The censorship doesn’t just come from the government.

Let me explain. One recent day I decided to pursue what I thought would be an easy feature. Some stories are difficult in China. They require endless faxes requesting interviews and a long time to fully report. Others are easy. Interviewees are amenable and readily available. It’s nice to be able to balance the two kinds of stories.

So I was looking for an easy one the other day. Or so it seemed. I wanted to write about the growing numbers of parents who go on Thursdays and Sundays to Zhongshan Park next to the Forbidden City in Beijing. They write little placards describing the attributes of their unmarried sons or daughters. Parents mingle and check out the placards, looking for potential mates for their offspring.

I had been in the park barely 15 minutes, reading some signs with my assistant in tow and trying to talk to some parents, to little avail. Many would skitter away. Others would mumble something then leave before I could get their names.

Suddenly a man appeared in my face demanding that I stop the interviews IMMEDIATELY! He had a silly little hand-scrawled nametag, and was acting quite officious. He asked if I had gotten permission from such-and-such a department in the park, then said journalists were barred from conducting interviews there.

Both my assistant and I objected vehemently. But quickly there were at least 10 or 12 people gathered around us. Probably four or five other people linked to the man also joined in by what was now a loud public argument. I insisted that the Foreign Ministry permitted such interviews, and he even more loudly asserted that I must leave the grounds at once.

Realizing that this was becoming a scene, and that police would likely judge that I was disturbing the peace, I saw little to do but wander away. After I took the photo above, away from the main cupola where much of the activity occurs, the man showed up again and loudly warned me that photos with people in them were not permitted.

The incident left me puzzled. As best as my assistant and I could figure out, there were several factors at play. One, money-making brokers appear to have taken over the marriage-arranging business. The loudmouths were actually business people not wanting anyone asking questions. Two, the local media over the past year has given the practice a lot of critical coverage. Several newspapers suggested that the offspring didn’t feel they needed any help from meddling parents, and that the idea of arranging meetings in such a way is old-fashioned.

It still puzzles me. I postponed doing the feature because of the hassle. The only thing I’m sure of is that the government has nothing to do with the resistance of those people. And the bystanders certainly were not going to stand up for the principle that a park is a public space free for anybody to do anything within the bounds of the law.

Anybody have any better clues to what is going on?