BBC News Chinese New Year Blunder Welcomes The Year Of The ‘Whores’
BBC News had good intentions when they tried ushering in the Chinese New Year. But those good intentions went out the window when one of their photo captions mistakenly read: “Welcome to the year of the whores. People around the globe celebrate”.
That’s an unfortunate subtitling error from the BBC for #CNY [via http://t.co/DQJaAbBzed] pic.twitter.com/PsenxpPXBQ
— mrbrown (@mrbrown) February 2, 2014
Of course, a typo like this would be quickly picked up by users, and many had a field day with it. Screen grabs of the typo were quickly snapped and distributed all around social media. According to Metro, one user commented on the error saying: “So it’s Chinese New Year, but the BBC subtitles got a bit confused about the year.” Check out what some other Twitters users where saying:
WHOOPS! A Rather unfortunate caption fail on BBC News for Chinese New Year http://t.co/TjcU93WEss pic.twitter.com/YC32FYiSNg
— HuffPostUK Pic Desk (@HuffPostUKPics) February 1, 2014
@HuffPostUKPics You just can’t find a good dictionary in a newsroom nowadays — jo sandelson (@josandelson) February 1, 2014
BBC News lost in translation as China welcomes ‘the year of the whores’ http://t.co/U6sxc6RsEe — The Independent (@Independent) February 2, 2014
Happy Chinese New Year, according to BBC Subtitles it should be an interesting one! ? pic.twitter.com/Hfdo1UDb6c
— Lisbon Lion (@tirnaog09) January 31, 2014
In all seriousness, this past Friday marked the 2014 Chinese New Year which is the Year of the Horse. According to The Independent, the horse is part of a 12-year-cycle of animals that make up the Chinese zodiac. “These interact with the five elements: wood, metal, fire, water, earth. 2014 is the year of the wood horse, taking over from the year of the water snake.”
The Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar and according to the Huffington Post, it is also known as the Nian Festival, the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival. The report also stated that the lunar system on which the new year is based on originated during the Shang Dynasty and “was closely tied to methods of divination.”
“Similar to the Gregorian calendar’s 12 months, the Chinese lunar calendar breaks down into cycles of 12, represented by 12 different animals. Each year is assigned to a different animal, as well as one of 5 elements (metal, wood, earth, water and fire.)”
So what does the Year of the Horse have in store for 2014? According to the Huffington Post, this could mean that the world could see an increasing violence, turmoil and natural disasters. Here’s to hoping that isn’t true!
[Image via Shutterstock/marymyyr]
