"Fatso Kim the Third" blocked in China
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On microblogs and on social media in China, it was well nigh universal to call the ruler of North Korea Jīn sān pàng 金三胖 ("Kim Third Fat" [referring to Kim Jung-un, third in the line of Kims following his father Kim Jung-il and his grandfather Kim Il-sung]) — until the North Korean government caught wind of it and complained to the Chinese government:
"North Korea begs China to stop calling Kim Jong Un fat" (FOX News, 11/15/16)
This prompted the Chinese government to block references to Jīn sān pàng 金三胖 ("Kim Third Fat"):
"China websites block searches for 'Fatty Kim the Third'" (Reuters, 11/16/16)
Chinese netizens promptly adapted by writing Jīn sān pàng 金三胖 ("Kim Third Fat") as xīn pàng 鑫胖 ("wealth fat"), where xīn 鑫 is thought of as sān jīn 三金 ("three jin" [i.e., 'gold / Kim']').
If necessary to get around the censors, netizens can also divide pàng 胖 ("fat") into yuè 月 ("moon") and bàn 半 ("half"), thus jīn sān yuè bàn 金三月半 ("Kim / gold March / three months half") = Jīn sān pàng 金三胖 ("Kim Third Fat").
See these reddit threads: here and here.
[h.t. Mark Metcalf; thanks to NSBK]
liuyao said,
November 17, 2016 @ 12:37 am
I recently saw 鑫 in a sentence where it was clearly meant to be read as 金三, a neutral nickname for Kim Jung-un. It may even count as a polysyllabic character.
Victor Mair said,
November 17, 2016 @ 12:51 am
Most interesting! I was hoping that someone might have found evidence of that. So here we have an instance of a character that can be both monosyllabic and polysyllabic!
flow said,
November 17, 2016 @ 3:25 am
…like, i suspect, 廿, 卅, and 卌 are, in practice?
Victor Mair said,
November 17, 2016 @ 7:44 am
yeah
NSBK said,
November 17, 2016 @ 12:12 pm
Surely these censors must be aware of how utterly futile it is to do their job "effectively", particularly with such a versatile script. It seems very Hydra-like, in that when one phrase is cut out, many variations emerge to replace it.
Graeme said,
November 18, 2016 @ 4:46 am
Can one grow fat "bingeing on whisky"? Isn't the point of hard liquor that most of the carbohydrates/sugars are converted to alcohol?
Andreas Johansson said,
November 18, 2016 @ 9:31 am
Yes one can; alcohol is calorie-rich.