Uncyclopedia is a parody of Wikipedia. It bills itself as the “content-free encyclopedia” and everything is a spoof of Wikipedia.

Like Wikipedia, Uncyclopedia comes in many languages, including three versions of Chinese (Putonghwa, Taiwan Putonghwa and Hong Kong/Macau Cantonese). The Chinese name for Uncyclopedia, by the way, is Weiji Baike. As those who can read the Chinese character can see, the first letter (wei) means “fake” or “lie.” This is a play on word of the Chinese Wikipedia, which is also called Weiji Baike, although the first letter (wei) is in a different tone.

Because in Chinese, each letters can have their own intrinsic meaning, and there are a number of different letters with identical or similar sounds but with very different meanings, substituting one letter for another that sounds like the former can be a great way to make fun of someone’s names.

For example in the Uncyclopedia, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong 毛泽东 becomes Mao Zeidong 毛贼东 (the second letter 贼 means thief or gangster, and haizei 海贼 means a pirate, literally sea + thief). Likewise, Uncyclopedia calls the Communist Party of China (Zhongguo Gongchandang 中国共产党) the Zhongguo Gongcandang 中国共惨党, loosely translated, “Co-misery-ist Party of China.”

What are the lessons here? Grab a Chinese character dictionary such as the Xinhua Zidian 辛猾字典 (most major library in the U.S. has a copy of this, especially in a major university or a central library of a big town) and look for any letters that sound identical to a letter in your name, and also anything similar, that could be potentially offensive or funny.

Especially a prominent figure gets satirized this way. For example, if I were all of sudden a billionaire, a Chinese tabloid might turn my name 李彩云 into 李财云.