It's only a game, right? Not as far as the Ministry of Culture is concerned, and especially not if it encourages thieving.
In the latest crackdown on perceived internet subversion, the ministry yesterday announced all social networking sites had to purge references to 'stealing vegetables' - a popular title everyone uses for a controversial online game, known as 'Happy Farm'.
Mainland media reported yesterday that sites such as QQ.com and kaixin.com had already begun removing the offending taglines last week, renaming the game 'plucking fruit'.
However, there were still numerous online references to it yesterday evening.
The order appears to refer only to language used in the game, rather than the actual content of the play.
The game allows players to run their own virtual farm, growing various crops which they need to water, spray with pesticides and harvest - or if they're lazy they can simply steal crops from their online neighbours.
They can still pilfer other players' parsnips, but the action is now referred to in the game using the euphemism 'plucking'.