{"id":55176,"date":"2022-07-08T22:57:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-09T03:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=55176"},"modified":"2022-07-09T07:21:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-09T12:21:56","slug":"trap-daddy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=55176","title":{"rendered":"Trap daddy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A current catch phrase in China is k\u0113ngdi\u0113 \u5751\u7239, which literally means \"trap your father\", but in actuality is a slang neologism used to signify \"dishonest; fraudulent; deceptive; be contrary to what one expected\", etc.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

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\"\u2018Really annoying\u2019 \u2014 phrase of the week<\/a>\"

A decade-long online prank involving fake historical accounts of Russian history was unearthed on Chinese social media. For many internet users, the hoax got under their skin.<\/p>\r\n

Andrew Methven\u00a0 SupChina \u00a0\u00a0 Published July 8, 2022<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

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Context<\/h3>\r\n
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One of the biggest hoaxes in Wikipedia\u2019s history has recently been uncovered in China: A writer by the name of Zh\u00e9 M\u00e1o \u6298\u6bdb has spent the last 10 years creating fake but highly detailed historical accounts of bits of Russian history and publishing them on Chinese Wikipedia (\u7ef4\u57fa\u767e\u79d1 w\u00e9i j\u012b b\u01cei k\u0113). Some places and people are completely made up, while other stories are linked and interwoven with reality.<\/p>\r\n

The fakes were uncovered by an online user, who realized that the Chinese entries were different from their English equivalents<\/a> before posting<\/a> her discovery on Zhihu, a Quora-like Q&A platform:<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

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Chinese Wikipedia entries that are more detailed than English Wikipedia and even Russian Wikipedia are all over the place. Characters that don\u2019t exist in the English-Russian Wiki appear in the Chinese Wiki, and these characters are mixed together with real historical figures so that there\u2019s no telling the real from the fake.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

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The Chinese media were quick to respond<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

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Recently, this inventor of Russian history known as Zhe Mao, and the really annoying things she has done, have finally been exposed by accident.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

\u6700\u8fd1\u8fd9\u4e2a\u53eb\u6298\u6bdb\u7684\u5386\u53f2\u53d1\u660e\u5bb6\u548c\u5979\u5e72\u7684\u8fd9\u4e9b\u5751\u7239\u4e8b\u513f\u7ec8\u4e8e\u5728\u5076\u7136\u4e4b\u95f4\u88ab\u6252\u51fa\u6765\u4e86\u3002<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Zu\u00ecj\u00ecn zh\u00e8ge ji\u00e0o zh\u00e9 m\u00e1o de l\u00ecsh\u01d0 f\u0101m\u00edng ji\u0101 h\u00e9 t\u0101 g\u00e0n de zh\u00e8xi\u0113 k\u0113ngdi\u0113 sh\u00ec er zh\u014dngy\u00fa z\u00e0i \u01d2ur\u00e1n zh\u012b ji\u0101n b\u00e8i b\u0101 ch\u016bl\u00e1ile.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

Translation<\/h3>\r\n
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Really annoying <\/em>is a Chinese internet slang word that directly translates as hole<\/em> (\u5751 k\u0113ng), which here means \u201ccheat,\u201d and dad<\/em> (\u7239 di\u0113). In other words, to do something to cheat or make life difficult for your dad.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

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It\u2019s a difficult one to translate, but generally refers to an action that is unexpected, deceiving, and annoying.<\/p>\r\n

The phrase originally comes from a Chinese dialect spoken in northern Jiangsu, but was made popular around the launch of the computer game World of Warcraft (\u9b54\u517d\u4e16\u754c m\u00f3 sh\u00f2u sh\u00ec ji\u00e8). In 2012, when the game was under limited release in China, one player managed to access a higher level in the game than was allowed through a loophole in the programming. This was big news in the gaming world: His gaming ID was \u5751\u7239\u5462\u8fd9\u662f k\u0113ng di\u0113 ne zh\u00e8 sh\u00ec [VHM:\u00a0 \"What the hell is this?\"]<\/p>\r\n

Since then, the phrase \u5751\u7239 k\u0113ng di\u0113 has come into mainstream use, meaning something unexpected and annoying.<\/p>\r\n

There are a number of similar phrases, which also came up in the media coverage of the fake Russian Wiki story, like \u5751\u4eba k\u0113ng r\u00e9n, or \u88ab\u5751 b\u00e8i k\u0113ng, \u201cto be holed,\u201d which means to be deceived, as one online user commented on Zhihu<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n

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So many professors and students in China have been deceived. There are at least 100 dissertations that have quoted false information. <\/em><\/p>\r\n

\u5f88\u591a\u56fd\u5185\u6559\u6388\u548c\u5b66\u751f\u90fd\u88ab\u5751\u4e86\uff0c\u5f15\u7528\u4ed6\u7684\u5185\u5bb9\u7684\u8bba\u6587\u90fd\u5dee\u4e0d\u591a\u4e0a\u767e\u7bc7\u4e86\u3002 <\/em><\/p>\r\n

h\u011bndu\u014d gu\u00f3n\u00e8i ji\u00e0osh\u00f2u h\u00e9 xu\u00e9sh\u0113ng d\u014du b\u00e8i k\u0113ngle, y\u01d0ny\u00f2ng t\u0101 de n\u00e8ir\u00f3ng de l\u00f9nw\u00e9n d\u014du ch\u00e0b\u00f9du\u014d sh\u00e0ng b\u01cei pi\u0101nle.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\"We're caught in a trap\"<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 — Elvis<\/p>\r\n

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Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\r\n