Funny Rural Chinese Advertising & Depressing Propaganda

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1. lol

   Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 2:15 am

   not so funny. chinese people are bored people.

   Reply
2. too yellow

   Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 2:26 am

   Most of these involves puns which are not properly translated. Very funny indeed, though some of them are graffiti rather than actual slogans.

   But many of them are true though, such as “Staying away from drugs means staying far away from AIDS.” Despite ramped prostitution, needle sharing is still the primary way AIDS gets spread in China, which kinda tell you the ramped drug use there.

   Reply
3. 穀歌ba

   Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 4:17 am

   Actually these notices/advertising seem quite tame to the TV advertising of the Convervative party in my country…

   This is the ChinaSmack post that I enjoyed most so far ( even though the translation was little strangely worded, which is probably due to the strange notices…)

   Reply
   • Joe

     Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 5:16 am

     It is hard to stay literal, also most of the slogans rhyme but that’s pretty much lost in translation, along with all the puns and whatnot.

     Reply
4. lxjx

   Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 5:28 am

   I though netizens are the most outspoken but after I saw this post I know I was wrong. You can’t be more ‘down-to-earth’ than rural folks’ putting “Destroy one line of trees, death to your mother” and “Steal scallions, death to your children” on your walls and in your farms, can you? The Bone clinic one, the Teacher Hu one and the Brother Chun one are my favorites. However some intended or unintended puns were lost in translation, like the ‘arbitrarily punish’ one (乱伐/乱罚) and the “Implement advanced education” one (先进性 教育 or 先进 性教育). Some are not funny though, for example the ‘Stupid melon’ one was actually a quote from a well-known educationalist in 30s (‘being stupid melon’ 做傻瓜 is a metaphor of ‘stop talking too much and start getting things done’).

   Reply
5. UltraFarkistan

   Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 5:30 am

   The girls in the “The Three Represents” photo are kinda of hot. Anyone know their #? :)

   Reply
   • Rick in China

     Monday, April 19, 2010 at 2:35 pm

     Wow, either you’ve got very low standards, or can’t extrapolate ugliness through the distance/pixel size.

     Reply
     • Cool Matt

       Monday, April 19, 2010 at 4:41 pm

       Middle one…maybe. Distance Distortion Factor or DDF is a factor here.

       Reply
     • UltraFarkistan

       Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 12:50 pm

       Probably the distance/pixels.

       Reply
   • germancockroach

     Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 11:26 am

     They tagged-team me a couple years back.

     I got a case of crabs from them.

     Went to the clinic.

     The ‘doctor’ there said, “Use bug spray, the American bug spray Raid is good.”

     Reply
6. Brother River Crab

   Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 6:27 am

   The lesson I learned from the signs:

   Less people, more pigs, and petitioning is bad.

   Reply
7. moom

   Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 8:13 am

   I assumed the petitioning issue was getting other people to sign to your petition – i.e. organizing dissent against the party.

   Reply
   • too yellow

     Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 8:43 am

     Some education on this issue:

     http://www.yale.edu/scr/Heurlin.pdf

     Traditional Repertoires of Contention: Petitions and Protests

     Peasants can respond to land expropriation in three ways: by filing petitions with higher authorities, by engaging in collective protests against local leaders, and by filing administrative lawsuits. Petitions are essentially appeals to upper levels of government to reverse the decisions of lower levels. Peasants petition because, as I indicated earlier, they believe in the benevolence of higher levels of the state. The essential logic of petitioning is that higher level leaders are unaware of the abuses that peasants suffer at the hands of local cadres but once made aware they will correct the situation.

     According to one report, the government petition office received more than 10 million petitions in 2003 (Global Information Network, 11-9-04). The amount of petitions government offices receive each year is increasingly dramatically—in many cases doubling in the past few years. Furthermore, studies have shown that many of the petitions are over land disputes. In one recent report covering the period of 2001 to the
     first half of 2003, the researchers found that 63% of all petitions were related to land disputes (Hong Kong AFP, 10-28-2004). A survey of 20,000 petition letters by CASS
     (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) researcher Yu Jianrong concluded that nearly 80% of all petition letters dealt with land disputes (China Youth Daily, 1-1-2005).

