{"id":6696,"date":"2011-08-19T18:12:20","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T10:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xiaokang2020.com\/danweicom\/?p=764"},"modified":"2021-09-10T11:03:24","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T03:03:24","slug":"we-survived-a-day-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/internet-and-media\/we-survived-a-day-in-china.php","title":{"rendered":"We survived a day in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notes about social criticism and black humor on the Chinese Internet, by Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/em>
\n<\/span>
\nWe survived!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here is a translation of the cartoon at left that has been circulating widely on the Chinese Internet.<\/p>\n

Man:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019m so glad you weren\u2019t poisoned (to death) by gutter oil, Sudan red, lean meat essence, or toxic buns!<\/p>\n

Your house didn\u2019t catch on fire!<\/p>\n

The bridge in front of your house didn\u2019t collapse, right?<\/p>\n

You\u2019re so lucky that the escalator didn\u2019t malfunction when you went to work!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s wonderful! We survived another day!<\/p>\n

Woman:<\/strong>\u00a0I was so worried you\u2019d get run over by someone supposedly going 70 kph on your way to work!<\/p>\n

Or get stabbed eight times in a row!<\/p>\n

My gravest fear was that you would be accidentally injured by\u00a0chengguan<\/i>\u00a0who were beating up someone else!<\/p>\n

I was also worried you would need to ride the high speed train!<\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t dare to call you, because I was afraid your cell phone would explode!<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Virtually every line alludes to some sensational event of the past few years that has gone viral on the Chinese internet, such that there has developed a whole vocabulary of memes devoted to things that have led to the death of innocent citizens. The ones in the cartoon constitute but a small subset of the available corpus.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/strong>
\n\u2022\u00a0Gutter oil<\/strong><\/a>: oil reclaimed from filthy swill that has been \u201ccleansed\u201d with various chemicals
\n\u2022\u00a0Sudan red<\/a><\/strong>: a carcinogenic dye
\n\u2022\u00a0Lean meat essence ( clenbuterol)<\/strong><\/a>: chemical mixture that makes fat meat seem lean
\n\u2022\u00a0Toxic buns<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0are steamed buns (mantou<\/i>\u00a0laced with unwholesome ingredients to make them look nicer
\n\u2022\u00a0Fires<\/strong>\u00a0at apartment complexes and factories are too numerous to list, but one fire that went viral on the Internet happened in Shanghai in November 2010, killing 79 people; see\u00a0initial reports<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0aftermath<\/a>.
\n\u2022\u00a0Bridge collapse<\/strong>\u00a0probably refers to\u00a0various bridge accidents that happened in July<\/a>\u00a02011.
\n\u2022\u00a0Escalator malfunction<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0refers to an accident on an escalator that happened at the Beijing Zoo subway station on July 2011, resulting in numerous injuries, some serious, and at least one death.
\n\u2022\u00a070 kph<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0refers to a hit and run case that preceded the famous my\u00a0Dad is Li Gang<\/a>\u00a0case, in which police in Hangzhou appear to have colluded with a driver\u2019s version of events after a hit-and-run accident.
\n\u2022\u00a0Stabbed 8 times<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0refers to another car accident in October 2010 after which the driver, Yao Jiqin, stabbed the victim to death when he realized that she was still alive after he drove into her.
\n\u2022\u00a0Chengguan<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0are the thuggish city management officials who are supposed to keep order on the streets but who often end up abusing citizens.
\n\u2022\u00a0High speed train<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0refers to the deadly collision between two trains that took place near Wenzhou on July 23, 2011.
\n\u2022\u00a0Exploding cell phones<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0are not uncommon in China.<\/p>\n

Every generation destroyed by something<\/strong><\/p>\n

This piece of doggerel has been widely circulated on the Chinese Internet recently and complements the mood of the cartoon:<\/p>\n

Milk powder destroyed those born in the 2000s.
\nExaminations destroyed those born in the 90s.
\nReal estate prices destroyed those born in the 80s.
\nUnemployment destroyed those born in the 70s.
\nThe chengguan destroyed those born in the 60s.
\nStepping down from one\u2019s post destroyed those born in the 50s.
\nForced demolition and removal destroyed those born in the 40s.
\n\u201cReform\u201d of the medical system destroyed those born in the 30s.
\n2012 will destroy everybody else.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Original:<\/p>\n

\u5976\u7c89\u706d\u638900\u540e\uff0c\u8003\u8bd5\u706d\u638990\u540e\uff0c\u623f\u4ef7\u706d\u638980\u540e\uff0c\u5931\u4e1a\u706d\u638970\u540e\uff0c\u57ce\u7ba1\u706d\u638960\u540e\uff0c\u4e0b\u5c97\u706d\u638950\u540e\uff0c\u62c6\u8fc1\u706d\u638940\u540e\uff0c\u533b\u6539\u706d\u638930\u540e\uff0c2012\u5e74\u706d\u6389\u6240\u6709\u540e.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*********************<\/p>\n

Professor Victor H. Mair is a regular blogger at\u00a0Language Log<\/a>\u00a0and the founder-editor of\u00a0Sino-Platonic Papers<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notes about social criticism and black humor on the Chinese Internet, by Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania.\u00a0 We survived! Here is a translation of the cartoon at left that has been … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5021],"tags":[5052,5368,588,116,5053],"class_list":["post-6696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet-and-media","tag-black-humor","tag-danweicom","tag-disasters","tag-humor","tag-sarcasm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7407,"href":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6696\/revisions\/7407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}