Push-ups

俯臥撐 (fǔ wò chēng): push-ups

This word took on new meaning when police claimed the son of a government official did not rape a girl, alleging instead that he was doing “push-ups.” Backlash against this suspected cover-up resulted in the Weng’an incident.

The son of the government official was alleged to have raped and killed a 16 year old girl. In an attempt to quell the outcry, police claimed that the boy did not kill the girl. They stated that the girl and boy had been arguing along the bank of a river. After the couple calmed down, the boy began to do some push-ups next to the girl. The police claimed that after he had done three push-ups he heard her say, “I’m going,” after which she jumped into the river and drowned herself.

Few believed the police account, and a riot ensued involving tens of thousands of people. After the event, the phrase, “I was doing push-ups,” became a coded critique of any unpersuasive police excuse. As the phrase has spread it has shed much of its political connotation and in many usages has no one definition, sometimes meaning “I have nothing to do with the matter.” At other times it can refer to a nonsensical cause of death.

Other official police accounts of individuals' deaths have attracted similar scorn. For example, death from drinking boiled water has a similar origin, as does death by hide and seek.

Read more background at CDT.

流行网络用语，一般表述为“做俯卧撑”或“我是来做俯卧撑的”，源于贵州省公安厅发言人王兴正关于李树芬之死的介绍(“俯卧撑事件”)，网络用语的“俯卧撑”已经替代了前网络用语“打酱油”，表达了对时事不关心、不评论，只做自己事的态度。此外，此词已经迅速引申到其他行业，如2008年7月10日的人民网“中国房价在做“俯卧撑”，7月4日“中国股市进入“俯卧撑”阶段””...

流行原因：俯卧撑一词在中国民间俗语中有“性行为”的比喻义。王兴正的“俯卧撑”一说在当时的情境下缺乏合理的逻辑依据。因此，许多网民怀疑瓮安事件另有内情，然而，鉴于官方当前的态度，网民无法继续公开讨论此事，于是就用“俯卧撑”来戏谑，以表达内心的不满。

A police officer doing pushups (i.e., minding his own business) while people are being robbed.