Mild collision

轻度追尾, 轻度 XX (qīng dù zhuī wěi, qīng dù XX): mild collision, mild xx

On September 27, 2011, there was a collision between two subway trains along Shanghai’s Metro Line 10. The collision injured hundreds of passengers and renewed concerns over China’s rail safety just two months after the Wenzhou train accident.

The evening after the accident, CCTV, Xinhua and a Shanghai television station all reported that “a mild collision occurred on Shanghai’s Metro Line 10.”

The claim that this was a mild accident elicited the derision of netizens who felt that the reporting was more intended to dampen fears about China’s train system than report what actually occurred. The phrase “mild collision” instantly became an internet buzzword and variants of the phrase began spreading. One parody was:

I awoke from a mild sleep, and felt mildly hungry. So I drank a glass of milk that had a mild amount of melamine and ate a couple doughnuts that had been fried in a mild amount of ditch oil. I burped mildly and then got onto a mildly crowded subway train. Sudden, I heard a mild screech and my head mildly struck the horizontal handrail causing mild bleeding. . . . There had been a mild collision.

从轻度睡眠中醒来，觉得轻度的饥饿，喝了1杯含有轻度三聚氰胺的牛奶，吃了2根用轻度地沟油炸的油条，打了一个轻度的饱嗝，上了轻度拥挤的地铁，突然听见一声轻度的巨响，头轻度地撞到了立柱上，轻度地流血……地铁发生了轻度追尾。

A mild collision occurred on Shanghai’s Metro Line 10.

This was a "mild collision."