China’s Paper Of Record Thinks The Onion Is Real News
China’s People’s Daily thinks this Onion article naming Kim Jong Un the “sexiest man alive” is the real thing:
U.S. website The Onion has named North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un as the “Sexiest Man Alive for the year 2012”.
“With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true. Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper’s editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile,” it said.
“He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time,” said Marissa Blake-Zweiber, editor of The Onion Style and Entertainment.
One wonders if there is a word for “satire” in Chinese.
H/T: Shanghaiist
Their title is: “North Korea’s top leader named The Onion’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2012”
I think they get it.
(Note also that they are writing for an English language audience there.)
It’s an understandable mistake. Have you read the real news lately?
This isn’t the first time this has happened. About a decade ago, The Onion wrote an article saying the Congress was threatening to relocate if DC didn’t provide them with a Capitol building with a retractable dome. China’s news agaency treated it as real and, when they found out the truth, couldn’t believe that a whole newspaper printed nothing but lies.
@Rob Prather:
Or a TV News Network either
Well, considering that Al Qaeda was getting their nuclear science from the Journal of Irreproducible results….
Sure. Fěng cì. Satire goes back as far in China as it does in the West. My experience has been that the Chinese are very funny, very humorous people.