According to an article in today's SF Chronicle (I can't find it online, please let me know if you can), China has finally discovered sarcasm. And the government isn't happy.
The piece, by Craig Simons at Cox News Service, discusses the concept of egao (pronounced "uh-gow"), which is news to me anyway.
Apparently, the idea is that Chinese government censorship makes it difficult and dangerous to express direct criticism, so clever Net users have discovered truthiness.
The examples in the story don't seem all that hilarious to me -- a magazine claiming that the country has instituted universal healthcare and that sweatshop workers were happy and respected -- but I still like the idea.
Chinese officials don't seem to see the humor though. One city has banned the practice with stiff fines.
Now I'd like to see people make fun of that!
I noticed the title of the article in a news search and was intrigued. However, it appears that the author has conflated sarcasm and satire. But the humor that is described is satire, not sarcasm. Oh well, I'm still waiting for true sarcasm to break out of the Anglo-Saxon world...
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