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Chinese censors crack down on jokes about phallic-shaped People’s Daily building

An image of the People's Daily building in Beijing from the blogging site Sina Weibo.

The new headquarters for the Chinese state-run newspaper People’s Daily has an image problem: it really looks like a penis.

The platforms atop the under-construction building in Beijing make it look pretty comical and censors that try their best to control online conversations in the country are working overtime as they attempt to remove phallic jokes from the Internet, particularly on Sina Weibo — a Chinese micro-blogging site, similar to Twitter.

Censors have even blocked searches on Weibo for “People’s Daily” and “building” as the 150-metre tall building is erected, reports AFP. But, some comments did make it though the censors. “Of course the national mouthpiece should be imposing,” said one user. And another quote from a blogger read: “It seems the People’s Daily is going to rise up, there’s hope for the Chinese dream.”

The building was deigned by Zhou Qi, a professor of architecture at Southeast University in Jiangsu, reports South China Morning Post. In an interview, Zhou said the building is designed around a Chinese concept of “round sky and square earth.” It is scheduled for completion in May 2014.

Blog hugchina.com says that citizens are comparing the new People’s Daily building to another infamous landmark, the building for CCTV (China Central Television). The CCTV building has earned the nickname “Big Underpants” because it looks like a pair of legs.

The two buildings will fit together perfectly, joke some users. “The two key mouthpieces of CPC are really perfectly embodying the traditional Yin-Yang concept,” writes hugchina.

A man bicycles in front of the headquarters of China Central Television in Beijing on Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (Vincent Thian/AP)

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