Does Funxing, youku, baidu 电影 etc work outside China?

[Angie Lan]

Hello guys,

 

I'm just back from China and in order to keep training my Chinese I tought about watching movies and tv series etc online as I did in China. The problem is when I came back I formatted my computer (which is a Chinese Lenovo bought in China with the original systhem and windows 7 in Chinese). The guys who formatted my computer used the italian language version of windows 7 and italian language drivers. Now the problem is that I can't open any of the Chinese softwares to watch movies, like funxing (funshion), youku, baidu dianying etc.....I am going crazy!!!! So I'd like to understand if this problem showed up because I formatted my computer using Italian version of windows or instead I can-t open chinese websites because I am outside China??? Or maybe I need a vpn?? but where can I find it?

Can you tell me if you have the same problem please? If on the contrary you can noramlly open funshion etc, is your computer is Chinese or western? 

 

Thank you!

 

Angie

[skylee]

Probably because you are outside China (copyright issue). You should consider yourself lucky now that you have access to the websites in the whole world (including facebook, youtube etc) except those Chinese videos.

Try to watch the videos using Chrome with this extension installed - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unblock-youku/pdnfnkhpgegpcingjbfihlkjeighnddk?hl=zh-TW

There is also a version for Firefox but I have not tried it - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/unblock-youku/

PS - Another solution. There are Android apps with which you can watch plenty of Chinese videos. The one I use is 千尋影視. You can also download the videos for offline viewing on the android device or transfer the MP4 files to your windows PC (but the resolution might not be that great on bigger screens). I guess there are similar apps for iOS.

PPS - You should know that the copyright of the videos on Chinese websites might be an issue if you access them outside China.

[iedelphi]

If you are outside China, then you need VPN.

[Pengyou]

Not all VPN's can be pointed INTO China.  They are usually used to point OUT 

[gato]

Try 爱奇艺：http://www.iqiyi.com

Is that working on your computer?

Now the problem is that I can't open any of the Chinese softwares to watch movies, like funxing (funshion), youku, baidu dianying etc...

Are you referring to Chinese websites? Or software applications?

[Angie Lan]

Thank you to every one for your help, I am going to try immediatly the chrome extention and the website Gato suggested.

Gato I refer to both of them, Chinese websites and softwares, for example, if I go on the website of fengxing it doesn't load, and I also downloaded the software of fengxing, but still when I open it it doesn't work.

[Angie Lan]

Well I just tried the chrome extension and it doesn't work, it says sorry the page is not available in your region. 

Same thing for the website http://www.iqiyi.com, at first it loads very slowly and then nothing!

I understand the issue is that in my country Chinese videos must be blocked, but why????

Plus the weird thing I cannot explain is that I asked some Chinese friends who live here and have a Chinese laptop wheter or not they can open baidu dianying fengxing etc, and they told me they can without problem. So that's why I was thinking, maybe the problem is not the region but the computer systhem? If it's a chinese systhem then it works and if not no??? any clues??

谢谢大家！

[skylee]

How strange. I am in Hong Kong and my laptop runs on Chinese windows. I can't view most videos on those websites using IE or Chrome without that extension. But I can view those videos on my laptop using chrome with that extension installed even when I am in Europe or Japan or Korea.

(PS - I am not sure but I guess it is not a problem of the OS, as IIRC other forum members have reported success in using that extension.)

As to why those videos are blocked in your country, perhaps you could consider why you should get to view those movies / TV dramas free of charge while other people have to buy cinema tickets, or buy DVDs, or subscribe to paid services to enjoy the same things.

[Angie Lan]

I see, then I really don't understand where the problem comes from. 

Concerning why they want to block the videos, I don't think it's a matter of paying to watch them since here in Italy few people would want to watch Chinese TV series, except students like me, and Chinese people living here can watch them online without problems as I was saying in the previous post, and that is what really makes this matter more weird! Plus I can't even open youku, but youku is like youtube it's not supposed to be something u have to pay to watch at. 

Anyways I ll try to install a Chinese version of windows and see what happens. 

Thanks for your answer ~