Language, Irony, and Resistance - Internet spoofing in China today

Sammanfattning: This essay investigates the background as well as the present and potential functions of egao, Chinese Internet spoofing. It focuses on the forms egao assumes in writing and analyzes how its practice of playing with and inventing words influences the Chinese society. Discussing the emergence of new expressions in text-based egao, this essay concludes that this kind of spoofing pushes the boundaries of accepted language but should be seen as an indicator rather than a cause of political change, as it takes advantage of the relative freedom of speech provided by the Internet while remaining at least partially tolerated by the government. The main impact exercised by egao is that its ridiculing of official phrases forces the authorities to change their language.