# Oh Fu! China bans puns?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 3, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202 "2014-12-03T04:44:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/1 "2014-12-03T04:44:07Z")
Hot off the Daily Show presses. > **[China's Ban On Puns Comes Straight Out Of '1984'](https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-orwellian-ban-on-puns-2014-12)** > > Control language and you control the world. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/2 "2014-12-03T05:18:45Z")
Chinese people use puns to write things online which are banned by government censors. For example, Chinese censors automatically search online messages for any mention of the Falun Gong. So people talk about Canadian French instead - the Chinese term for Canadian French sounds the same as the term for Falun Gong. Or in a non-political example, Chinese censors prohibit anyone saying “fuck your mother”. So people use “grass mud horse” instead because it sounds like fuck your mother in Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/3 "2014-12-03T07:37:33Z")
I thought it was almost impossible to avoid constantly making puns in Chinese. Disclaimer: I don’t actually know any Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/4 "2014-12-03T12:15:30Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I thought it was almost impossible to avoid constantly making puns in Chinese. If true that just makes the law _more_ useful from an authoritarian standpoint, since the authorities can pretty much guarantee that any people they take a dislike to will be guilty of violating it. And yeah, I’ve heard in the past that Chinese is a great language for puns. We just don’t hear much about it since wordplay based humor by nature doesn’t generally travel well outside the language it’s in. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/5 "2014-12-03T15:23:29Z")
I see a lot of violations from the whole Fujian province. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/6 "2014-12-03T16:02:39Z")
There’s one thing the Chinese have learned about the internet: If the government starts Peking, Duck! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/7 "2014-12-03T16:08:50Z")
I’d hate to get shanghaid because I made an inadvertent pun. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/8 "2014-12-03T16:16:22Z")
Guo Stimpy…? ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/9 "2014-12-03T19:27:13Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > I see a lot of violations from the whole Fujian province. That’s what Xi said. ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/10 "2014-12-03T19:33:42Z")
Well, you have to admit that cracks in China are a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/11 "2014-12-03T19:52:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Chinese people use puns to write things online which are banned by government censors. > > For example, Chinese censors automatically search online messages for any mention of the Falun Gong. So people talk about Canadian French instead - the Chinese term for Canadian French sounds the same as the term for Falun Gong. Or in a non-political example, Chinese censors prohibit anyone saying “fuck your mother”. So people use “grass mud horse” instead because it sounds like fuck your mother in Chinese. Well, that explains why all those waiters I stiffed were so interested in the care and feeding of my horse… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/12 "2014-12-03T21:49:07Z")
I am so picking up that grass mud horse thing! Fuck you and the grass mud horse you rode in on! 😃 I would think that French, where 2/3 of all words sound alike, would be a most fertile pun playground. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/13 "2014-12-04T03:54:03Z")
All I know is that when I was at French camp as a kid, they wouldn’t let us name our cabin group the Dead Seals. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fu-china-bans-puns/706202/14 "2014-12-04T22:28:17Z")
So, if I ever go to China, I’d better not page my friend Long Hwang at the airport. And I’d better not ask for a copy of \*\*\*Spots on the Great Wall \*\*\* by Hu Flung-Pu at the book shop.