A “curse” within a blessing! Chinese Communist Party publishers pushing New Year’s gift boxes to make a big deal

The Chinese People’s Literature Publishing House has launched the “Five Blessings for Spring” New Year gift box, with the word “misfortune” hidden in the blessings. (Web screenshot)

As the Chinese New Year approaches, the official publishing house of the Communist Party of China has launched a New Year gift box with the word “misfortune” hidden among the five “blessings”. The netizens have commented that: the blessings and disasters are not divided, and the disasters are at the door, which is really not a good sign.

Recently, the Creative Department of the Chinese People’s Literature Publishing House launched a New Year’s gift box “Five Blessings for Spring – Humanistic Year Gift 2021”, which includes the “Five Blessings of Qigong”. But some careful netizens found that one of the five “blessings” is actually the word “misfortune”.

On February 1, a mainland netizen posted that the gift box of “Five Blessings for Spring” confused “blessings” and “woes” and questioned whether it could still be a New Year gift.

On the same day, the Humanities Society of China issued an apology letter and took down the wrong version of “Five Blessings for Spring. Humanities annual gift 2021” New Year gift box. In the apology letter, the Humanities Society said that because it does not know calligraphy, the five “blessings” were selected from the “Qigong Calligraphy Character Collection”, and received feedback from readers that there was a mistake, and after consulting with a number of experts, it was confirmed that it was “received by mistake”, and the Society apologized to readers for this serious mistake.

The Humanities Society confused the words “fortune” and “misfortune”, which sparked a lot of online debate, with many netizens commenting that it was too unlucky to make such a big mistake in a New Year’s greeting!

“This mistake is really uncalled for, this is the level of the Humanities Society?”

“A word of fortune caused a disaster.”

“Welcome spring five blessings hidden a disaster, bear to see today’s publishers. The humanities society has no humanities.”

“What is lamentable is the overall quality of publishers and publishers. Don’t use the excuse that you don’t know calligraphy, this is the People’s Literature Publishing House! This is the People’s Literature Publishing House! The layers of editors, so absurd mistakes no one can find. Humanities literacy, mediocre! Responsibility, huh? By equating literary creation with fast consumption and pointing it straight toward Gold-sucking, shallowness and crudeness will be exposed.”

There are also netizens who believe that this mistake is not a good omen, “Woe is unpredictable, blessings and disasters are not distinguished, woe is at the door.”

“Sending blessings with “woe”: never blessings and woes depend on each other, which proximity to the door is not yet known. Do not say that the humanities knowledge is short, boring netizens leak the heavenly opportunity.”

At present, China and the world are facing an unprecedented pandemic attack. As the Chinese New Year draws nearer, the Communist Party’s viral plague is also breaking out in China, with outbreaks in three northeastern provinces, Beijing, Shanghai and other first-tier cities. Cities, villages, and households have been sealed off, and people in high-risk areas have even been moved and quarantined.

The Chinese government has asked people to “spend New Year’s Eve in their homes,” and countless families are unable to return to their homes. Due to the extreme isolation and control measures taken by the Chinese government, prices have skyrocketed and supplies are in short supply, causing many families to be deprived of Food and vegetables.

A few days ago, Zhong Nanshan, an Epidemic prevention expert, made an intensive statement in the Chinese official media, claiming that the “virus variant” of the Chinese Communist Party posed many challenges to epidemic prevention, and that some areas had seen the spread of epidemic and localized serious spread.

Last year, after the outbreak in Wuhan got out of control, Zhong Nanshan was allegedly ordered to announce the news of human-to-human transmission of the epidemic, which was followed by the city’s closure without warning, confirming the outbreak. As a result, there is speculation that the current epidemic situation in China is serious and Zhong Nanshan has come out again at this sensitive moment to give a signal that the epidemic in China may have the first signs of getting out of control and call on the Chinese people to be vigilant. Some people lamented that this year of the epidemic is really a year of great disasters.