(Digital Journal) It sounds like a joke, but it’s true. According to The Guardian, the State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television in China has ordered that all media shall use literal language and refrain from puns and other creative wordplay.
They claim that such wordplay makes it harder to expand cultural heritage and misleads the public, despite the fact that wordplay is an inherent part of Chinese culture. They state that it would create “cultural and linguistic chaos” to continue to do what they’ve been doing for centuries. As of yet, social order has not taken a licking from idiomatic use of the Chinese tongue.
