The Fabricator

胡编 (Hú Biān): The Fabricator

This is the nickname for Hu Xijin (胡锡进), Chief Editor of the Global Times, a daily tabloid owned by Party-run People's Daily. In Chinese, the character 编 (bīan) has a number of meanings, dependent on context. While it means edit in the word for “editor” (编辑 bīanjí), it can also mean “to fabricate”, as it does in an idiom meaning “to recklessly fabricate falsehoods” (胡编乱造 húbīanluànzào). The idiom, coincidentally beginning with the character for Hu's surname, means the character combination 胡编 can simultaneously mean “Editor Hu” and “Hu The Fabricator,” while also evoking the saying “to recklessly fabricate falsehoods.”