, gang fight on court until game discountinues”

The translations of the headlines are not 100% natural, because Chinese grammar is relatively different from English grammar, so the order and tenses may be changed.

Photo: Getty

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