Chinese State Media Want People to Stop Using Internet Slang

Some of the most popular internet slang terms in China have come under the attack of Chinese state media outlets, as the government tightens control over pop culture to eliminate what it sees as bad influences on young people.To get more news about chinese alphabet a to z, you can visit shine news official website.

Those terms include the Chinese phrase for “paratroopers,” a homophone for a swear word that refers to the female genitalia, and an abbreviation used for praise.

The seemingly coordinated criticisms signal the authorities’ intent to tame an internet language that has become a central part of the Chinese youth identity, although linguists say efforts to curtail internet-speak are likely futile.Social media in China have given rise to a rich, fast-changing vocabulary of online slang, shaped in part by a desire to get around the country’s internet censorship.

Many young people in China have in recent years embraced pinyin initialisms—new words formed by combining the initials of romanized Chinese characters. The form was first used to circumvent censorship of expletives or politically sensitive words, but young people have also applied it to non-political words, turning it into their own form of code.

A top buzzword for Gen-Z internet users is “yyds,” which combines the initials of the Chinese phrase “forever the God” and describes something spectacular and great. For example, one could say “bubble tea yyds” to express their love for the beverage, or “this shirt is yyds” to praise their favorite piece of clothing.

Words like this have caused confusion for those unfamiliar with Gen-Z internet culture, and prompted criticism from conservative commentators who view the incorporation of alphabet letters as a threat to the Chinese language. In a commentary published last week, China’s official news agency Xinhua said Chinese internet users are suffering from a kind of “language disorder” since they could not express their feelings without using internet memes such as “yyds.”

State broadcaster CCTV also urged people to stop using the word sanbing, or paratroopers, as an euphemism for “shabi,” a widely used insult that sometimes triggers censorship. “Paratroopers is a glorifying, respectable job,” CCTV said in a post on the microblogging site Weibo last week. “Don’t stigmatize paratroopers.”