Chinese whispers

English

Noun

Chinese whispers (uncountable)

1. (games, chiefly UK) A game for several players in which a phrase, whispered by each person in turn to their neighbor, is often unwittingly misunderstood as it is transferred, to humorous effect by the time it reaches the last person and is compared with the original phrase.

   Synonyms: (Canada, US) telephone, broken telephone, operator, pass it down, Russian scandal, telephone game, a whisper down the lane

   • 2014, Darian Leader, Introducing Lacan: A Graphic Guide, Icon Books Ltd, →ISBN:

     This is no doubt the reason why children play Chinese Whispers. One child whispers a message to another and it travels around the circle of children, only to be revealed by the last member of the chain.

2. (figuratively, by extension) Any situation where something is changed or misunderstood as a result of passing through successive people or processes.
   • 2004, Helen Walters, 200% Cotton: New T-Shirt Graphics, page 141:

     Rightly famed for their year 2000 project, RMX//A Visual Remix Project, for which they remixed each others' work in a Chinese Whispers-style process, they have also printed T-shirts with their eye-catching graphics […]

Translations

game

• Afrikaans: telefoontjie
• Arabic: هَاتِف عَرَبِيّ m (hātif ʕarabiyy), هَاتِف لَاسِلْكِيّ m (hātif lāsilkiyy)
• Armenian: փչացած հեռախոս (pʻčʻacʻac heṙaxos)
• Bulgarian: развален телефон m (razvalen telefon)
• Catalan: telèfon (ca) m
• Central Franconian: Stėlle Poßß f, Stille Poß f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 以訛傳訛／以讹传讹 (ji⁵ ngo⁵ cyun⁴ ngo⁴)

  Mandarin: 傳話遊戲／传话游戏 (chuánhuà yóuxì)

• Czech: tichá pošta f, telefon (cs) m
• Dutch: doorfluistertje n
• Finnish: rikkinäinen puhelin (fi), juoruämmä (fi)
• French: téléphone arabe (fr) m, téléphone sans fil (fr) m
• German: Stille Post (de) f, Flüsterpost f
• Greek: χαλασμένο τηλέφωνο (el) n (chalasméno tiléfono)
• Hebrew: טֶלֶפוֹן שָׁבוּר (he) m (télefon shavúr)
• Hungarian: kínai suttogás
• Italian: telefono senza fili m, telegrafo senza fili m
• Japanese: 伝言ゲーム (でんごんゲーム, dengon gēmu)
• Korean: 옮겨 말하기 (omgyeo malhagi)
• Macedonian: расипан телефон m (rasipan telefon)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hviskelek

• Polish: głuchy telefon m
• Portuguese: telefone sem fio m, telefone estragado
• Romanian: telefonul fără fir n
• Russian: испо́рченный телефо́н (ru) m (ispórčennyj telefón), сло́манный телефо́н m (slómannyj telefón), глухо́й телефо́н (ru) (gluxój telefón)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: глухи телефони m pl, глуви телефони m pl

  Roman: gluhi telefoni m pl, gluvi telefoni m pl

• Slovak: tichá pošta f, telefón m
• Spanish: teléfono descompuesto m, teléfono estropeado m, (Chile) teléfono (es) m
• Swedish: viskleken c
• Tatar: ватык телефон (watıq telefon)
• Turkish: kulaktan kulağa (tr)
• Ukrainian: зіпсо́ваний телефо́н m (zipsóvanyj telefón)
• Vietnamese: tam sao thất bản (vi)

Further reading

• Chinese whispers on Wikipedia.Wikipedia