 A couple of weeks ago, we made a video about how activists in Hong Kong are using Animal Crossing New Horizons to stage digital protests. Then, without explanation, copies of Animal Crossing disappeared from online import stores in neighboring China. While the game was never officially released in China, it's now more difficult than ever to get hold of a copy. What happened next is simply fascinating. It seems that Chinese gamers are fighting back. Nothing is going to stop them from getting hold of Animal Crossing. First, a word of explanation. In the comments to our last video, many of you pointed out that Animal Crossing New Horizons is on the Nintendo eShop, so it should be easy for people to download it even if they can't buy a physical copy. Well, somebody thought of that and put a stop to it in advance. Switch consoles sold officially in China are region locked. News Agency Reuters tells the story of one woman who bought an import copy of Animal Crossing only to discover that it won't play on her Chinese Switch. So, she's selling the Switch. What's the point if she can't play Animal Crossing? In an interview, another player expressed frustration with the Chinese government's unofficial ban. This game is a way for us to communicate with each other. If it were a very violent game that had been banned internationally, I'd understand. Remember that there's a difference between the Chinese government and the country's citizens. The people who are affected by this ban may or may not support the government, but either way, they're finding it frustrating. The solution, yet again, is to import. Local switches, sold in conjunction with Media Company Tencent, sell for approximately 2,100 Chinese yuan, or 300 US dollars. Gray Market imports, meanwhile, sell for around 4,000 yuan, or 560 dollars. In spite of this, many people eager to play Animal Crossing are willingly paying for these smuggled units. It's cheaper if you buy a used console, but still more expensive than a new local Chinese Switch. As for getting hold of Animal Crossing itself, players are having to be particularly inventive. Any online seller who lists the game under its true name will quickly see their listing disappear. So, Chinese gamers have come up with a codename. The codename for Animal Crossing is Macho Man, which is just brilliant. Why Macho Man? Well, because this is an internet meme, nobody's really sure of its origin. It's possible that this simply refers to New Horizons taking place in the great outdoors. It could also relate to a similar Chinese meme about how all macho men are desperately in need of cute pictures of animals. Alternatively, some people suspect that it relates to none other than Doom Eternal. Because yes, the Doom Guy Isabel meme has made its way to China as well by this point. Regardless of its original meaning, gamers in China know that if you want to buy a copy of Animal Crossing New Horizons, you need to search for Macho Man. In continued efforts to evade censors, the specific name of the game will vary. Some sellers list it as Macho Man Fishing Bass, which is at least a C-plus name for Animal Crossing. The most widely recognized name, thanks to some screenshots that went viral, is Macho Man Picking Tree Branch, which is just the perfect summary of what actually happens in the game. This kind of name change is not uncommon in the Chinese online community. The government polices the internet very carefully, and will often ban words or phrases from online chat, and players will invent a kind of cockney rhyming slang to bypass this censorship. For example, in 2010 the word freedom was banned in China in World of Warcraft. To bypass this, players began using the phrase I feel instead, because its Chinese characters look exactly the same as those for freedom, minus small strokes on the top. This effective slang term has become known as beheading freedom, a particularly potent reference to censorship itself. But how do people find out about the secret Animal Crossing code when online shops are under such close scrutiny? Simple, they use a hashtag. Talking about the game hasn't been banned? Not completely. There have been reports of some discussions being suddenly deleted online, but the Animal Crossing hashtag on popular social media site Weiboar has received 8.9 billion views. After all, remember, Animal Crossing has not been officially banned in China. It's just become harder to buy it from importers. But, as is often the case, making something difficult to obtain only makes it more desirable. The moral of this story is that the internet always wins, even when locked down under the strictest of censorship and surveillance, online communities find ways to thrive. And it's all thanks to macho men.