I'm certainly living in Zhejiang.But then why should I put"I'm living in Zhejiang,China"on my profile?People might most likely presume:Oh,this user might well be a foreigner who lives in Zhejiang,since s/he seems quite used to speaking English,and he is just "living"there. So naturally I put"I'm from Zhejiang,China",which clearly states that I'm a native Chinese,and thus I might use the wrong word or do not understand some jokes or slangs here,or when in a discussion,or sometimes I may have not expressed my opinions as well as in Chinese or as some others in English,thus people might understand there might be a vague distance between my words and my opinion,so people would understand my posts better.

So what did you propose to demonstrate,when you reminded us of the literal meaning of the word"from"?Were I not living there,how can I justify myself stating"CG is not blocked here"?Clearly,there's not much ambiguous in my profile line,if one has also read my posts.

<Hemateme>
As I and some other users have already explained in that Hou-Koneru match page,the main reasons are twofold:1.language barrier 2.chess is known to few here,and I should add that:thanks to the wonderful success some Chinese chess players have achieved,chess gained some reputation and fame here,otherwise probably chess would be known to fewer people,since there are Chinese chess and Go and some other local games already,and overall such board games are usually less popular too. So how many Chinese people would you expect to come to CG.com?And how many who actually have visited CG would you expect to post comments too,especially when they are not really versed in the language?

And as for the censorship,I can tell you,some years ago,I can go to blogspot and youtube too,I presume it is because there appears to be too much negative information about China or Chinese government that they were finally blocked,and wikipedia once was blocked here,but at present I found it work,so I guess our government is doing censorship for some reasons,not blocking any sites as you presume,like CG.com,and what's the most ridiculous in your post is something like"<I guess thats a bit of progress. Although Face Book is banned in China, she doesn't get in trouble for claiming to use it when travelling outside of China>",or"<I see a reluctance here of people who are actually living in Russia or China to make it very clear that they are in fact in Moscow, Beijing, Hong Kong, St. Petersberg, and so forth. I believe this stems from a lingering fear of censors, who are still active, or from the very real fear that the chat room sites are officially frowned upon.>"... Let me tell you like this,people here criticizes the government as much as people elsewhere,and indeed there are many social or historical issues and problems here,so no one fears to be officially frowned upon,and let alone claiming one's accurate location in a foreign site,there's really nothing special.Frankly these things I have never thought of,and I guess only someone who perhaps have similar experiences or of such knowledge would invent such a topic out of nowhere and introduce it to people,is it you?

And thanks for your praise as you imagined that I was American or a Briton,etc.,but that I was not.

And let me tell you more about the online censorship here. Yes,one would get arrested here if one had posted something that really damages our society,for instance some one posted rumors about earthquakes,causing the massive panic in particular areas,and affected people's normal life,so do you think it not fair them to be arrested by government according to their IP and accurate location?But why would a government follow a random guy in some foreign sites,some complaints people make in their chatting.Just imagine how many Chinese people there are,and you see how unfeasible it is to monitor any people talking about politics or suchline online.I myself also had occasionally talked about politics with some of my friends online,and we feel quite easy and comfortable,it's just normal talk,exchanging our opinions,so it's difficult for me to understand your words such as "officially frowned upon"...I think western people have taken these issues totally wrong,they thought everyone the same,every country the same,yes,they are similar,but certainly different,it's not what you have imagined would necessarily be true in another land,another culture,another country.They do not remember when Columbus reached an island long time ago,how warm the native people welcome them,giving them valuable things,yet what he had in his mind,and expressed in his letter to perhaps the Spanish Queen,cant really remember,that they should send more ships here to take possession of the island,to make native people their slaves,etc.Well,this is just one small instance,anyway...

I really find it hard,as a Chinese,that nowadays,western people still prefer criticizing others,while never talking about their own mistakes the history has seen.They just always say things like"Oh,China is blocking sites",yet they never understand more.Dating back to a very ancient time,China has already put forward ideas like"all over the world,we are friends""When a friend comes from afar,isnt it so delightful?",it's not about blocking sites,but rather,anyone who knows about freedom and politics should not hold such a one-sided opinion.I would rather consider them excuses and guises to other ends.

