Quote of the Week: “Irresponsible Remarks”

Quote of the Week: “Irresponsible Remarks”

不要乱说话 (bú yào luàn shuōhuà): do not make irresponsible remarks

Donnotmakeirresponsible

Teacher gagged with banners reading “refrain from doing things that are not to be done” and “refrain from remarking on things which ought not to be remarked upon.” (Southern Metropolis Daily)

On August 10, 2010, the education bureau of Pizhou City, Jiangxi Province issued an official document to all secondary and private schools. After stating that three Pizhou teachers had recently been detained for spreading rumors online, it instructed all teachers to

…pay attention to their images, be mindful of politics, speak about the big picture, refrain from doing things that are not to be done, and from irresponsibly remarking on things which ought not be remarked upon.

要注意形象,讲政治,讲大局,不该做的事不要做、不该说的话不乱说。

Campaigns against online rumors have become common in China. In the summer of 2013 central authorities launched a massive anti-rumor campaign—complete with a legal interpretation sanctioning prison time and fines for digital rumor-mongers—in which many influential microbloggers were targeted.

grass-mud horseWhich words define the Chinese Internet? Our eBook includes 71 classic turns of phrase. Now available from KindleiTunes, and Google Play.

The  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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