China Bans Weird, Complicated Company Names

By Jesse Pottinger, August 16, 2017

In accordance with new guidelines that took effect last Saturday, the Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce has banned the registration of 'weird' names by Chinese companies.

According to Sixth Tone, the 33 new guidelines include one section prohibiting overly wordy or rambling names, instead requiring company titles to consist of only a few words.

If this all sounds a bit unnecessary, you probably haven’t heard of the northern Chinese condom company 'Uncle Niu,' short for 'There Is a Group of Young People With Dreams, Who Believe They Can Make the Wonders of Life Under the Leadership of Uncle Niu Internet Technology Co. Ltd.'

Additional guidelines restrict language use, with words or phrases that discriminate against ethnicity, race or gender now prohibited.

Any names that refer to terrorism (like Shenzhen's ISIS clothing store), dissidents or any politically sensitive subjects are also banned, as are any overly religious terms referring to Islam or Christianity and words making claims like 'the best' and 'national.'

If your business happens to share its name with a vicious terrorist organization, you may consider changing it – fast

In an effort to reduce the number of copycats, new rules also ban companies from using already registered names (an obvious necessity in China).

As reports of the new rules surfaced, netizens did what they do best and dug up some of the most outrageous company names from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, a database of Chinese companies.

Some of the more ridiculous ones listed by Sixth Tone include 'King of Nanning, Guangxi, and His Friends Trading Co. Ltd.,' 'What Are You Looking At Shenzhen Technology Co. Ltd.,' 'Beijing Under My Wife’s Thumb Technology Co. Ltd.' and 'Hangzhou Looking for Trouble Internet Technology Co. Ltd.'

Creative freedom for companies has been curbed in the past, with a February 2016 ban against weird architecture, and a demand in March 2016 from Li Liguo, the former minister of civil affairs, that housing developments stop using odd or Western-inspired names.

[Images via must-be-know.blogspot.com, Weibo]