Chinese Government Moves To Crack Down On Puns

FreedomFirstThenPeac (1235064) writes "A story in The Guardian tells us that in an Orwellian move to legislate language, the Chinese government is attempting to stop the use of puns because they are disruptive and may lead to chaos (not the mathematical kind) and as such are unsuitable for use. However, Chinese is rife with puns, with this example quoted in the story: "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 powerful date and peanut lobbies are up in arms, claiming that such a ban will cost them more than peanuts. Their claim? "If you outlaw puns. Only criminals will have puns."

Comments

Well, Grass Mud Horse to them!

[billstewart]

We'll see how that works out for them.

I call hoax!

[toygeek]

I saw this article recently on ThePunion.com, I'm sure of it.

I laughed

[Firethorn]

"If you outlaw puns. Only criminals will have puns."

I'll admit, as a 2nd amendment proponent I laughed out loud at this one.

Re:I laughed

[jellomizer]

Thoes who pun will be PUNished.
That right I will be here all night. (Away from human contact like I should)

Re:I laughed

[DaveAtFraud]

Use a pun, go to prison.

Cheers,
Dave

Re:I laughed

[eric31415927]

Puns don't kill people, comedians with puns kill people.

Re:I laughed

[Firethorn]

How did that military service as the price for military issue gun ownership go?

1. That's your requirement, not mine.
2. Besides, 'everyone' is part of the militia(pretty much).
3. Finally, the amendment specifies the people's right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The militia clause more means that if the government felt the need it could call the appropriate people up(fit, not to old, etc...) for mandatory militia training, whether they owned a firearm or not. Matter of fact, in the early militia acts they could force you to purchase a suitable weapon once notified of your obligation in the militia.

You didn't do it?

Are you speaking in general or specifically to me? Didn't your parents ever teach you about making assumptions?

Oh so you've twisted that amendment so that it's a right without responsibility - what a clever little coward you are.

Have you attended your mandatory internet speech training citizen? No? You're not allowed to post to the internet until you've completed it. It involves working at the post office for 4 years.

It's pathetic that a sporting club full of cowards who cannot properly manage their sport have bought so much influence in Washington.

Meh. You're jealous that all your side has is a few rich donors like Bloomberg and can't muster proper grass-roots support like the NRA* and other organizations can.

*You think the NRA is biased? I'm a member of the Gun Owners of America (GOA), the gun rights organization that thinks that the NRA is too compromising.

Re:I laughed

[Firethorn]

Use a pun, go to prison.

*Snerk*

Thank's everyone. I had work to do so I couldn't go on a gun = pun sloganfest, thanks for taking up the slack!

"This is my rifle and this is my pun; this is for fighting and this is for fun!"

This so funny ...

[CaptainDork]

... I don't know whether to slap my chin or knees.

hey

[Ol Olsoc]

Many man smoke, but Fu Man Chu.

puns bypass censorship

[Iamthecheese]

Chinese pundits frequently opine upun political matters with clever word play. It's much more difficult to use automated search for all the combinations of characters that can phunetically mean something political. Those seeking a "harmonious society" therefore hate the practice.

It's a reference to an obscenity

[Taco Cowboy]

Hadlock has the correct link to that 2009 meme, but that meme had existed way before the advent of the Net

The word "Grass", or in Chinese "Cao", sounds like another word, to put it in "family term", sexual intercourse

The word "Mud", or in Chinese "Ni", sounds a lot like the word that carries the meaning of "You"

The word "Horse", in Chinese "Ma", is a root-character in Chinese, for many Chinese characters has "Ma" (or Horse) embedded, including the character that represents "Mother" (also pronounce as "Ma" in Mandarin)

Bonus tip for those who do not know the Mandarin Language: The "Ma" character that represents "Mother", has "female" on the left hand side and "horse" on the right hand side

Re:Confucius say...

[Anonymous Coward]

learn to masturbate, come in handy

Mao said it best

[PPH]

Political power grows out of the barrel of a pun.

Re:Surely, that's no pun

[lgw]

What, did the Chinese government finally cotton onto the fact that the Lion-Easting Poet in the Stone Den was mocking them? Not sure it's strictly speaking a lengthy pun, but it's at least a related wordplay, and was a protest against the choice of Pinyin vs other choices that would have presented more distinction when writing a tonal language.

IIRC, Wikipedia used to lead with the explanation that the poem was really an exercise in slipping one past the censors to protest the choice, disguised as an "exercise in constrained writing". Now the text doesn't seem to discuss the mockery at all, unless I'm missing it, making the joke image of "an uneaten stone lion" seem strangely out-of-place.

While The Hunting of the Snark remains the greatest-ever exercise in slipping one past the censors (so much so that a non-dirty meaning of "snark" has become common!), Lion-Eating Poet was always a close second IMO. I notice Wikipedia doesn't give the obvious explanation of the Carroll poem either, but maybe that's just an elaborate exercise in avoiding spoilers, so I'll do the same here!

Re:Surely, that's no pun

[kamapuaa]

Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den is from the early 1910s, meaning it pre-dates pinyin by 50 years. It does look especially stupid in pinyin, but the joke works just as well for theoretical Chinese people who aren't aware of roman characters at all - making puns of words with different tones is very, very common.

I'd need to see a little more background than this article gives, because (as the article does state), puns are just a basic part of Chinese culture. This is probably just an over-interpretation of some vague proclamation given by some no-name politician, aimed at stopping Internet users from posting pictures of crabs wearing wristwatches.

Nope.

[denzacar]

Actually, one of the worst things you could do TO a totalitarian government is to laugh about them.

Nope.

Totalitarian regimes rely on fear and intimidation. Both go out the window once you see that the emperor has no clothes.

Also nope.

The actual quote mentions a TYRANT. A singular ruler whose power relies heavily on personal reputation.
Misapplying that to a regime at best makes you misinformed. At worst disappeared.

A totalitarian government is NOT one that NEEDS fear and intimidation to rule. It's a government that already HAS you by the balls.
It does not need fear or intimidation. That's for petty dictatorships. A totalitarian government has CONTROL over rules and laws.
I.e. It does not need to intimidate you into not drinking alcoholic beverages. It just makes it illegal.

So, because it is aware of its own power, it is perfectly fine with letting you get your rocks off at its expense - as it knows that all it has to do is squeeze for your laughter to become a squeal.
And it also knows that if it lets you bark at it you will never get frustrated enough to bite, while it can dismiss you with a wave of a hand "proving its openness to criticism".
If you do eventually bite... well, you're clearly a mad dog. Just look at all your history of constant barking.

It's totalitarian cause it already has all the power and control. It doesn't need fear nor does it fear ridicule.
Only those who DO NOT have absolute power, but pretend that they do, fear laughter.

Re:Surely, that's no pun

[daremonai]

Yuen-Ren Chao was not protesting against pinyin (which didn't yet exist) or any other romanization scheme when he wrote the Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den. In fact, he was a key proponent of "National Romanization" (Guoyu Luomazi), one of pinyin's precurors.

He mostly intended it as a linguistic joke - if you've ever read any of his works, he can be quite amusing - and as a demonstration of how Chinese has changed over the millenia. In ancient Chinese, the poem would be more or less comprehensible (although still a little odd here and there), but in modern Mandarin, so many sounds have converged together, that it just sounds like gibberish.

Re:ConfucI see it nowius say...

[marcello_dl]

This is the new word order :(