     Where do peasants target their petitions? As Figure 5 shows, petitioners most often targeted courts. The National People’s Congress received 20,000 petitions, an increase of 33% over 2002 (Wall Street Journal, 11-5-04). In the first quarter of 2003, the
     Construction Ministry received three times as many petitions regarding land-use violations than it had in the entire previous year (Washington Post, 10-5-04). Meanwhile the Ministry of Land Resources, which is charged with overseeing China’s land administration regime, received 4,041 complaint letters and petitions in 2003, a fifty percent increase over 2002, with most of the letters coming from angry peasant farmers
     (China Daily, 3-16-2004). The NPCSC’s Bureau for Letters and Visits received 2,938 letters on the issue of land in 2003. The bureau received 5,407 letters in 2004, and by the end of July 2005 had already received 4,182 letters that year. The majority of the petitions dealt with illegal expropriation, misappropriation of arable land, unreasonable land compensation, and improper resettlement. At the State Council Petition Office (one of the main national petition offices) the number of petitions received in the first quarter of 2004 was nearly double the amount of petitions received in that period in 2003 (Beijing Review, 11-10-2005).
     Figure 2: Petitions Received in 2003
     Supreme People’s Court 120,000
     All courts 3.97 million
     National People’s Congress 20,000 petitioners
     NPC and local congresses 42,298 complaint letters and 12,220
     petitioners*
     *First half 2004
     Source: Washington Post, 10-5-04.

     Petitioning is sometimes successful in China because higher levels of the state are much more concerned with social stability than grassroots level cadres. As such, they can apply pressure on village cadres to implement state laws. Petitioning is also rather easy
     and well-engrained form of contention.4 As Tarrow noted, “Workers know how to strike because generations of workers struck before them” (Tarrow, 1998:21). Similarly, peasants petition higher authorities when they have a grievance because that is what peasants have always done. Petitioning requires essentially no organization, no rights consciousness and no peasant activists. Perhaps unsurprisingly then petitioning is usually
     These figures indicate a resurgence in petitioning. In her study of petitioning between 1951-1994, Luehrmann found that petitions to county-level petitioning bureaus peaked nationwide in 1979 and fell
     steadily thereafter (Luehrmann, 2003:860). She nonetheless noted some areas (Hunan, Guangdong and
     Beijing) experienced increases in the 1990s (Luehrmann, 2003:857)
     4 Recently, national petitioning regulations have been altered, allowing fax, email, letters or other written
     forms of petition (China Daily, 2-24-2005). Generally speaking, individual and collective petitions are
     formal, written complaints carried by a group of petitioners to a higher level of government. Petitions
     cannot be anonymous and must be signed or thumb printed (O’Brien and Li, 1995:758).

     spectacularly unsuccessful. Petitioners generally begin lodging complaints at the next
     level above the village—the township. Township officials, however, usually maintain
     close ties to village officials and generally back them up in disputes (O’Brien and Li, 1995:776). Even petitioning to higher levels of government is generally futile. In 2003 the government received over 10 million petitions, but only .2% of all cases were
     responded to by higher levels of the state, much less resolved (Global Information Network, 11-9-2004).
     This abysmal success rate is beginning to frustrate petitioners. A report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences argued that many petitioners have become
     frustrated and no longer view the central government as their benefactor, but rather as just another group of “corrupt officials” (SCMP, 11-19-2004). Indeed, in a survey carried out by Beijing-based researcher Yu Jianrong of petitioners that had come to Beijing to
     file their petitions, he found noticeable changes in attitudes towards the central government only one week after petitioners had arrived in Beijing. Initially, newly arrived petitioners viewed the central government as welcoming of petitions. After seven
     days, the proportion of those who agreed with that statement fell, while more and more petitioners argued that the government did not want peasants to petition. Fifty-five percent of petitioners in his survey had their personal property taken in retaliation for
     petitioning (China Youth Daily, 1-1-2005). Most of this “hard core” of petitioners had come to Beijing because (in 63% of the cases) the local courts had failed to support their claims. Of these, 43% of the petitioners Yu interviewed said the local courts refused to accept the case. Another 55% reported that the local court neglected national laws, instead siding with the local state (Beijing Review, 11-10-2005).

     Given that petitioning usually fails to achieve any kind of redress, how do peasants proceed? It is at this junction that both the rights consciousness of peasants and the presence of peasant activists become critical. Where peasant communities are both rights conscious and have peasant activists, legal mobilization seems to be much more prevalent. Even when peasants are not highly rights conscious, however, mobilization can still continue in the form of collective protests if there are activists who can organize the peasants.

