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Chinese state media discourages April Fools' Day
- jjcc 11y agoThis April Fools' joke promotes the idea of functional programming, high order function like map, reduce, etc. Very good one.
- sebastic 11y agoFunny, to me this joke promotes of the idea of JavaScript, inconsistent, annoying to read, total trash, etc. Very bad one.
- billhendricksjr 11y agoThis itself, is an April Fools joke I hope. How meta ;-)
- lolidaisuki 11y agoI wish it was banned globally.
- tempodox 11y agoWhy?
- acqq 11y agoI guess, because of the effect of the "internet social media amplification." Ah those foregone times when we'd just be "pranked" directly by a person we can touch, or at most once a day from the media.
- stevetrewick 11y ago>by a person we can touch Yes. Possibly with a stout stick. For some reason I really, really dislike a whole day when everyone is doing their best to spam me with misinformation for teh lulz.
- ukz 11y agoWasn't it?
- akerro 11y agoIt was(not).
- nxzero 11y agoApril Fool jokes were banned globally, but it's only a crime starting next year. Please do not joke that it's not illegal, this is serious, don't risk it!
- DonHopkins 11y agoOh no, think of all the COBOL programs that will have to be updated by next year!
- lolidaisuki 11y agoGlobally means everywhere on earth, not just China.
- agumonkey 11y agoAnd just a tad offensive.
- zelos 11y agoIsn't saying "No joke" in the headline kind of cheating, though?
- icebraining 11y agoDoesn't seem so, unless it's by the Chinese news agency itself: http://weibo.com/1699432410/DoUipcOni?from=page_1002061699432410_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime&type=comment#_rnd1459509065149 http://weibo.com/1699432410/DoUipcOni?from=page_100206169943... Google Translate gives me: "Today is the West so-called "April Fool." "Fool's Day" is not in line with our cultural tradition, does not meet the socialist core values, I hope we do not believe rumors, do not spread rumors, do not pass rumors" And the account seems to be "verified" by Weibo.
- odinduty 11y agoI think there's a big difference between what that tweet says and having "banned April Fools". But what do I know :-)
- Laforet 11y agoIt was an opinion piece, but a editorial. WaPo really tried hard to over analyze that post. After all, Xinhua has traditionally avoided publishing opinions because their main role is a news agency, but with social media there is a lot less restraint than before.
- odinduty 11y agoThere's absolutely nothing in that post that makes me think it's an opinion piece or an editorial. It's a regular news entry, and a very misleading one, if not outright malicious.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoIt's not. This has been reported previously on dates other than April 1st.
- acqq 11y agoWas the "ban" reported or the fact that "it was on 1st of April" won't protect the Chinese from the law against knowingly spreading false information?
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoThe former. It's not just April 1st, the PRC isn't too fond of satire.
- acqq 11y ago> The former. You mean the later I guess (just the law against the misinformation, not just on 1st of April)?
- diskcat 11y ago>The ancient tradition of hoaxing and playing practical jokes on the first day of April has fallen victim to China’s crackdown. Reading that the first time I thought 'hoaxing' was a chinese word. How weird.
- DonHopkins 11y agoYou have a point -- hoaxing has a fishy smell. And playing looks like it could be a Chinese word too! [1] xing: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=xing http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrs... [2] ying: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=ying http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrs...
- laumars 11y agoYou cannot split "hoaxing" and "playing" up like that as "ing" is a suffix denoting tense with "hoax" and "play" being the verb. A quick Google of "hoax" suggests it's possibly derived from the 17th century noun "hocus".
- DonHopkins 11y agoIt's not about the roots of the English words. The pun is that x and y are relatively uncommon letters in English, that when they appear before the "ing" suffix, it's easy to accidentally parse them as relatively common Chinese words. The "xinger" is that "hoaxing" has a 腥: "fishy (smell)". ;) [1] [1] http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2962/ http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2962/
- laumars 11y agoah sorry. I mistook your e-mail to mean they would literally have originated from China. My apologies.
- supercoder 11y agoGood.
- calibraxis 11y ago> Like democracy and free speech, it is a Western concept that simply isn’t welcome here. Ironic propaganda. Analyzing soundbites requires slightly verbose context: "Why do conservatives insist that democracy was invented in ancient Greece, and that it is somehow inherent in what they call 'Western civilization'—despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary? In the end, it’s just a way of doing what the rich and powerful always do: taking possession of the fruits of other people’s labor." [...] "Democracy was not invented in ancient Greece. Granted, the word 'democracy' was invented in ancient Greece—but largely by people who didn’t like the thing itself very much. Democracy was never really 'invented' at all. Neither does it emerge from any particular intellectual tradition. It’s not even really a mode of government. In its essence it is just the belief that humans are fundamentally equal and ought to be allowed to manage their collective affairs in an egalitarian fashion, using whatever means appear most conducive. That, and the hard work of bringing arrangements based on those principles into being. "In this sense democracy is as old as history, as human intelligence itself." — David Graeber, "The Democracy Project"
- return0 11y agoThats an overly vague line of thinking by which the CPU can be said to be invented by the Neanderthals because "someone must have though of it". Even in ancient athenian democracy egalitarianism was not a thing: only "the chosen" landowning male native citizens had a say in collective decision making. If anything egalitarianism probably became a thing since the french revolution.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- calibraxis 11y agoThat was a tiny quote from an evidence-laden argument. Google Books sometimes doesn't show this in incognito mode: (https://books.google.com/books?id=99E4aIjgryoC&pg=PA183&lpg=PA183&dq=graeber+Why+do+conservatives+insist+that+democracy+was+invented+in+ancient+Greece,+and+that+it+is+somehow+inherent+in+what+they+call&source=bl https://books.google.com/books?id=99E4aIjgryoC&pg=PA183&lpg=...) The reason why soundbites win is because, "The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it."
