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APAD: Chinese whispers
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APAD: Chinese whispers

移花接木
楼主 (文学城)
Chinese whispers

Inaccurately transmitted gossip. 'Chinese whispers' refers to a sequence of repetitions of a story, each one differing slightly from the original, so that the final telling bears only a scant resemblance to the original. 

The expression 'Chinese whispers' is commonly used in the UK and many other parts of the English-speaking world, although less so in the USA. 

What? WTF! hahahahaha, First time to know we Chinese have such reputation in the English-speaking world. Didn't they ever gossip?  Is it fair to us? 

But isn't it true? hahhahahhahaha, excuse mine laughing so hard, it is so true to me, other cultures? I don't know;  hahahahh, hope you guys also have enough sense of humour,  don't think I am, no, they are insulting "Hua".  

Actually the author cleans himself  bellow for not being racial slurring, defending the saying as Chinese language being more incomprehensible to English ears than Russian, and   Chinese are inscrutable. 

hahaha one more laughing.

 It derives from the party game in which one person whispers a message to the person next to them and the story is then passed progressively to several others, with inaccuracies accumulating as the game goes on. The point of the game is the amusement obtained from the last player's announcement of the story they heard, that typically being nothing like the original. The game is played in all parts of the world and each country has its own names for it, notably, in the USA it is usually called 'Telephone' or 'Gossip'.

The name 'Chinese Whispers' was adopted for the game in the UK in the mid 20th century, prior to that it was known as 'Russian Scandal' or 'Russian Gossip'. The reason for the change isn't clear. It is sometimes suggested that the phrase is a racial slur and is intended to convey the idea that the Chinese talk nonsense. I see no reason to assume that. The English aren't especially badly disposed towards the Chinese - there are many other races on the UK hit list above the Chinese. I think the decision by whoever coined the phrase had more to do with the Chinese language being more incomprehensible to English ears than Russian. If there is any racial stereotyping inherent in the phrase it may be by an association with the idea that the Chinese are inscrutable.

The first citation of the name in print is found in the English newspaper The Guardian, March 1964:

The children's game of 'Chinese whispers'... in which whispered messages were passed around the room and the version which came back to the starting point bore no relation to the original message.

The use in a more general sense, to describe everyday mis-telling of stories, began as recently as the 1980s. It first started appearing in print and in online postings in Usenet newsgroups in 1989. This was probably a consequence of the use of 'Chinese Whispers' as the name of a track on the 1985 album Stereotomy by The English rock group The Alan Parsons Project.

         
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盈盈一笑间
2 楼
老外也有很多whispers,好伐?:))先点赞,待会儿再来细读。
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7grizzly
3 楼
Great to learn! It reminds me of "paddy wagon."
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Oona
4 楼
interesting :--)), 我也感觉普遍来讲,老外没有那么容易相信闲话。
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移花接木
5 楼
严重声讨,we Chinese 表示这个锅我们不背,谁爱背谁自己背去
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盈盈一笑间
6 楼
估计你是没遇到老外的八婆。参见美剧绝望主妇。:)
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Oona
7 楼
是,还没有碰到特别能8的:--)。
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盈盈一笑间
8 楼
9494。文中那张著名配图里都是老外脸。:)
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xia23
9 楼
隔墙有耳!
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唐宋韵
10 楼
先赞后读。
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方外居士
11 楼
三姑六婆
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移花接木
12 楼
Chinese are inscrutable !!!!
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唐宋韵
13 楼
If they suggest Chinese whisper twists more than ---

other languages, then a much better-controlled psychological experiemnt is necessary.  And I am actually very interested in knowing the results if there has already been any in controlled experiments.

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waterfowl
14 楼
Hmmm, not familiar with this one.
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7grizzly
15 楼
And the world is wonderful with them in it :-)
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颤音
16 楼
hhh, we have twisted tongues
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