Stiff Fish

僵鱼 (Jiāng Yú): Stiff Fish

Because the name of government leaders and officials often become sensitive words, netizens frequently invent creative (and pejorative) homonyms to sidestep scrutiny and censorship. Jiāng Yú (姜瑜) was the previous spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry between 2006 and 2012. The characters in her name are homophonic with those meaning “stiff fish.”

During her tenure as Foreign Minsitry Spokesperson, Jiang Yu has dealt with questions regarding territorial disputes with Japan, tensions on the Korean peninsula, and perhaps most notably, Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize—regarding which, Jiang Yu famously said:

“We are against anyone making an issue out of Liu Xiaobo and interfering in China’s internal affairs and judicial authority. . . . We will not change because of interference by a few clowns; we will not change our path. We will stick to the path of ruling the country by law and its national conditions.”

“我们坚决反对任何人借刘晓波问题做文章，干涉中国内政和司法主权。…我们不会受一些反华小丑的干扰。我们会继续坚持依法治国，继续坚持走符合中国国情的发展道路。”

Qin Gang, who held the post of Foreign Ministry spokesperson before Jiang, was given a similarly derogatory nickname by netizens: bird anus.