     The case of Sanchawan, in Shaanxi province, illustrates the crucial role that peasant activists play in organizing collective resistance to land seizures.5 In order to make way for a natural gas development, city officials in Yulin expropriated 1670 acres of land from Sanchawan village. The city government offered villagers $60 for each mu of land taken, but promptly sold the land to developers for fifty times as much. In their petitions to higher officials, villagers wrote movingly that “for thousands of years, the relationship between farmers and their land has been a thick as blood, as close fitting as lips and teeth.” But as Liu Zhandou, a peasant activist, recounted the story, ”They sent it
     back to the local officials and nothing happened. Local officials claimed nothing was wrong.” Liu Zhandou then stepped forward to lead the peasants in collective protests against the city government. An old Maoist radical who changed his name to Zhandou
     (Zhandou is Chinese for struggle) during the Cultural Revolution to show his devotion, he still wears a button of Mao on his jacket. Liu, like many peasant activists, got his start

     5 While I emphasize the role of peasant activists, studies of peasant mobilization around land and other
     issues in China have shown that peasants have also drawn upon kinship and religious groups, and even
     village administrative units to engage in collective protest (Jing, 2002; Ho, 2002; Zweig, 2002; Thornton,
     2002; Madsen, 2002). When these sorts of associations are readily available, they naturally make collective
     action much easier.

     in anti-tax riots in the 1990s.6 His activism enabled him to win a seat in the township people’s congress, even without the endorsement of the Communist Party. To encourage his fellow villagers, Liu bought copies of An Investigation of China’s Peasants, a soonto-
     be banned book recounting the efforts of Chinese peasants to resist their local governments. Spurred on by Liu, the peasants refused to plant their grain quotas. They also began to stage sit-ins at village government offices. Much like in many other protests
     in China, the women often stayed at the sit-ins so the men could return to their fields. The police raided the offices attempting to arrest Gao Lading, another peasant activist. The protesters fought the police off, only to have 2,000 police officers attack them later. The police arrested Gao and the other peasant activists, crushing the peasants’ resistance. “No
     one will dare protest now,” one peasant confided to a reporter. “Everyone is afraid” (NY Times, 12-8-2004). Similarly, after the arrest of a peasant activist in Qingkou, Fujian, the peasants’ efforts to organize more protests fell apart. “Without a leader, what can we do?” one asked (Washington Post, 10-5-2004).
     The Sanchawan and Qingkou peasants were far from being the only peasants to engage in collective protest against the state. As a saying in the countryside goes,
     “Causing a big ruckus wins you a big solution; a small ruckus wins a small solution; and without a ruckus, you get no solution” (Scot Tanner, 2004). Indeed, as Figure 7 shows, the number of collective protests has been increasing at an incredible rate in recent years.
     In the 12 years between 1993 and 2005, the number of collective protests has increased 6 The background of these peasant activists varies, although some patterns seem to be emerging. Some, like Liu Zhandou, have personal histories of political activism as Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution (NY Times, 12-8-2004). Others are disillusioned lawyers who have extensive knowledge of national laws and policies and strong organizational skills but little faith in the fairness of legal institutions (Johnson, 2004). Some are former cadres themselves and thus intimately familiar with local political institutions (Zweig, 1997). Others are demobilized soldiers who are physically tough and effective organizers (Diamant, 2005).

