China’s known for policing the internet and suppressing free speech, but now they’ve decided to ban 25 more “inappropriate words” and phrases they say corrupt youth.
In recent months, the communist country has been cracking down hard on dirty language on the internet and has banned “’unsound’ online account names, limited political news sent via messaging apps and ordered the deletion of thousands of social-networking posts in a ‘Cleaning the Web’ push,” Bloomberg reports. Now they’re trying to eliminate their country’s slang.
On June 3, 2015, Chinese official Lu Wei announced the country has banned 25 new words in the government’s Cyberspace Administration’s crusade to make the internet less vulgar place. The government claims they have society’s best interests at heart:
“Cleaning up the online language environment is not to suppress online language or unify online speech, nor is it to require netizens to ‘speak like a printed book.’ But it is to create a comfortable living space for netizens at the cultural and societal level.”
The communist country is taking their stance seriously and has hired over half a million retired Chinese citizens to patrol peoples’ online work.
So what could be these horrible words? Some on the list are pretty standard while others seem inoffensive (at least to the American eye)…but whatever. Your mom. Here’s a list of a few newly banned words:
Your Momma
This is actually the number one phrase China wants to outlaw.
The government also added derivatives of the phrase such as “your sister” and “f*** your mom” to the forbidden list.
Loser
No more quoting movies that involve any sort of high schoolers.
Wokao, the Obscenity Replacement
It’s a lesser curse word that sounds like the f-bomb. According to The Wall Street Journal, it’s kind of like saying “fudge” instead of the real deal.
Zhuangbility, the English Hybrid
A word, deemed crude, that is a combination of English and Mandarin and translates to “pretending to be great.”
The "Professor" Derivative
According to Quartz, the word jiaoshou, means “professor,” but “switch the Chinese characters and you have something that is pronounced the same yet reads as ‘howling monster.’ It is often used to call out experts who upset China’s netizens.”
Green Tea Bitch
Strange as the phrase would seem, people actually use it to “criticize a young woman who portrays herself as pure and innocent but uses her good looks to ruthlessly climb to power or success,” Quartz reports.
Green Eggs
This refers to the color of a man’s testicles. Gross.
Whether the strategy will work remains to be seen, but chances are brand new curse monsters will pop up to fill the void.
(h/t Bloomberg)
