Starting…World Meteorological Day, people can rename the destructive typhoon Longwang, which swept across southeastern China last year, via short messages, hotlines and the Internet.
Typhoon Longwang caused mass damage in southeastern China in October, and caused the biggest amount of loss to hit the area ever by a typhoon. In Fujian Province, 15 people were killed and about 500,000 others were relocated to higher grounder.
Longwang, or dragon king, refers to an auspicious animal in myths. The inappropriate link between the auspicious and the dreadful storm upset many Chinese people. So the Typhoon Committee decided to erase Longwang from its typhoon name list, and asked China to offer a new name.
I’ll bet there’s some smart-ass at the Shanghai DAILY who couldn’t resist putting up an English version of this story!
Longdong, perhaps?
or Hunglow
Some years ago we discovered a new planet called urinus. This was because news anchors didn’t want to say that dark rings had been discovered around Uranus. After all what’s more important, the truth, or an overpaid news anchor’s feelings?
Wow i guess something as big as longwang can really do a significant amount of damage.
C’mon guys, even the Chinese are allowed to exaggerate, a little.