Somewhere in the world, some guy might think being a porn censor is the best job in the world. Sitting around and watching porn all day may look good on paper to some, but according to an actual Chinese government porn watchdog, the job is sickening.
Censorship is a big part of what makes China tick. The news media is censored. Social media is censored. The internet is censored. Porn, of course, is definitely censored in the Middle Kingdom.
To make sure that whatever ends up being censored is something that really needs to be censored, China hires armies and armies of keyboard warriors. Just last year there was an advertisement put out by Chinese officials for a porn watching officer.
According to Chinaās central news agency, Xinhua, 59-year-old professional porn watcher Liu Chunqi has been deciding whatās pornography and what isnāt over the last five years. Liu says some of what heās seen during that time has curdled his stomach.
Liu is the pornography specialist of the Harbin police department. His job is to go through materials found in Harbin that may or may not be pornographic in nature. He has to watch any confiscated videos that may or may not contain porn and file reports. Sounds like a really eye-straining job.
When Liu was informed that he had been selected to be the porn censor of Harbin, he tried to refuse the job. Luckily for Liu, his supervisor convinced him to take on the task of cataloging porn.
Liu sayās heās watched over 600,000 minutes of pornography since he started this job, and at some points heās watched so much in one sitting that he was sofa-ridden. Not only does he have to watch and catalog the material, heās also apparently on call 24/7 should the police raid an illegal DVD shop.
Liuās family is not too happy with what he does for a living, either. His mother, according to Xinhua, went into a fit after finding out that her son had been tasked with monitoring smut.
Even though itās a hard and thankless job, Liuās job, according to Xinhua, is an important one. Supposedly heās helped close cases and has been integral to determining what is and what isnāt porn. His expertise in the subject has allowed him to tour the various provinces of China. It seems heās had an interesting life.
ęē§å ¬å®å±äøäøé“é»åø:ēé»ēēå¾åäøäøå»é„ [Xinhua News Agency via RocketNews 24]
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Eric is a Beijing based writer and all around FAT man. You can contact him @[emailĀ protected] or follow him on Twitter @FatAsianTechie
