Making Jokes About The China Earthquake
WHEN can you start making jokes about disasters? When can the Chinese start making jokes about the Chinese earthquake?
In the UK, the topless stunna is the barometer of business as usual. But what in China?
In the Southern Metropolis Daily Wang Xiaoshan muses on “Sympathy in Disaster”. The same thing was tried in China, albeit done with a heavy hand.
He writes: “A few days ago I received a news item from the Mobile Paper (手机报) which reported the number of deaths in the Wenchuan Earthquake. But that issue of the paper also included the following test quiz and answers”:
An earthquake predicts how you will behave when you’re in love: when an earthquake hits, what is your first reaction?
A: Hide under a table;
B: Open the window;
C: Drop everything and run outside;
D: Immobilized with fright.Analysis: A individuals are guarded; if their love is exposed, they immediately become skittish. They are also particularly nervous about their partner’s infidelity.
If they don’t relax, they’ll surely wear themselves out. B individuals are stable lovers. After falling in love, they become even more steadfast, and they are fully convinced of their own attractiveness. C: After falling in love, they’re full of energy, as if all of their mental complications have been untangled. D: Falling in love is like diving head first into a river. Apart from him (or her), they think of nothing else. Their grades and their work crash, and everything else is an absolute mess.
He recalls: “This calls to mind the Beslan school hostage crisis, when a certain editor at CCTV put up a crawl that read: ‘How many people died in the Beslan crisis? A: x people; B: y people. China Mobile, China Unicom, and Xiaolingtong users send a message to…'”
Later, that editor was reportedly sacked.
Posted: 9th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Strange But True Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
