Organisers of the Beijing Olympics are concerned about China’s image. Not its human rights record, but something much more important: lip-gloss. From The Times:
Umbrellas are in but crossbows, banners and nudity are out, while babies are frowned upon and lip-gloss will be limited.
Organisers of the Beijing Olympics released their “Spectators' House Rules” today together with the launch of a “Good Habit for a Good Games” campaign — the latest step in a bid to ensure that the event proceeds without anything that could embarrass its Chinese hosts.
[…]
Those breaching the rules, which also ban gambling, sit-ins, demonstrations, drunkenness and streaking, would be dealt with according to the level of their transgressions.
Huang Keying, deputy director of the spectator services division at the Beijing Organising Committee, said: “Different cases will be handled by different departments following relevant rules or laws. We have specially trained staff who will communicate with spectators.”
Lip-gloss, fountain pens and sunscreen will be allowed but only in small quantities. Animals, other than guide dogs, are prohibited. Parents will be encouraged not to bring babies. And the “f-word”, commonly heard on the streets of Beijing, will be most definitely forbidden.
The f-word? Does the Chinese f-word begin with F, like our f-word? I couldn’t let this question go unanswered, obviously, and I am sure readers would like to know. So I googled “f*ck in different languages”, without the asterisk, and came across a webpage called F*ck in Different Languages, again without the asterisk. Languages include Hebrew, Armenian and Korean. Go on, take a look. You know you want to.
The Cantonese is “tui lay”, which is more of a t-word than an f-word. I’m not sure how accurate this is, since the site thinks a French cow is a “cache”. I like the Afrikaans – “fok jou” – and the Greek, which is “malaka wanker gamisou”.
Not long ago my young nephew proclaimed triumphantly that he knew the c-word. I was relieved when he whispered in my ear that it was “crap”, and didn’t disabuse him of this lesser evil.