- deepnet 11y agoApril Fool's day historically derives from the day of misrule, whereby the social order was inverted and for a day a lowly fool took the throne of the king.
- sg47 11y agoDonald Trump?
- tempodox 11y agoAs much as I support the notion, but Trump is only funny as long as he's not on “the throne”. I suspect very much that all our laughing days will be over once he ascends.
- bad-joke 11y agoRelated: Saturnalia, the Roman holiday that predated Christmas. Slaves and masters switched some of their roles and duties for the duration, everyone got drunk, and many gifts were exchanged. Like the medieval version of April Fool's Day, Saturnalia revelers would appoint a chief fool, the Saturnalicius princeps, whose commands had to be obeyed, no matter how silly.
- tempodox 11y agoThe Chinese authorities obviously take lying much too seriously to allow any jokes about it. As is appropriate for such an important instrument in their tool chest.
- stevesun21 11y agoDo you do what gov says? Weibo is way too old school in China, you should check out how people really post on wechat.
- AznHisoka 11y agoWhat do people post on WeChat? Personally, from talking to many Chinese, I get the sense nobody really gives a damn what the gov says or does. A casual complaint here and there, but for the most part people are too worried about their boyfriend/girlfriends, mom/dad, schoolwork, do I look ugly?, food pics, and everything else the average person talks about.
- ktRolster 11y agoBasically like every country.
- shaobo 11y agoThe headline is rather clickbaity, it is all based on a tweet from the news agency, it is not a government edict.
- culturestate 11y agoFYI - the relative merit of this story notwithstanding - Xinhua is run by the CCP and the party exerts a high degree of editorial control.
- artur_makly 11y agonobody fools china. nobody!
- qrendel 11y agoAn April Fool'd man can't get fooled again.
- markgavalda 11y agoFinally something from China that I can wholeheartedly agree with.
- BinaryIdiot 11y agoI was just thinking the same thing :). I don't mind jokes and pranks but the ones from today almost always feel forced and just trying way too hard.
- krylon 11y agoIronically, perhaps, if this is a joke, it's a really good one insofar as it's really hard to tell if this is a joke or not (at least for me).
- xlm1717 11y agoIt just seems like endless fake product announcements which aren't really that funny.
- lallysingh 11y agoIt's been commercialized in a "Hey we're cool" way.
- tracker1 11y agoI believe ThinkGeek actually uses it as a test bed for product ideas... The Ton-Ton sleeping bag comes to mind... Though, I do wish someone had made the arcade cabinet ipad holder thing... as a bluetooth game controller, with some classic arcade games, it could have been awesome.
- sebastic 11y agoYou've never been to China, you have no idea what you're talking about. Go to China and you'll see it's like America x9000.
- nxzero 11y ago
- nxzero 11y agoIf you were going to ban a day about pranks, why would you do it on the day for pranks; logically makes no sense, this is bs.
- joantune 11y agoThat frigging article looks like its full of April fools day acts, like this one: "That China’s propaganda apparatus has a problem with satire has long been evident. In 2012, The People’s Daily fell for a satirical report in The Onion voting North Korea leader Kim Jong-un the sexiest man alive. The Communist Party newspaper ran a 55-page photo spread in tribute to Kim, quoting the Onion as celebrating his devastatingly handsome looks, round face, boyish charm and strong, sturdy frame — not realizing it was satire. " I really hope none of this is real. LIES all LIES?!?! :D
- madaxe_again 11y agoNo, that actually happened. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20518929 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20518929
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ttflee 11y agoBBC mistook Dr Kai-Fu Lee (Li Kaifu in the page) for a freelance journalist, though he is/was quite outspoken at times. https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Ft.qq.com%2Fp%2Ft%2F141319131914936&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...
- xjpis250 11y agoIn China, under the control of the Communist Party(NAZI), every day is April fools day. 中国人每天都过愚人节
- pimlottc 11y agoI've very disappointed in the Internet at not being able to find scans of that 55-page photo spread.
