Man Arrested for Swearing on WeChat.... Really!

Source: What's On Weibo

Many discussions on Weibo this weekend over a guy from Anhui being detained over a WeChat Moments post, in which he complained about getting a parking ticket. He used the expression grandmas legs () to do so, generally considered a gentle swearing word. Weibo commenters are expressing their concern: if such a common cuss could get one trouble, virtually anthing could.

A  Chinese man from Bozhou city was recently arrested for scolding the police on his WeChat Moments, according to an online report by the Suzhou Police department.

On January 10, the police account reported that the man was fined by local traffic police for illegal parking, although he refused to acknowledge he was in the wrong.

After receiving the parking ticket, the man supposedly publicly scolded the police via WeChat Moments ().

Screenshots shared on social media show the WeChat post in question, which contained a picture of the parking fine and one sentence saying: F*ck, I only parked for ten minutes to pick up [my] kid and its a hundred!

The swearing word used here by the man from Bozhou is ninai g tu (, ), which literally means grandmas legs, but could be translated as a common swearword such as f*ck, motherf*cker, etc.

One might also argue that Grandmas legs is actually much less vulgar than the aforementioned cuss words, and that it technically is not even considered a swear word, as it is more comparable to the English friggin hell or other gentle cussing expressions.

One day after complaining about the parking fine on Wechat, the man from Bozhou was reportedly summoned to the local police station and was detained at the spot for creating a bad influence ().

The Suzhou Police Weibo post on this matter gained traction on Chinese social media on Friday. But after it was read 500,000 times within just an hour, the post was deleted again.

Not long after the Suzhou police reported this matter (and then deleted its post again), Phoenix News also posted about the issue, asking Weibo netizens whether or not #GrandmasLegs (##) could be considered swearing or is more innocent than that.

The majority of people responding to Phoenix News do not see Grandmas legs as a real curse word but as a mocking expression.

But am I even allowed to express my opinion on this?, multiple people write: Wont you arrest me for doing so?

Although this particular Bozhou arrest is an unusual case, it is much less unusual for people to be detained for swearing and/or insulting people on social media.

In 2017, a man from Taizhou, Jiangsu, was detained for nine days for insulting a member of Chinas civil police on Weibo.

Last year, a taxi driver was detained for making a cruel joke on QQ about the Yueqing victim of the Didi murder.

Update: On Monday afternoon, the Bozhou police department responded to the matter via social media, stating the case is currently under investigation.

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