"Illegal flower tribute" (simplified Chinese:非法献花;traditional Chinese:非法獻花;pinyin:fēifǎ xiànhuā) is anInternet meme that emerged afterGoogle's announcement of a possible exit frommainland China in January 2010. On12 January 2010, Google posted an article on its officialBlogspotblog, entitled "A New Approach to China",[1] in which it disclosed its decision to end compliance with theInternet censorship in China atGoogle.cn, citing recentpolitically motivated hacker attacks from China onGmail accounts of Chinesehuman rights activists as its primary concern. Google also announced it had negotiated with theChinese government on this issue, but no agreement or consensus on a non-censoring search engine was made, so traffic toGoogle.cn was re-routed toGoogle.com.hk.[2]
The possibility of Google exiting China prompted well-wishers from theBeijing metropolitan area to show up at Google China's headquarters inZhongguancun, Beijing to lay flowers and candles in a tribute to Google. However subsequent visitors were arriving only to discover that the flowers donated by previous visitors had been promptly removed by thesecurity guards, one of which reportedly said that, in order to deposit flowers people would need to apply for permits at the related departments; otherwise without approved permits, they would be conducting an "illegal flower tribute".[3]
The phrase "illegal flower tribute" soon became a popularInternet meme in China, owing to itsironic nature. Nevertheless, due to its sensitivity, the phrase wascensored on various Chinese websites, includingBaidu andSogou which deleted the article on "illegal flower tribute" at its serviceBaidu Baike andSogou Baike.
