By Chris Yeung
Eyebrows were raised when Legco President Tsang Yok-sing poked fun at Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying in a word play in his newspaper column published on March 24. Writing about the fun and wisdom of Chinese couplets (對聯), Tsang has won thousands of “likes” on social media and apparently offended some others when he put Leung Chun-ying (梁振英) together with national security law (國安法) in the form of a couplet.
Emulating a form of Chinese couplets that match words whose contents and themes are totally unrelated, Tsang wrote Leung’s name could tie well with national security law in Chinese. He explained Leung (梁), in Chinese, is both a surname and a noun that is related to landscape. It is fitting to match it with nation (國), or kwok in Cantonese. Chun (振) is a verb that could mean vibrate and rejuvenate. Its opposite could be peace and security, or on (安) when pronounced in Cantonese. Ying (英) could mean Britain (英國), or ying kwok in Cantonese. The word “law” (法), pronounced as fat in Cantonese, could mean France (法國). So, “ying” matches well with “fat (law)”.
Mindful of the sensitivity of his word play, Tsang made a declaration of “no-hidden-agenda” at the end of his column: “There is no special message. Just for fun.”
In another go on word play in his column carried in free Chinese daily AM730 yesterday, Tsang turned to pun to play satire with Leung again.
Full article:
http://www.vohk.hk/2016/04/11/tsang-plays-see-why-word-game/
