十動然拒 廣電總局禁用不規範成語大綱

From online discussions to adverts, Chinese culture is full of puns. But the country’s print and broadcast watchdog has ruled that there is nothing funny about them.

從網上討論到電視廣告，中國文化充滿雙關語和俏皮話。但是國家廣電監督部門卻認爲，這些俏皮話一點都不好笑。

It has banned wordplay on the grounds that it breaches the law on standard spoken and written Chinese, makes promoting cultural heritage harder and may mislead the public – especially children.

廣電部門已經出臺《通知》禁止了這類文字遊戲，理由是它們違反了使用標準漢語口語和書面語的相關法規，與傳承和弘揚中華優秀傳統文化的精神相違背，並可能誤導社會公衆--尤其是小孩子們。

The casual alteration of idioms risks nothing less than “cultural and linguistic chaos”, it warns.

廣電部門警告稱，肆意亂改亂用可能導致文化斷代和語言混亂。

Chinese is perfectly suited to puns because it has so many homophones. Popular sayings and even customs, as well as jokes, rely on wordplay.

中文有很多同音字，非常適合用來製造雙關語。一些習俗與、流行語和笑話通常都會包含這種文字遊戲。

But the order from the State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television says: “Radio and television authorities at all levels must tighten up their regulations and crack down on the irregular and inaccurate use of the Chinese language, especially the misuse of idioms.”

但是在國家廣電總局發佈的這份《通知》中稱：“各級廣播電視行政管理部門要加大監管力度，對存在不規範、不準確使用國家通用語言文字的現象，尤其是亂改亂用成語的問題，要進行嚴格處理。”

Programmes and adverts should strictly comply with the standard spelling and use of characters, words, phrases and idioms – and avoid changing the characters, phrasing and meanings, the order said.

《通知》還稱，各類廣播電視節目和廣告應嚴格按照規範寫法和標準含義使用國家通用語言文字的字、詞、短語、成語等，不得隨意更換文字、變動結構或曲解內涵。

“Idioms are one of the great features of the Chinese language and contain profound cultural heritage and historical resources and great aesthetic, ideological and moral values,” it added.“

成語是漢語言文化的一大特色，承載着深厚的人文內涵，蘊藏着豐富的歷史資源、美學資源、思想資源和道德資源。”

“That’s the most ridiculous part of this: [wordplay] is so much part and parcel of Chinese heritage,” said David Moser, academic director for CET Chinese studies at Beijing Capital Normal University.

北京首都師範大學的漢語研究專家戴維·莫澤說：“這有點可笑，因爲（文字遊戲）恰恰是中華傳統的一部分。”

When couples marry, people will give them dates and peanuts – a reference to the wish Zaosheng guizi or “May you soon give birth to a son”. The word for dates is also zao and peanuts are huasheng.

男女新婚時，人們會給新人紅棗和花生，其寓意是“早生貴子”。

The notice cites complaints from viewers, but the examples it gives appear utterly innocuous. In a tourism promotion campaign, tweaking the characters used in the phrase jin shan jin mei – perfection – has turned it into a slogan translated as “Shanxi, a land of splendours”. In another case, replacing a single character in ke bu rong huan has turned “brook no delay” into “coughing must not linger” for a medicine advert.

《通知》中提到一些觀衆抱怨文字的不規範使用，但其提供的例子似乎並未造成什麼害處，例如陝西的旅遊宣傳語將“盡善盡美”改成了“晉善晉美”。另一個例子中，一款咳嗽藥廣告把“刻不容緩”改成了“咳不容緩”。

“It could just be a small group of people, or even one person, who are conservative, humourless, priggish and arbitrarily purist, so that everyone has to fall in line,” said Moser.

莫澤說：“也許本來只是一小部分語言潔癖者因爲過於保守、缺少幽默感、自以爲是而否定這種行爲，但結果卻是每個人都必須遵守這樣的規定。”