Today, 4th of June, is...

Why yes, many Chinese online communities (some obediently while some in retaliation to the latter, did it with their tongues firmly in cheek) had come to call it the

"Chinese Internet Maintenance Day".

But more importantly, and really, the core of the day, today is

the twentieth anniversary of Tiananmen Square Protest in 1989.

Earlier this week the government blocked access to a number of popular western websites, in what was widely seen as way of controlling access to information about the events at Tiananmen Square. Among the sites that were screened out were photo-sharing website Flickr, Microsoft's Hotmail email service and the popular online messaging site Twitter.

A number of other sites appear to have gone down over recent days, however, in a move that may be part of an ad hoc anniversary protest online.

According to Chinese media blog Danwei, the music-sharing service VeryCD has been taken down, as well as Fanfou, a local version of Twitter. But rather than simply fail to load, which would be typical for websites blocked by the firewall, many of the sites are now carrying messages saying that they are closed for maintenance.

It is not clear whether any of the sites took down their services as a result of government pressure: most have had previous trouble with the authorities in Beijing, and reports suggest that many sites were told that they would face serious consequences if they published anything relating to the events of 4 June 1989.

But it was also suggested that the phrasing used by some of the websites indicates a subtle attack on the government.

While deliberate government action cannot be ruled out, more than 300 Chinese sites appear to have posted increasingly blasé maintenance messages on the anniversary.

"The Fanfou server is undergoing technical maintenance. Service is expected to resume before dawn on 6 June," said one message. On dictionary website WordKu.com, its owners said they had taken the site down for Chinese Internet Maintenance Day.

Blog hosting service Bullog.org, meanwhile, says it has gone "on strike" for the day, and Wuqing.org carried a message saying: "I, too, am under maintenance!"

Internet users in China often deploy subtle methods to criticise the government without falling foul of the law.

For the kids who knows shit about the ordeal, the gates of wiki is always there for you, with one of them held right open in the link up there.

In retrospect, one can't help but feel the bewilderment at "the times they are changing". Months ago, I've been picking up the mutters and whispers at the back alley of many Chinese Forums etc, some tell-tale legends about how wearing Sport Jerseys sporting the number "20" will get them detained by the Chinese Authorities.

Is it real?

Guessed we might have a hard time verifying that, but seeing how the internet generation launched their very much subtle yet bogglingly effective digs at the Chinese Authorities, it seems that the Chinese, a sure-fire representative of the World-At-Large (what with their sheer population), though none the sensible than anybody everywhere else, are showing their collective consciousness.

And it glows.

In the meantime, let's take a quick peek at the "affected areas".

Swallowed by the very flag that you are raising. How meaningfully ironic..