And with regard to your question,I think I've already explained it before:

<<Hemateme> As I and some other users have already explained in that Hou-Koneru match page,the main reasons are twofold:1.language barrier 2.chess is known to few here,and I should add that:thanks to the wonderful success some Chinese chess players have achieved,chess gained some reputation and fame here,otherwise probably chess would be known to fewer people,since there are Chinese chess and Go and some other local games already,and overall such board games are usually less popular too. So how many Chinese people would you expect to come to CG.com?And how many who actually have visited CG would you expect to post comments too,especially when they are not really versed in the language?>

Statistics could be misleading anyway,and maybe for you,it is difficult to visualize a world where chess is peripheral and English-speaking is rare.Yes,indeed the Chinese government attaches great importance to English in the national education system,but most people study English because they have to pass exams,and usually they dislike English because they feel its hard and say why should they study it,when they never meet a foreigner in their entire life,and Chinese is completely sufficient(yes,actually here one doesnt hear English at all,all people are speaking and only speaking Chinese or dialects,english only belongs to the school and the international areas that most people usually dont partake in);and for those who are pretty good at English,they perhaps have never touched a chess board at all or never heard about it,or rather,merely heard about it somewhere in some news perhaps;and then for those who are interested in chess,as you said,they might google(or I guess baidu is more likely,the Chinese counterpart of google,though that mainly offers one Chinese sites and perhaps a small number of English sites,if one searches an English item,so I checked the word"chess",and I simply cant find CG.com in the first 10 pages,where I decide not to continue,and moreover, most likely they pehaps will baidu the Chinese translation of chess:guojixiangqi(I will just type pinyin here)/literally means international chess,or xiyangqi/the translation perhaps popular in Hongkong,Taiwan,etc./literally means western chess;so apparently it's impossible to find CG.com by such means),but still,for those who actually find CG.com,with also a good command of the language,yet to register and post comments is even another matter.Just imagine,if you went to sites that is not in your mother tongue,and though you perhaps have a knowledge of it,do you really feel easy,effortless and thus comfortable there?Do you want to embark upon a journey where you probably have to modify and modify a post,to meet new words endlessly,and sometimes slightly at a loss when you fail to express your opinion as well as in your own language,or sometimes you write and write until you dont know where you are,and miss some points here and there?Is it not tiresome? For me,you see,I dont really come here very often and usually I just post short comments.But in fact CG.com is quite a splendid site:)

To me, from doesn't not necessary mean where you are now. But I was more or less teasin' <Chessmoron> than anything else.

I can also put "I am from Siberia" in my profile, but does that really mean I was originally born in Siberia and/or still living there? No, 'course not. =)

What <Chessmoron> was trying to tell us was the censorship issue, and he used you as an example of accessing the internet.

And unfortunately, I also used you as a counter example to his argument. Big mess, aye?!

Your assumption that Chinese people don't post on this site because of censorship is plainly wrong. First, there are not a lot of people care about Chess. Second, if you can use your native language to post, why use the second language?

By the way, CNN and BBC don’t have such a good reputation in China. Some people view them as anti-China propaganda machines, not the real news organizations.

Then I felt like a perv!

That makes absolutely no sense. You are saying that the Chinese Communist Party blocks facebook, twitter, and international news sites like CNN and the BBC. Then, you claim that the authorities "look the other way", don't care if people use technological trickery to get around it?

Just the fact that the government blocks the websites in the first place should tell you that something is terribly wrong.

And, I find it hard to believe that people in Russia and China who speak passable English don't try and find out a bit more about the world around them, by talking about the government, world media, health concerns, and a lot of other subjects that concern us all. We DO get those comments from the posters here who live in India, Norway, Mexico and other countries.

They can with certain proxies where proxy owners doesn't update and don't get fixed. As far as in paid VPN goes, it seems that CCP can't figure out how to disrupt it.

<and international news sites like CNN and the BBC.> CNN and BBC news is NOT blocked in China BTW. You can check by supplying the appropriate websites and perform a test if it is blocked in China or not. Link: http://www.websitepulse.com/help/te...

It also says that chessgames.com is hardly blocked at all.

<Just the fact that the government blocks the websites in the first place should tell you that something is terribly wrong.> Not going to argue you over that however it is irrelevant to why can more Russians and Chinese come to chessgames.