Op-Ed Contributors

Sensational session with online 'vulgarity'

By Xu Xiaomin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-10 06:50

Luo Yufeng, a 25-year-old woman from Chongqing, doesn't have the face of a movie star, the figure of a model or the voice of a songbird. In fact, at 1.46 m, she is shorter than normal Chinese women, and is bucktoothed. Against all odds, she became an overnight sensation on television and the Internet by making outrageous comments that viewers found to be either very funny or, well, outrageous.

Although her comments were widely circulated in cyberspace, nobody really took her very seriously, except our moral nannies in the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Zhu Hong, a spokesman for the media watchdog, cited Luo, known mainly by her stage name Feng Jie, for her vulgarity in a speech at Huazhong Normal University recently. Referring to the shows on which Feng Jie was interviewed, Zhu said: "Such vulgarity must not be allowed to be popularized in society."

As if on cue, many people have since written blogs, supporting Zhu on his stand on the Feng Jie issue. Such publicity appears to have lifted Feng Jie from a one-off sensation to a serious phenomenon, which poses a "threat to social harmony".

Feng Jie's is not the only performance to have incurred the wrath of the media watchdog. Not too long ago, the agency lashed out at the girls who declared their preference for money over love on a matchmaking show on television.

Two decades ago, people went to jail for committing the crime of hooliganism if they had illicit love affairs or were homosexuals. With social progress, the word for such a crime, liu mang, has disappeared. But now, another word, "vulgarity", is born.

I have to admit that I am always amused by Feng Jie's behavior and her remarks. Sometimes, she has done what most Chinese men and women would never do, laugh at herself and invite other people to join in the fun.

Oh yes, we laughed at her when she said that her would-be husband should be at least as smart and powerful as US President Barack Obama. Looking at her passing such remarks on TV made me laugh aloud. Maybe I am vulgar. But I am sure it's not the kind of vulgarity that Zhu and his colleagues in the media watchdog have in mind.