Today news from Hong Kong:17 arrested for selling “triad products”
“The police have arrested 17 people following the seizure of 88 T-shirts and several hundred postcards with the name 14-K printed on them. The products were taken away from outlets of the home accessories chain store – G.O.D. The police said those arrested, including the company’s owner and designer, are suspected of violating the Societies Ordinance. However, G.O.D’s marketing manager, Cherry Ma, said 14-K referred to gold – not the triad society. She said staff were shocked by what appeared to be coordinated raids on the company’s three stores and warehouse.”
source: RTHK
Earlier there was a T-shirt with the slogan "Delay No More" which sounds like "Montherfuckers" in Cantonese, and now the same company G.O.D, has printed this Tee shirt with 14K in Chinese to make a trouble for themselves.
Honestly the design of the tee looks very ugly and undoubtly this is of very bad taste , however, do we have freedom of speech to express regardless its taste? And it’s funny to see how Hong Kong media react in the related photo on RTHK’s website in which the logo has been blurred to avoid showing the word "14K". Too many taboos in society may make people go crazy and lack of humour.
What if I adapt the tee from 14K to 24K, that’s ok! What if I make a tee to express my monthly income is 14K? What if my address is 14K?
Flickr Photos
Sadly, censorship not only exist in Hong Kong. For example, in the US, you are technically not allowed to export a t-shirt with the RSA encryption key on it.
http://www.cypherspace.org/adam/shirt/
apparently, the name 14K is from their street address!!!! LOL