查看“Push-ups”的源代码

俯臥撐 (fǔwòchēng): push-ups

[[File:pushups.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''A police officer does push-ups (i.e. minds his own business) while a robbery takes place.'']]This exercise took on new meaning in 2008 when police claimed the son of a government official had not raped a girl, alleging instead that he had been “doing push-ups.”  [http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/07/netizens-anger-and-humor-against-online-censorship/ Backlash] against this suspected cover-up resulted in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Weng'an_riot Weng’an riot]. 

The young man was alleged to have raped and killed a 16-year-old girl. In an attempt to quell the outcry, police claimed that the boy and girl had been arguing along the bank of a river. When they had calmed down, the boy began to do some push-ups next to the girl. After he had done three push-ups he heard her say, “I’m going,” after which she jumped into the river and drowned herself.

Few believed the police account, and a riot ensued involving tens of thousands of people. “I was doing push-ups” became a coded critique of any unpersuasive police excuse. As the phrase has spread, it has shed much of its political connotation. It no longer has just one definition: sometimes it means “minding one’s own business,” while other times it refers to a nonsensical cause of death.

Other official police accounts of individuals’ deaths have attracted similar scorn. See [[death from drinking boiled water]] and [[death by hide and seek]].

[[Category: Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon]]