WARNING GRAPHIC SPEECH, though its a serious issue... and a tiny bit disturbing (If you are chinese, do not play this loud when your parents are around.... you might get pulverized even though its a legit story from CNN because there's some serious swearing in mandarin that I have never heard before.... ever.... until now)
I will not actually link to the music video itself, but if you are really so keen on listening to Chinese swearing, go to youtube and search it up for yourself.
It would be better if you did not read this, but I just have to post about it... it is just too... interesting... since I am chinese
This
story has taught me many things.
Today, I learned how seriously people living in China feel about their limitations on human rights.
So basically, the citizens of China have started a revolt for freedom of speech over the internet. Nothing wrong with that, just basic human rights. Being an American citizen, I am unable to comprehend not having the right to say whatever I want (though there are some limitations, but still). I cannot understand the oppression that such restrictions might present to a populace. I cannot understand how this might provoke rash and questionable actions, how it must feel not to be able to question authority figures, not be able to have a say about the government, their future.
Some people have released a chinese rap video titled "grass mud horse" as a slap in the face to the chinese government. The creators have even created merchandise to promote the video and discredit the government further. It basically puts a play on words in the form of chinese puns.
In any case, my incredulity was through the roof when I watched the video. Sure, the American media pokes fun at the english translation of the chinese f-word phrase, it is ok for us to put this in place of the f-word since it is not swearing in English. But in Chinese, this is THE taboo phrase. A Chinese person never, ever says this, unless he or she is a rascal (I did not know how else to put this, since the Chinese to English translation has rascal as the closest in meaning). In China, being a rascal is a horrible title, it means one is unbelievably uneducated, bad mannered, and unworthy of society.
Having grown up in the USA, bilingual (mandarin and english, still learning spanish), I have a good command of both mandarin and english. Of course, at about middle school age, I learned almost all the swear words in the english dictionary. It is not that I seeked to do so, but it just happens with school life. I also know swear words in mandarin... but I never learned the chinese version of the f-word... until today.
In Chinese, saying a "yo momma" joke is a serious insult. The Chinese culture is just too different than the more liberal American multiculture. Swearing to an elder person, to anyone, may be grounds for a serious brawl to start for honor. Maybe that is why a chinese stereotype is the "family honor" comment.
Promoting swearing is not the way to go. In an argument, the person who starts swearing first is probably the more uncultured, is probably the smaller person. Sure the video sends a message, but at what cost?
Swearing just demeans the cause, it is not a respectable thing to do, though I can understand how people in China are at their witts end debating the government.
What is funny about all this is that I finally understand what some of my classmates have been saying in Chinese. They somehow found out about this swear word before I did, and they do not even know how to speak mandarin.
My question is, where did they learn it?
In the end, this just goes to show how taboo these words are, and for China to become a more capitalistic state, it needs to reform its human rights.