- temp345 11y ago> the Internet at not being able to find scans of that 55-page photo spread. Because the scans of the paper don't exist, it wasn't in the printed media, it's a 55-photos slideshow in an online English news site, and it was with the quotations from the Onion without any commentary: http://www.commentary.com/region/asia_china-daily-screenshot_20121128b.jpg http://www.commentary.com/region/asia_china-daily-screenshot... Somebody had fun selecting 55 photos for the slideshow.
- yyhhsj0521 11y ago你们呐，拿衣服！不要见风就是雨，整天就想批判一番，搞一个大新闻 人家新华社哪有说禁止了？我不是党员难道非要遵守社会主义核心价值观？有本事来查我水表asdfuiygdfsnkkjseahf
- zeveb 11y agoGoogle Translate turns this into: > You Now, get clothes ! Do not see the wind is the rain all day, wanted to criticize about it, engage in a big news > How can people Xinhua News Agency said the ban ? I do not have to comply with the Socialist Party 's core values ? I have the ability to check the water meter asdfuiygdfsnkkjseahf Which I think is saying that regardless of what their government is telling them, Chinese folks are perfectly capable of using their heads and distinguishing truth from falsehood.
- ruy9 11y agoLmao so hard rn. Too many puns/memes/jokes in this comment I can't even translate it. Been living in China for 10+ years and in the us for 10 years, Chinese memes are some next level shit. And also, western media is kind of a joke. Xinhua puts a weibo saying don't spread rumors(it's comment section is full of jokes and satire, mind you), Washington post be like 'China bans April Fools Day'. Same things happened again and again, and will happen in the future.
- slr555 11y agoThe Chinese characters for the word gullible have also been removed from all Chinese dictionaries and public documents.
- Kenji 11y agoPoe's Law in full action. You can't even know for sure if the regime is this ridiculous or if they're joking. Fascinating.
- zingplex 11y agoFirst China bans the pun, now they ban April Fools' Day. The first shots have been fired in China's war on humour.
- hawkice 11y agoIt breaks my heart but the first shots in that war were fired long ago, during the Cultural Revolution, when all humor had to be pro-"Revolutionary ".
- mads 11y agoI can confirm. Two of my Chinese colleagues here were trying to pull an Aprils fools joke here in the office and they were promptly taken away by the Public Security Bureau.
- alkonaut 11y agoNot only that, they will ban April 1st entirely. Starting 2017 April 2nd will follow directly after March 32nd.
- mads 11y agoYes
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- cholantesh 11y agoNice try, Dean Pelton.
- Beltiras 11y agoThis is a tradition that needs to die. There should at least be serious media outlets that publish "No Fool with us" policies.
- shogun21 11y agoHappy Misinformation Day!
- paradite 11y agoI think I am seeing a very interesting trend here on HN. The submissions that allow commenters to make fun of China tend to get a lot of attention than other submissions that are not strictly related to technology. No coverage on terrorism or tragedies around the world, but a piece of news about a country trying to fight rumors by banning a foreign holiday gets onto the front page. If you actually study a bit about China, you would know that rumors are a huge problem and people are not cautious enough to verify them before getting tricked into believing them. People just love making fun of China, aren't they?
- nostromo 11y agoOr, it's just an interesting story. If India or Germany banned April Fool's Day, I imagine it would be treated similarly.
- joantune 11y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDrfE9I8_hs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDrfE9I8_hs Had to post this :D
- paradite 11y agoThis might be off-topic but thanks. Well I guess his campaign manager knows that US citizens respond well to the topic on China.
- ta_04012016 11y agoI think I am seeing a very patronizing smug here on HN. > If you actually study a bit about China I grow up in China, and I know that the root problem is that it's a one-party state. There is no election whatsoever and the country is owned and abused by princelings and government officials. Rural areas are underfunded and manipulated so that resources are concentrated in the major cities. The justice system is not broken, but has never been built. Thought crimes don't only exist but are also prosecuted. With all these serious problems, you are telling me rumors are a huge problem? Rumors are just a proxy. People are concerned about regional instability and human rights abuse, aren't they??
- personjerry 11y agoWhen I lived in China, I'd never heard of April Fools Day. It seems to be a western thing. Hence this ban isn't all that relevant inside China. From the examples it seems like China is actually trying to ban April Fools Day for western media, but the article doesn't make this clear, and it's difficult to imagine that is the case. So I find it hard to take this article seriously.
- ruy9 11y agoWhere do you live in China? In a cave or under lake?
- personjerry 11y agoSuzhou, a "small" city in China. But April's Fool's Day is in fact a Western concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day
- eplanit 11y agoIt's banned on HN, too, from what I've seen in the past.
- aswanson 11y ago"This statement is false."
- iliketosleep 11y agoThis is blatantly misleading. April Fools' Day HAS NOT been banned in China. I can confirm because am in China. Upon searching baidu (their search engine), April Fools' day has not been banned or blocked. Rather, it's simply being discouraged by official media. There's a HUGE difference between discouraging something and banning it.
- dang 11y ago> discouraged by official media That's a good way of putting it. We've changed the title to reflect that.