April Fools is no laughing matter, China’s official news service intoned Friday, saying the Western tradition of opening spring with a gag was un-Chinese. The official news agency Xinhua’s stiffly worded post on micro-blog Weibo declared: “Today is the West’s so-called ‘April Fools’”. The occasion “does not conform with our nation’s cultural traditions, nor does it conform with the core values of socialism”, it added. “Don’t believe rumours, don’t create rumours and don’t spread rumours,” it said, capping off the note with a smiley emoticon. A cartoon accompanying the post showed two phones “spreading rumours.” A finger pointing at them is accompanied by a word bubble that says “breaking the law”. Spreading rumours online can be a violation of Chinese law. But the country’s Internet users met the reminder with a collective guffaw, suggesting that in China, every day is April Fools. Photo courtesy of 50img.com “You speak lies every [...]
