Bird Anus

禽肛 (qín'gāng): Bird Anus

Because the name of government leaders and officials often become sensitive words, netizens frequently invent creative (and pejorative) homonyms to sidestep scrutiny and censorship. An official at China’s Foreign Ministry since 1992, Qin Gang (秦刚) is currently a ministry spokesperson and news chief. The characters in his name are homophonic with those for “bird anus.” A netizen explains why this nickname fits Qin:

The anus is from where one farts and shits. In other words, if the bird wants to fart, the anus must let the fart pass; the anus cannot decide what kind of fart to fart. That is why he is called “Bird Anus.” [In Chinese “to fart” can also mean “to speak nonsense.”]

肛门就是放屁，拉屎的地方。总的来说，禽兽要放什么屁，肛门就得放；而肛门自己是无法决定要放什么屁的，所以被称为禽肛。

Sometimes a further play on words is used with Qin Gang’s name: “bird anus is inflamed” (禽肛发炎 qín'gāng fāyán) sounds the same as “Qin Gang made a statement” (秦刚发言 Qín Gāng fāyán).

On 9 June 2009, a BBC reporter asked Qin Gang about the justification for the compulsory installation of the Green Dam Youth Escort filtering software. Qin Gang replied:

"Do you have children? If you have children or if you plan to have children, you will be able to understand why Green Dam Youth Escort is essential for protecting the children of China against harmful information on the Internet. Let me repeat this: the Internet in China is fully open and the Chinese Government plays an active role in promoting healthy development of the Internet."

More memorable quotations from Qin Gang (秦刚) are here.

See also Stiff Fish.