With hundreds of documented (and censored) online sobriquets, Xi Jinping is arguably the most nicknamed leader in recent Chinese history. To stay ahead of the censors, online Chinese have long resorted to using homophones,...
Sometimes, it’s the censors who imbue a joke with political power. Earlier this week, Weibo user @怪以德服人猫’s account was deleted for violating Weibo policy. Their likely violation? A joke, described by some netizens as “very...
Word(s) of the Week: Forge Exemplary Conduct, Fight to Win (作风优良，能打胜仗 zuòfēng yōuliáng, néngdǎ shèngzhàng) On Saturday at the Century Theater in Beijing, a stand up comic joked that his dogs’ pursuit of squirrels brought to mind...
In his landmark political report before the 20th Party Congress, Xi Jinping hailed China’s “tenacious pursuit” of its dynamic zero-COVID policy, an indication the policy is here to stay, despite consistent domestic criticism. At...
An essay tracing the evolution of Shanghai lockdown memes from giddy jests about Shanghai culture to gallows humor and gloomy meditations on the state of society was censored last week after going viral on Weibo. The essay,...
A collection of 40 jokes about China’s “zero-COVID policy” and its enforcers was posted by @丁逸峰 on Zhihu, the popular Chinese question-and-answer site. Many are styled in the grand tradition of “Soviet Jokes,” which have, at...
There’s a Chinese joke about lawyers that goes like this: “You know you broke the law, right?” “Which law?” “Why, teaching the law is illegal!” [Editor’s note: It reads better in the original Chinese] The joke became reality...
CDT has translated a selection of Chinese political jokes that have been making the rounds on social media. These jokes all poke fun at China’s so-called core socialist values, a set of 12 words used by the CCP to promote...
CDT has long celebrated irreverent online humor in China, commissioning and publishing cartoons,...
On January 22, the Politburo announced the establishment of the Central Commission for Integrated...
Last month, censors took note of a photo from the March, 2013 Chinese People’s Political and...
With the apocalypse now less than ten days away, China has been joining in the global festival of panic, resignation and denial at the imminent extinction of humanity. At China Real Time Report, Chao Deng described some Chinese...
The word “Traitor (汉奸)” was used to describe those Chinese who collaborated with...
The sacking of former Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai has sent shockwaves through Chinese political circles. It has also dominated online conversations and quickly become the top trending topic on Sina Weibo, though posts are...
Yuzhe Ziyu, a netizen living in Chongqing, posted a call for tales of censorship on his Google+ profile on February 3. Below are the responses he received. Read the original here. Translated by Deng Bolun. Yuzhe Ziyu: Tell...
Facebook’s pending IPO is a hot topic in Chinese cyberspace, even though (or maybe because) Facebook is blocked inside the country. The following conversations and comments are translated from Sina Weibo: – A female...
Two jokes are currently circulating in Chinese cyberspace which take on current events: The first one refers to recent tensions over the East China Sea. [Diaoyu Islands belong to which country?] Answer: Bring a laptop computer...
Danwei’s Jeremy Goldkorn translates a joke currently being passed around on Sina Weibo and beyond: There is a village that only has one restaurant. Everyone in the village has to eat at that restaurant. Villager: Why...
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