Gag Chinese Documents (very official-looking!)

I was quite amused to stumble upon a whole array of fake (but humorous) Chinese documents last weekend. The documents adopt the official style of Chinese 证书 (official documents), but the names are a lot more fun. Here are the three I bought (for 5 RMB each):

Three Gag Certificates

The three types of documents above, left to right, are:

美女证 (Babe Certificate); “PLMM” stands for “漂亮妹妹” (pretty girl)
帅哥证 (Cute Guy Certificate)
白痴证 (Moron Certificate); “SB” stands for “傻屄” which I’ll politely translate as “dumbass”

There were at least 10 different types, including things like “World’s Best Mom,” “World’s Best Dad,” “Certified Genius,” “Certified Virgin,” etc.

The insides even look official, with space for a photo:

白痴证: Inside

For comparison purposes, here are some real Chinese certificates, collected from the internet:

Chinese Official Documents

I can’t imagine the government will be particularly happy about these things, especially with the Expo looming. I wouldn’t be surprised if these became scarce really quickly (especially in Shanghai).

Looks like my Flickr photos aren’t showing up for the time being; you can thank the GFW for that. The photos are viewable via proxy.

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John Pasden

John is a Shanghai-based linguist and entrepreneur, founder of AllSet Learning.

Comments

  1. Hey, I saw them as well a couple of weeks ago, in the People’s square metro station galleries. I had the same thought to buy some and blog about them, but then I forgot.

    I saw there were a few more models, like “perfect husband” certificate, and something like a “laowai” certificate. It was quite funny, hope I see them again.

  2. John, where can I buy these online! They would be great in my next apartment! (I’m going into a Chinese language immersion apartment next semester).

  3. Haha, dang, I want one of those. Wonder where I could find it that ships to the States.

  4. Haha. Good to give as gifts to Chinese friends! Are they sold out in the open?

  5. The only one I ever saw was the most subversive one: it looked exactly like a Communist Youth League membership book (red with a single big yellow star), except the wording was 处男证 (certificate of [male] virginity). I’d never seen something so directly mocking the power holders in China.

  6. These are definitely wacky. The oddest phenomenon of fake 证zheng that I’ve observed so far is that of the fake marriage certificates. Like playing house only strangely legalistic. Best thing about them of course were the heart-shaped ‘official’ stamps 😉

  7. Do they sell these anywhere in Beijing?

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