10 Chinese code words to avoid censorship (part 2)

Unlike in Western countries **shifty eyes**, censorship in China is rampant, with the Chinese regime removing anything and everything from the internet if they think it might be even a tiny bit critical of their authoritarian actions.

This week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog takes a look at c*de words
used to beat c***orship by the authoritarian Chinese gove***ent.

So to fight back, clever Chinese people have created an ever growing list of code words and phrases to get around the censorship. Here are a few more examples...

1) Sensitive porcelain = Censored words

In a move worthy of a scene from the movie Inception, even the phrase 'censored words' is censored by the Chinese regime! So to get around the censorship, Chinese internet users refer to censored words as 'sensitive porcelain'.

It may at first seem like a strange term, but the reason for this coded phrase is that the Chinese words for 'words' and 'porcelain' are homophones, i.e. they are pronounced the same, but they are written with different kanji symbols.

Lost In Translation: Chinese movie titles (part 2)

A subject I've featured before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog is the fact that when English movies are translated into Chinese, their original titles sometimes become lost in translation.

"Who you gonna call?"
"Super Power Dare Die Team!"

Here's another batch of movies with unusual Chinese titles...

1) Ghostbusters

When Ghostbusters was released in China, it was renamed rather unusually as, 'Super Power Dare Die Team'.

Imagine if Ghostbusters had been called 'Super Power Dare Die Team' in English. The theme tune just wouldn't have quite the same ring to it!

"Who you gonna call?"
"Super Power Dare Die Team!"

Ghostbusters > Super Power Dare Die Team

10 Chinese code words to avoid censorship (part 1)

Big Panda is watching you!

Censorship exists to a degree in the West, and it's been getting worse in recent years, but the censorship we face is nothing compared to the censorship that takes place in China.

To get around the censorship, Chinese internet users have cleverly come up with a series of code words and coded terms to substitute for censored words and phrases.

Here are some of those code words.

1) June 4th = May 35th

As you can imagine, the Chinese government are very draconian in censoring all discussion of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Incredibly, that censorship even extends to the date that the massacre took place!

The Tiananmen Square Massacre occurred on June 4th 1989, so any mention of that date is censored by the Chinese government. To get around this, Chinese internet users cleverly refer to June 4th as May 35th.

Lost in translation: Chinese movie titles

In China, many Hollywood movies are given names which translate somewhat differently from the original title.

Here are a few examples which I found quite amusing...

"One Night, Big Belly"

1) Knocked Up

Rather amusingly, when Knocked Up was released in China it was known as 'One Night, Big Belly'.

I suppose that technically it's true!

Knocked Up > One Night, Big Belly

10 interesting Chinese words and expressions

From time to time on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I take a look at interesting words found in other languages from around the world, and this week I focus on Chinese. Please note, I'm not a fluent Chinese speaker, so apologies if I haven't explained any of the following expressions with perfect linguistic clarity.

Anyway, here are a few Chinese words which I found amusing or interesting, with themes including vinegar jars, invisible glasses, and flatulent dogs...

Dog fart!
Please note, a cuddly toy dog has been used for the purposes of
this photo in order to avoid causing embarrassment to any real dogs.

1) Dog fart!

In English, if someone was expressing an opinion you disagreed with, you might reply, "Rubbish!" or "Nonsense!" or if you were old-fashioned and slightly posh you might say "Poppycock!"

If you spoke Chinese, however, you might reply 'gǒupì!' (狗屁) which more or less means the same thing as 'Nonsense!' but rather amusingly, it literally translates as 'Dog fart!'

If you want to have hours of amusement at work, then I recommend introducing the expression 'dog fart!' to your office, and I can testify from my own experience that it's guaranteed to produce hours of childish hilarity!

What's that you say? 'Dog fart'? No, I promise you it's true.