![\"China](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2015\/03\/China-puns-tory-004.jpg\")
<\/a>\nChina\u2019s print and broadcast watchdog says puns may mislead the public \u2013 especially children. Photograph: Chen Li\/ Chen Li\/Xinhua Press\/Corbis<\/p>\n
Tania Branigan in Beijing<\/p>\n
Friday 28 November 2014 07.26 EST Last modified on Friday 28 November 2014 19.06 EST<\/p>\n
From online discussions to adverts, Chinese culture is full of puns. But the country\u2019s print and broadcast watchdog has ruled that there is nothing funny about them.<\/p>\n
It has banned wordplay on the grounds that it breaches the law on standard spoken and written Chinese, makes promoting cultural heritage harder and may mislead the public \u2013 especially children.<\/p>\n
The casual alteration of idioms risks nothing less than \u201ccultural and linguistic chaos\u201d, it warns.<\/p>\n
Chinese is perfectly suited to puns because it has so many homophones. Popular sayings and even customs, as well as jokes, rely on wordplay.<\/p>\n
But the order from the State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television says: \u201cRadio and television authorities at all levels must tighten up their regulations and crack down on the irregular and inaccurate use of the Chinese language, especially the misuse of idioms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Programmes and adverts should strictly comply with the standard spelling and use of characters, words, phrases and idioms \u2013 and avoid changing the characters, phrasing and meanings, the order said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIdioms are one of the great features of the Chinese language and contain profound cultural heritage and historical resources and great aesthetic, ideological and moral values,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the most ridiculous part of this: [wordplay] is so much part and parcel of Chinese heritage,\u201d said David Moser, academic director for CET Chinese studies at Beijing Capital Normal University.<\/p>\n
When couples marry, people will give them dates and peanuts \u2013 a reference to the wish Zaosheng guizi or \u201cMay you soon give birth to a son\u201d. The word for dates is also zao and peanuts are huasheng.<\/p>\n
For detail please visit here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Officials say casual alteration o … Continue reading