The fatty on the train: Kim Jong Un nicknames proliferate in China despite censors
Censorship is a lot harder in China than it used to be due to social media. But that didn’t stop the Chinese government from trying to keep secret the historic visit to Beijing by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Officials did it in part by scrubbing from the country’s Internet Chinese characters for “Kim Jong Un,” “North Korea” and Kim’s popular nicknames among Chinese, such as “Fatty Fatty,” Business Insider reported.
But Chinese users know how to skirt bans. They just came up with new nicknames, according to Reuters.
Some, such as “the fatty on the train” and “the obese patient,” were a play on the banned words. Others were more tactful, referring to the leader as “the visitor from the northeast” and “the sibling next door,” Reuters reported.
News related to North Korea on WeChat, a popular Chinese messaging and social media app, was also censored, according to Reuters. No articles about the visit appeared on prominent public accounts that cover China-North Korea news.
“They have been deleting North Korea-related articles for the past few days. It’s been very hard for us to post on our public account,” a Chinese person who edits an online account about North Korea told Reuters.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-fatty-on-the-train-kim-jong-un-nicknames-proliferate-in-china-despite-censors/ar-AAveyFL?li=BBnb7Kz
