Why China banned the letter 'N' - CNN - 0 views
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The pushback to this development was intense online. So was the government's pushback to the pushback. In addition to banning use of the letter "N" online, words such as "immortality" and "ascend the throne" were also deemed inappropriate to use on the internet.
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Victor Mair, a professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, said the government likely feared that "N" was referring to the number of terms of office, as in a mathematical equation n > 2.
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But the nixing of "N" was a temporary one. By Monday use of the letter online was once again permitted, according to China Digital Times.
