Previously, I noted that the Chinese variant of American Idol used the term ‘PK’ to describe the process of kicking a player off the show. The fiancee points out that this probably won’t happen in the future, as the government is stepping in to end the use of such slang when addressing the public in a public forum.

[A] new law taking effect on March 1 that aims to clamp down on the rampant use of internet and media inspired neologisms. The article (in Chinese) that we read this in also states that only standard Chinese should be used in schools and official documents and that no signs for stores and businesses be purely in foreign (non-Chinese) languages. On the surface, this seems like a rather prissy but otherwise innocuous law, but if you keep digging, as Shanghaiist always does, you will discover that “[t]he invention of new words [is] regarded as a symptom of certain psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia.”

Incidentally, it looks like I get to visit China in a couple weeks on business. If you don’t hear from me, assume I said the word ‘LOL’ out loud instead of laughing. Which, come to think of it, probably should be a shooting offense anyway.