April Fool's Day is a day when everyone can pull pranks on each other and have a good laugh when it's all over. Well, everyone, that is, except for China's Communist Party, which thinks that the day is no laughing matter and has thus spoken out against it, saying that April Fool's Day is inconsistent with China's traditional values.
No, this is not a joke. Chinese officials are quite serious about the matter, going so far as to issue a statement on the official microblog of Xinhua News Agency, the ruling party's prime political organ.
"Today is the West is called 'April Fools Day', which doesn't comply with our traditional culture and socialist core values," the statement reads. "We hope that everyone does not trust, make, or transfer rumours."
This development is hardly surprising, however, as China's Communist Party is well-known for trying to clamp down on "online rumour mongering" that is often used a channel for anti-government dissent. It uses rumor-spreading as a pretext to prosecute those on the Internet who spread misinformation about things like last year's Tianjin blasts or the avian flu. To drive it's point home, the government issued new guidelines in 2013 that made anyone who posted a rumor that was reposted 500 times or seen more than 5,000 times to be subject to up to three years imprisonment.
The move to ban April Fool's Day may also be seen as an attempt for Chinese media, which has fallen victim to April Fool's Day hoaxes and similar pranks in the past, to save face and earn back some credibility. The most notable example of this was back in 2012 when People's Daily ran an article citing one by The Onion, which had named North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, the sexiest man alive. Another one came a year later when CCTV cited an April Fool's announcement by Virgin CEO Richard Branson, saying that the airline was poised to begin a glass-bottomed plane service and reported the announcement as fact.
In the meantime, Xinhua's admonition against jokes and pranks seemed to have backfired somewhat, giving rise to various jokes that poke fun at the announcement and Chinese media as a whole, forcing the publication to turn off its comment section.
"In the West, it only happens one day a year; however, in certain Asian countries, it is every day, every year," one netizen posted.
"The media is publishing false news to fool people every single day, what difference is one more?" another user commented.
"In China, every day is April Fool's Day," echoed another.
"I will watch CCTV news to celebrate April Fool's Day," another wrote in.
In trying to ban Apri Fool's Day, China may have very well made the greatest April Fool's Joke of all time.
