“I don’t raise pigs.” (我不养猪 wǒ bù yǎng zhū)

“I don’t elevate pigs” (我不养猪 wǒ bù yǎng zhū), a Hunan police station’s nonsensical touch upon the dying of a girl of their custody, is the most recent incidence of “gobsmacking rhetoric” (léi yǔ 雷语) to go viral. “Gobsmacking rhetoric” is on-line slang that can be utilized to explain inappropriate official rhetoric that bowls over readers. In a preferred tradition context, it’s solely humorous. 

On June 14, a girl died in a Cili County police station. Police attributed the dying to sudden cardiac dying attributable to malignant arrhythmia. The girl’s daughter then posted a video during which she alleged that her mom had died whereas below interrogation. The information went viral on Weibo, spurring investigative journalists to look into the declare. A reporter for Benliu Information, a Gansu state-controlled outlet, referred to as the police station in query to ask whether or not anybody had died there and acquired this odd response: “I don’t know. Our sow didn’t have a litter. I don’t elevate pigs.” The weird police response massively elevated consideration on the case, prompting authorities to announce an investigation into the dying. Many on-line referred to as for the investigation to look into the “I don’t elevate pigs” remark. The WeChat public account @犯犯之谈 posted an article titled, “She went in residing, she got here out lifeless,” that castigated the police for his or her weird remark: 

“I ponder whether these officers are simply used to treating the station like a pigsty and the individuals like swine, or whether or not that officer [on the phone] was placing on a efficiency and feigning psychological sickness? Oh wait, that’s proper—for those who’re mentally unwell, you will get away with homicide!” [Chinese]

Pink Star Information, a Chengdu outlet backed by that metropolis’s authorities, printed an article calling for an investigation into the “I don’t elevate pigs” remark: 

Lately, there have been numerous closely criticized examples of “gobsmacking rhetoric.” China Information Service as soon as reported {that a} villager requested a neighborhood chief for help with securing relocation compensation after his home was torn down. The villager indicated they have been at their wit’s finish and planning to leap to their dying. The chief’s astonishing response was “Skip the primary or second flooring. Should you’re going to leap, go straight to the fifth flooring.”

Because the saying goes, “Phrases reveal the guts. Actions reveal it.” When public servants utter “gobsmacking rhetoric,” it might appear unintended, however in truth, it exposes that of their coronary heart of hearts they don’t have any rules, no considered the individuals, nor even any fundamental morality. It’s laborious to think about that such irreverent leaders would have any respect for laws or for the plenty. And as for that particular phrase—“Our sow didn’t have a litter. I don’t elevate pigs”—the related organs ought to examine who mentioned it, what the context was, and why it was mentioned. They need to concern an evidence and deal with the matter in accordance with laws in an effort to handle the general public’s considerations. [Chinese]

“Gobsmacking rhetoric” isn’t a brand new phenomenon, but it surely has been pervasive this yr. In February, Quzhou visitors police posted a click-bait article to WeChat titled, “This Yr The Metropolis Has Caught 624 Drunk Drivers, 25 of Them Feminine. Do You Acknowledge Any? How A lot Did The Drunkest Lady Drink?” The article printed the 25 ladies’s names, license plate numbers, and blood-alcohol content material, amongst different details about their offenses. Not one of the 599 male drivers had their private info uncovered. (The visitors division deleted the article and apologized after it went viral.) Classics of the style embrace a 2017 line from a low-level bureaucrat in rural Jiangxi who informed a neighborhood farmer, “It’s humorous that you just speak about ‘rule of legislation.’” One other notorious traditional of the style dates to 2014, when a neighborhood Social gathering secretary declared, “If you wish to defend your rights, go to America. If you wish to be a citizen, go to America. This right here is China!”