Word of the Week: Microsoft

Word of the Week: Microsoft
Tang Jun

Tang Jun (Guangzhou Daily)

微软 (Wēiruǎn): Microsoft

This calque can also mean “slightly soft.” Since a microblog can be called a “slight erection,” netizens have asked whether it is better to be “slightly firm” or “Slightlysoft.”

Tang Jun, the former president of Microsoft China, became a butt of this pun after he was accused of résumé fraud. Tang also became embroiled in a financial scandal case soon after the public learned that his PhD from the California Institute of Technology was fake. Netizens have joked, “Slightlysoft got Tang Jun hard, while a slight erection made Tang Jun soft (微软让唐骏硬了起来,微勃让唐骏萎了下去).

The Grass-Mud Horse eBook is your guide to the Chinese Internet. Available from KindleiTunes, and Google Play.

grass-mud horseThe  comes from China Digital Space’s Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China’s online “resistance discourse,” used to mock and subvert the official language around  and political correctness.

 

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