     ten-fold. There is also some evidence to support the assertion that an increasing number of protests are caused by disputes over land. In a Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) study of 130 rural disturbances in 2004, researchers found that 87 of them were caused by land disputes (Southern Weekend, 9-3-2004).
     Figure 3: Number of Collective Protests of Significant Size
     1993 1995 1997 1999 2000* 2002 2003 2004 2005
     Protests 8,700 11,000 15,000 32,000 30,000* 50,000 58,000 74,000 87,000
     Sources: Pei, 2003 (years 1993-2000); Asia Times, 11-16-04 (years 2002, 2003); Washington Post,
     12-4-05 (year 2004); Financial Times, 1-19-2006 (year 2005). *Indicates only January to March Protesting carries with it significant dangers. In the Guangdong town of Dongzhou, as many as 20 peasants were reported killed several months ago after they rose up to protest the seizure of their land (NY Times, 12-9-2005). That would make the Dongzhou protest the bloodiest suppression of Chinese citizens since the Tiananmen massacre in 1989. The Dongzhou protest was also significant because the paramilitary police officer in charge at the time of the incident was reportedly arrested (Washington Post, 12-14-2005). This suggests that the central government was relatively concerned about the manner in which the protest was handled. Indeed, shooting deaths in peasant
     protests in China are relatively rare, but peasants are often beaten to death in the course of protesting or while in police custody. In the aftermath of a protest, the government sometimes increases the amount of compensation offered to some peasants while
     simultaneously arresting peasant activists. Indeed, after the Dongzhou protest, officials reportedly told villagers “all of the families who have people who died must send a representative to the police for a solution” (NY Times, 12-9-2005).
     Increasingly local police are not the only tool at the disposal of local authorities to counter peasant protests. Local leaders in many cases have employed thugs to beat protestors and journalists. In recent attacks in Xi’an and Tianjin, thugs beat several nuns
     and priests that were protesting the expropriation of land from their church (Asia News, 12-19-2005). One of the more famous cases of thug violence was in Shengyou, Hebei, where six villagers were killed when five busloads of men armed with hunting rifles, clubs and pipes attacked them. The thugs were allegedly hired by the electrical company that was occupying their land. One peasant managed to film the attack, which drew worldwide media coverage (AFP, 6-13-2005). Probably due to the widespread coverage of the attack, the central government fired the local party chief and city mayor for failing to prevent the attack (AFP, 6-14-2005). Twenty-seven of the thugs involved in the attack were also put on trial (AP, 12-16-2005).

     Reply
     • michael

       Monday, April 19, 2010 at 3:43 am

       For a more scholarly analysis, see Li Gong:秋菊打官司; Qiū Jú dǎ guān sī. Nothing like a kick in the ‘nads to get your petition going.

       Reply
       • too yellow

         Monday, April 19, 2010 at 4:06 am

         true, but that movie is way too old to be relevant anymore..

         for an idea of how old that film is, here is the roger Ebert review of it.
         

         Reply
     • moom

       Monday, April 19, 2010 at 7:50 am

       So what is “illegal” and what is “legal” petitioning?

       Reply
       • too yellow

         Monday, April 19, 2010 at 2:47 pm

         government official:
         legal petitioning is when you petitioning against someone else, preferably my political rival.

         illegal petitioning is when petitioning against me.

         Reply
   • dace

     Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 12:42 pm

     Its when you got to higher-ups to complain about something…only reason you have to go higher-up is cos the local authorities either won’t help you or are the source of your complaint. I know of a couple who tried to petition the govt here about unpaid work that was done for the local govt – they were detained and threatened and a decade later they still haven’t been paid.

     Reply
8. Joe #2

   Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 9:09 am

   > “Mr. Wang is a bargain,”

   Am I the only one who thought that was a pick-up line at first?

   Reply
9. chief

   Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 11:25 am

   “One step close and we will all be civilized.” I saw this above a urinal somewhere with English translation; wish I had my camera.

   Reply
   • chief

     Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 11:26 am

     damn I f$%ked that up. “One step closer and we will all be more civilized.”

     Reply
     • dirtywhiteboy

       Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 1:41 pm

       I have seen quite a few of these, I like to translate that as “One small step for man, one giant step for society” haha

       Reply
10. TheOrz

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    Are the ones about “illegal petitioning” real and put their by ZF or is it people mocking ZF?

    Reply
11. eattot

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    hahahahaha!
    that’s what i like!and add one more: to get rich,breed more pigs,have less kids.
    haha!

    Reply
12. Nikilodian

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 3:45 pm

    Great post. Just to be able to read these slogans is another incentive to keep up with the Chinese character learning (although I could understand some and see that some of the translations could have been better). Better than nothing of course so thanks anyways :)

    Reply
13. krdr

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 4:47 pm

    good job Joe! It is hard to translate and keep original spirit.

    Reply
14. That Chinese Kid

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    LIBERATE TAIWAN!! *sitting on toilet, shitting*

    Reply
15. Crystal

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 7:02 pm

    “Bone clinic” and “Ribs restaurant” next to eah other was a good one :-)

    Reply
    • Gaaad!!!

