THIS POST IS NOT FOR CHILDREN

"Sha bi" is a bit of popular Beijing slang that means "stupid c*nt" and by all accounts it's one of the city's most popular expressions. The Chinese media has recently been shocked - SHOCKED - to hear this vulgar phrase all over the city and some of them want the Beijingers to clean up their language by the 2008 Olympics. Coming from New York where "f*ck" is practically our national anthem I'm offended by this school marmish, puritanical outcry. How can you change the vocabulary of an entire city just to impress some tourists? You may as well roll over and become Las Vegas at that point.

Massage Milk (a Chinese blog) has mounted a vociferous defense of swearing as part of Beijing culture, and it ends with a scathing attack on the Five Friendlies, reading:

"There are many, many uncivilized things in Beijing. If a city is full of sha bi things, why the hell do you want to stop people calling out sha bi? The people have sha bi rights!

If one day this city solves all of its sha bi problems, then perhaps you won't hear Beijing swearing.

Think about it: with such sha bi looking Olympic mascots, why the hell can't we scream out sha bi when we attend Olympic events?"

F*ck it! Word up!

(Thanks to the ever-reliable Danwei for the translation)