Opinion: Do not get ‘river-crabbed!’ How China is cracking down on punny dissent

A web based blogger in China lately requested: how do you clear a flask? However the Mandarin phrase for flask is xi-jing-ping, which sounds just like the identify of China’s chief, Xi Jin Ping. Authorities censors suspected the author was actually asking, “How do you get rid the president of China?” They took down the question.

If somebody on-line in China refers to President Xi as a “paratrooper,” they will not be hailing him as rugged and resourceful. Paratrooper in Mandarin is san bing, which sounds very similar to the phrase for “idiot.”

China’s Our on-line world Administration and Ministry of Schooling has begun what they name the Clear and Brilliant Marketing campaign to prune the net in China of what they think about “irregular and uncivilized language.”

The language bureaucrats aren’t simply waiting for criticism of President Xi, mentions of the Tiananmen Sq. bloodbath, or demonstrations in Hong Kong. They wish to extinguish the seemingly innocuous phrases many Chinese language have ingenuously appropriated to precise dissent.

Wen’guang Huang, the Chinese language author, translator, and creator of the honored memoir, The Little Purple Guard, who now lives in Chicago, gave us a number of examples.

Xiang jiao pi, which is banana peel in Mandarin, has the identical acronym because the identify of President Xi. The phrase for shrimp moss is xia tai, just like the Mandarin phrase for “step down.” When somebody on the Chinese language net dares to declare, “Banana peel shrimp moss!” it’s heard as a name for President Xi to step down.

When a Chinese language censor finds an “irregular” phrase, they remove it, however name it “harmonizing”. He-xie, the Mandarin phrase for concord, sounds just like the phrase for river crab, and so individuals who have been censored report they’ve been “river-crabbed.”

Then there’s Cao Ni Ma, the Mandarin identify for the legendary grass mud horse. It sounds just like a phrase that’s so profane, I can’t even trace at it. The Mandarin phrase for “cover your middle parts”, dang zhong yang, sounds near the identify of the Chinese language Occasion Central Committee. And so the artist Ai Weiwei created a music video wherein voices sing out, “Grass mud horse and cover your middle part!” in “Gangnam Style,” and, “Grass mud horse and river crab!”

Wen’guang Huang says the video can’t be seen in China, in fact. However folks there have heard about it, and may hum it in hushed tones. The tune is catchy and interesting — like free speech.