“Who cares, I am just buying some soy sauce” said a pedestrian, when he was asked of his opinion about the leaked porn photos of Hong Kong celebrities. Perhaps because of the public attention on the widespread porn photos, the man’s response sounded very funny for netizens. Now the saying “I’m just buying some soy sauce” is attached with new meaning, suggesting a cynical attitude toward the major events happened in China. It also carries a sense of the silent protest on the part of observers – by claiming to distant oneself from the event while silently paying attention to it.
The official description at the press conference about a young girl, whose suspicious death triggered a riot last week in Wengan County, created another popular phrase among Chinese netizens — doing push-ups. You can read my post Rape or Push-up exercises to see what happened. The focused public attention on this event again contributed to the instant popularity of the phrase “doing push-ups”, suggesting some netizens’ disbelief about the official explanation that the young student drowned herself, instead of being raped and murdered.
NYT: Reading and Comments
I read and commented on an article by the New York Times, for the language learning purposes. Read More »