China Bans Puns

[Sheilbh]

Something we can all support

China bans wordplay in attempt at pun control
Officials say casual alteration of idioms risks nothing less than 'cultural and linguistic chaos', despite their common usage
Tania Branigan in Beijing
The Guardian, Friday 28 November 2014 12.26 GMT


China's print and broadcast watchdog says puns may mislead the public – especially children. Photograph: Chen Li/ Chen Li/Xinhua Press/Corbis

From online discussions to adverts, Chinese culture is full of puns. But the country's print and broadcast watchdog has ruled that there is nothing funny about them.

It has banned wordplay on the grounds that it breaches the law on standard spoken and written Chinese, makes promoting cultural heritage harder and may mislead the public – especially children.

The casual alteration of idioms risks nothing less than "cultural and linguistic chaos", it warns.

Chinese is perfectly suited to puns because it has so many homophones. Popular sayings and even customs, as well as jokes, rely on wordplay.

But the order from the State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television says: "Radio and television authorities at all levels must tighten up their regulations and crack down on the irregular and inaccurate use of the Chinese language, especially the misuse of idioms."

Programmes and adverts should strictly comply with the standard spelling and use of characters, words, phrases and idioms – and avoid changing the characters, phrasing and meanings, the order said.

"Idioms are one of the great features of the Chinese language and contain profound cultural heritage and historical resources and great aesthetic, ideological and moral values," it added.

"That's the most ridiculous part of this: [wordplay] is so much part and parcel of Chinese heritage," said David Moser, academic director for CET Chinese studies at Beijing Capital Normal University.

When couples marry, people will give them dates and peanuts – a reference to the wish Zaosheng guizi or "May you soon give birth to a son". The word for dates is also zao and peanuts are huasheng.

The notice cites complaints from viewers, but the examples it gives appear utterly innocuous. In a tourism promotion campaign, tweaking the characters used in the phrase jin shan jin mei – perfection – has turned it into a slogan translated as "Shanxi, a land of splendours". In another case, replacing a single character in ke bu rong huan has turned "brook no delay" into "coughing must not linger" for a medicine advert.

"It could just be a small group of people, or even one person, who are conservative, humourless, priggish and arbitrarily purist, so that everyone has to fall in line," said Moser.

"But I wonder if this is not a preemptive move, an excuse to crack down for supposed 'linguistic purity reasons' on the cute language people use to crack jokes about the leadership or policies. It sounds too convenient."

Internet users have been particularly inventive in finding alternative ways to discuss subjects or people whose names have been blocked by censors.

Moves to block such creativity have a long history too. Moser said Yuan Shikai, president of the Republic of China from 1912 to 1915, reportedly wanted to rename the Lantern Festival, Yuan Xiao Jie, because it sounded like "cancel Yuan day".

• Additional research by Luna Lin

[Razgovory]

I heard about this and wondered.  I don't know Chinese, or even much about the language, but is this some way to crack down on internet sites that use puns and word play to get around official censures hip?

[Valmy]

BB will immigrate at once!

[Viking]

In 1989 one of the chinese students I met told me that at tiananmen they were breaking lightbulbs, apparently this was really funny, it seems that the chinese word for lightbulb is a homonym of deng xiaoping's family name (deng).

Basically the equivalent of burning thatched roofs to protest against Margret Thatcher.

[Barrister]

BB will immigrate at once!

Lets not get crazy.

But I approve.

[Razgovory]

I am interested in Xiacob has to say about this.  He seems to know more about China's political culture then Mono does.

[Sheilbh]

Basically the equivalent of burning thatched roofs to protest against Margret Thatcher.

That would largely involve the immolation of the South of England, so it's not a bad idea

[celedhring]

I wish half of our press was deported to China, then.

More seriously, this is a ridiculous law. Too petty even for an authoritarian government so there's got to be some angle to this.

[Monoriu]

I haven't heard of this.  In any case, this sounds like yet another unenforceable order designed to secure promotion. 

[Eddie Teach]

Perhaps they'll just ban anime(among other types) shows that contain puns. 

[Monoriu]

I think what is really being enforced is the "7 things that cannot be discussed".  The list is like "universal values" (euphemism for democracy, freedom, human rights etc), historical mistakes of the communist party, civic society, judicial independence, individual rights, freedom of the press, and crony capitalism. 

[Viking]

Basically the equivalent of burning thatched roofs to protest against Margret Thatcher.

That would largely involve the immolation of the South of England, so it's not a bad idea

meh, they had it coming, they all probably voted for her...

[Norgy]

This is a blatant attack on one of the pillars of civilisation! 

[Syt]

[Eddie Teach]

 

I wonder what was the one that got torn off.