The banks are all right

Oriental Guardian, June 10, 2010

The Agricultural Bank of China, the last of the country’s big four state-owned banks to go public, had its IPO approved by regulators yesterday.

Today’s Oriental Guardian reported the news in a front-page headline that superimposed the characters 很行 (“ok, all right”) pronounced hěn xíng, atop the characters for “bank” (银行, pronounced yínháng) — bank stocks led a rebound following the announcement of ABC’s approval.

Below the headline is another bit of wordplay announcing the launch of a special World Cup supplement. “Fly south, to South Africa” (向南飞，向南非) reads the tagline. “South Africa” (南非) and “fly south” (南飞) are both read nánfēi.