4 ms·
Since nobody has pointed it out yet, harmony = 和諧, which is a euphemism for censorship in China. And then there is 和諧 = 河蟹, which is an atonal homophonic euphe
by k_sze 7y ago
Since nobody has pointed it out yet, harmony = 和諧, which is a euphemism for censorship in China.
And then there is 和諧 = 河蟹, which is an atonal homophonic euphemism for the euphemism.
- Max_Mustermann 7y agoCould you explain a bit more about the atonal euphemism? Is this a common alternative to express a word in Mandarin?
- RockmanX 7y agoThe atonal euphemism is a common alternative to avoid automatic censorship of various websites.
- k_sze 7y agoExactly. It’s a tongue-in-cheek that basically says that you need to circumvent censorship when you want to talk about censorship. By the way, I’m not a linguist and I just completely made up that usage of “atonal homophone”. Could an actual linguist chime in and tell us what’s the correct way to describe a “homophone” that doesn’t match in tone, in the context of a tonal language like Chinese?
- gok 7y agoIt's usually still called a pun or homophone. Most puns in English don't precisely match phonetics (especially stress) either.
- HuShifang 7y agoIt's a common way of getting around censorship (specifically taboo words). A classic (if recent), comedic example is the Grass Mud Horse [1]. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse
- yorwba 7y agoIt's a pun. 和谐 is héxié in Pinyin and 河蟹 is héxiè. They differ only in the tone of the last syllable. Since 河蟹 means "river crab", the reader will probably be able to guess that some other word is meant and correct it to 和谐 in their mind. This is not just used to evade censorship, but also humorously. E.g. returnees from overseas 海归 (hǎiguī) are frequently called sea turtles 海龟 (hǎiguī). In that case, even the tones match.
- angelsl 7y agoThe Wikipedia article on this provides some background information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemisms_for_Internet_censorship_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemisms_for_Internet_censor... > The 2004 Chinese Communist Party announcement of the goal of constructing a "harmonious society" has been cited by the government of China as the reason for Internet censorship. As a result, Chinese netizens began to use the word "harmonious/harmonize/harmonization" (和谐) as a euphemism for censorship when the word for censorship itself was censored, particularly on BBSs. Following this, the word "harmonious" itself was censored, at which point Chinese netizens began to use the word for "river crab", a near homophone for "harmonious". In a further complication of meaning, sometimes aquatic product (Chinese: 水产) is used in place of "river crab".
- chvid 7y agoIts Chinese name is still Hongmeng, is it not?
- dimator 7y agoSo could naming the os in this way be a clever attempt at recapturing the meaning of a subversive word that the government doesn't like?
- 07d046 7y agoNo, "harmony" is already a buzzword in China. See, for example, "harmonious society".
- AFascistWorld 7y agohttps://www.voacantonese.com/a/ai-weiwei-river-crab-fest-followup-106847683/925650.html https://www.voacantonese.com/a/ai-weiwei-river-crab-fest-fol... It's Chinese name is from Chinese myth. Is it in any way rebellious? No I don't think so. Patriotism made Huawei and is making them dough. It's most likely their engineers' limited creative idea.