      Monday, April 19, 2010 at 3:54 am

      Would be even funnier if there was an extra “r” in “Bone”…

      Reply
      • Rick in China

        Monday, April 19, 2010 at 2:43 pm

        I think you’re missing the comical value here. Having a bone clinic next to a ribs restaurant = “hmm…wonder what kind of meat they’re using”, nothing to do with your dick.

        Reply
        • Pete

          Monday, April 19, 2010 at 7:15 pm

          But BONE + R = BONER, Rick! Can’t you see? CAN’T YOU SEE? WHAT COULD BE MORE FUNNY THAN A BONER?

          Reply
        • Gaaad!!!

          Monday, April 19, 2010 at 8:41 pm

          Doh! *Slap head*

          Not only cannae wicky-dick Rick,
          Get his kicks from sucking dick,
          There also ain’t a funny bone(r) in his bailiwick,
          It ain’t no surprise then Rick is da sad Dick.

          Reply
16. eattot

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 8:10 pm

    Correctly identify normal/natural bodily phenomenon – nocturnal emissions, each month emissions once or more is not a problem, ordinarily do not play with reproductive organs.

    this one really funny! and good drawn!hahahaha!

    Reply
17. HaWu (former bleah)

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 11:46 pm

    Correctly identify normal/natural bodily phenomenon – nocturnal emissions, each month emissions once or more is not a problem, ordinarily do not play with reproductive organs.

    Huh? What?

    ice & fire service

    I am 12 and what’s this?

    Reply
    • Rick in China

      Monday, April 19, 2010 at 2:46 pm

      Popsicles & hot water. Only you don’t consume either.

      Reply
      • Gaaad!!!

        Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 3:55 am

        Ahhh… Grasshopper, much you have yet to learn…

        Reply
18. ImmortalTechnique

    Monday, April 19, 2010 at 1:44 am

    The best one had to be the ZF telling us not to diddle ourselves. Gold.

    Reply
19. hero

    Monday, April 19, 2010 at 9:33 am

    Lots of those are photoshopped.

    MANY of them are fake.

    Gay.

    Reply
20. bobiscool

    Monday, April 19, 2010 at 10:54 am

    maozedong si xiang is more commonly known as Maoism instead of Mao’s thought.

    Or rather, it makes more sense.

    Reply
21. shanghairocks

    Monday, April 19, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    Goddamn it!!! I was bored to death :(

    Reply
    • eattot

      Monday, April 19, 2010 at 2:27 pm

      do not worry!2012 is coming！you can get your chance easily and still can have a lot of companies.
      haha!

      Reply
22. shanghai girl

    Monday, April 19, 2010 at 8:26 pm

    notes to self: don’t eat the ribs, take Hu laoshi’s English class, or steal manhole covers…

    and did that one say for 1 jin of drugs you only served 2 years in prison? i thought china had much harsher punishment for drug possession, frequently treating even minor quantities in someone’s possession as intent to distribute. anyone know about this?

    great post… really enjoyed the pics.

    Reply
23. dongshizhang

    Monday, April 19, 2010 at 9:42 pm

    great post

    petitioning against petitioning

    Reply
24. bulbir singh

    Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    Chinese one dimensional living life through slogans…

    Reply
25. aquadraht

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 4:28 am

    Uber, your comments are always as dumb as predictable. Did you suffer cerebral trauma or just are you American?

    Reply
26. Yan Xishan

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 4:56 am

    Agreed–this is an epic ChinaSMACK post. Plus, I recognize one of the villages, so I feel extra special.

    Reply
27. Gaaad!!!

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 8:35 am

    Nah, it’s because China doesn’t have enough lawyers, people hate paying lawyers and the Party/government have a love-hate relationship with lawyers. Oh and the judicial system remains a work in progress.

    Reply
28. Joe

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 9:27 am

    Netizens said there was also one that says “long live Chairman Mao”, but I can’t find it.

    Reply
29. whichone

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 11:03 am

    Search for “Long Live Chairman Mao” 毛主席万岁 Slogan” on google maps, and zoom in. It is near Kumul in Eastern Xinjiang.

    Very cool article, some of the slogans were funny some were tragic, but all interesting.

    Reply
30. Snooooop

    Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 11:13 am

    *like* aquadraht’s comment

    Reply