The Word of the Week 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 censorship and political correctness.
百分之六十二 (bǎifēn zhī liùshí’èr): sixty-two percent
“Installing Chinese Nation’s Great Revival: 62% complete. If you click cancel, the system will automatically crash!” (Xiao Mao)
Yang Yiyong, Chair of the National Development and Reform Commission Academy of Macroeconomic Research, announced in August 2012 that “the Chinese national revival was 62% complete as of 2010,” according to his “quantitative measures.” Netizens proceeded to crack jokes about this magical percentage.
Xi Jinping has often invoked national revival (also translated “renaissance”) and the “Chinese dream” since taking office as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the People’s Republic of China.
