connecting China - Beating the corporate firewall - Lilliane Li




Lillian, the second participant in "Connecting China", pops for the first time up as she asked permission to join my list at skype.com. She works for a US company in Shanghai that has actually banned MSN messenger from the LAN, so she uses other skype.com to chat during work time. “Sometimes I can also use the wireless access number of my colleague,” Lillian says, “then I can use MSN messenger anyway during work.”
Qian Qian is her favorite Chinese nickname, and it means as much as ‘simple’. Chinese women do try to do as if they are really simple, although that is very seldom the case.
The word proxy does not ring a bell, initially, “but only because my English is so poor,” she wines. “I know of course the way to get around the blocks on the net.”
Lillian is living with her 5-month old baby Ciyu with her parents, since her husband is on a lengthy business trip to Africa. “So they take care of the baby, while I’m working.”
Lillian was an early user of the internet, she got her first email address in 1996, very short after Chinese citizens got access to the internet. Now she is an active user, online between two and six hours per day, both through the corporate LAN and an ISDN connection at home.
Her MSN-connection she mainly uses to chat with old classmates and colleagues from work. But skype.com she uses to make new from and she chats with foreigners, “but not very often,” she adds. She would be very nervous to really meet me in real life, although she is living on walking distance from my office, Lillian says. “My spoken English is also too poor and I'm really shy.”
She does not want me to put a picture of her Ciyu on this site, although the baby is rather cute. Lillian is certain: “I do not want to get my baby involved in this.”