BEIJING, CHINA — Netizens perturbed about China’s attempt to sanitize the Web by blocking or closing all sites that contain “vulgar” or otherwise unapproved material have begun “dressing up” classic art and posting the results online.The “clothed art nudes” are part of a Chinese protest against what surfers consider heavy handed censorship by the government. On January 5th, the Chinese State Council’s Information Office, the public security and culture ministries and four other government agencies launched a month-long offensive against online pornography and vulgarity. As part of the sanitization effort, famous paintings and sculptures have been deleted from online photo albums hosted by Chinese internet service providers.

Among the classical works that have been clothed as part of the protest are Michelangelo’s sculpture David, which was given a suit similar to the one worn by Mao-Tse Tung. Michelangelo’s depiction of Adam on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling has had a tie draped across its private parts and is wearing black socks.

Images of some of the more imaginative clothed nudes can be found here: Tinyurl.com/aa8w4k.

Distribution of pornography is illegal in China, which reportedly overtook the United States in 2008 as the country with the largest number of internet users: 298 million. On February 10th, the government said it had closed or blocked 1,911 sites containing material that did not meet governmental approval.