Stiff Fish

僵鱼 (jiāng yú): stiff fish

Because the name of government leaders and officials are often sensitive words, netizens frequently invent creative homonyms to sidestep the scrutiny and censorship that attends the use of such words. Jiang Yu 姜瑜 is the name of the spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry. Unfortunately, with different characters, her name sounds the same as “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 the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to dissident, Liu Xiaobo. 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.

Qin Gang, the former spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry was also bestowed a similarly derogatory nickname by netizens. See here.