After last year’s “getting some soy sauce” and “doing push-ups,” Web users in China have found a new catchphrase for 2009: “playing hidden cat,” or what the English-speaking world calls “hide and seek.” (In Chinese, “playing hidden cat” is 躲猫猫, pronounced “duo maomao.”)

继去年风靡一时的“打酱油”和“俯卧撑”之后，步入2009年的中国网民又发现了新的流行词“躲猫猫”。

The story behind this new phrase comes from Jinning in southwest China’s Yunnan province, where a 24-year-old prisoner died from a severe brain injury four days after being sent to the hospital. Local police said the brain injury occurred when the prisoner “bumped into a wall after being kicked by another prisoner while playing hidden cat.” (Report in Chinese.)

这个新词背后的故事来自于中国云南省晋宁县；当地一位24岁的犯人脑部严重受伤，入院四天后死亡。当地警方给出的解释是，这位犯人在与狱友玩躲猫猫游戏时，遭到狱友踢打并不小心撞到墙壁，才导致脑部受伤。

According to the local Chinese-language media reports, the deceased young man, Li Qiaoming, was arrested on Feb. 8 for illegal logging activity and sent to a detention center. He was due home to get married on Feb. 16, but never returned.

根据当地中文媒体的报导，死者李乔明涉嫌盗伐林木于2月8日被送进看守所。他原定2月16日举办婚礼，但却再也没有回来。

The dead man’s family does not accept the cause of death given by the local police. Li’s father told the local press that he went to the detention house and asked to meet his son several times, but was rejected. The detention center and local police in Puning did not answer questions.

死者家庭无法接受当地警方给出的死亡原因。李乔明父亲对当地媒体说，他曾多次去看守所要求见儿子，但均遭到拒绝。晋宁看守所和当地警方没有回答问询。

Since Li’s death, the phrase “playing hidden cat” has spread all over the China’s Internet, with Web users scouring the Internet for more information on this case and challenging the outcome.

自李乔明去世之后，“躲猫猫”这个词语就传遍了中国网络，网民们搜索这个案件的更多信息，并对结果提出了质疑。

“The detention center must have video cameras installed… [we should] strongly call for the local police to publish the videos from the day of Li’s injury. We want to see for ourselves how he actually got hurt,” wrote a Web user from Guangdong.

一位广东网民在写道：看守所肯定安装了摄像头，强烈呼吁当地警方公布李乔明受伤那天的录像。我们希望亲眼看看他到底是怎么受伤的。

On the Web site of chat service QQ.com, over 40,000 comments have been left so far. “I thought he had killed himself by bumping into a wall, but it turned out to be the ‘hidden cat’ game that killed him. [It’s] totally beyond my imagination!” wrote one person from Suzhou city.

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