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.”)

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.)

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.

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.

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.

“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 on Netease.com.

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.

“I play hidden cat with my four-year-old son every day…it seems we must not play this from now on,” said another.

Major Web portal Sohu.com carried out a survey that has drawn 20,000 votes. Nearly 3,000 people agreed that the new phrase is “so funny” and more than 1,000 “hope similar cases won’t happen again”; 7410 web users voted for “speechless, it’s super awkward” while 8,217 people say “I most want to know the truth.”

Some have already started playing with the new Internet vocabulary. One person made up a story with all the catch phrases: “I got up in the morning and did several push-ups. Then I was sent to get some soy sauce by my family. After that, I played hidden cat with my little friends…”

Apart from the angry voices, some bloggers are calling for the authorities to step in and investigate the case. Many compare the case to the Weng’an incident that took place following a local teenage girl’s death in Guizhou last June, where crowds stormed the local government and police buildings after rumors spread that police had covered up the girl’s rape and murder of the girl.

“Common sense makes it hard for the public to accept that a healthy young man died from playing a game…A trust-worthy third party must step in and dig out the truth for the public,” reads one online commentary.

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”。

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。

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。

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。

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。

一位广东网民在网易上写道：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。

在腾讯网上，目前已经有超过4万条相关评论。一位来自苏州的网民写道，我本以为是畏罪自杀撞墙死的，没想到是“躲猫猫”死了！完全超出了我的想像力。

另一个网民说，我每天都和四岁的儿子玩躲猫猫，看来从现在起我们不能再这么玩了。

主要门户网站搜狐对此进行了一项调查，吸引了2万人投票。将近3,000人将票投给“太搞笑，网友太有才了”，超过1,000人“希望不要再有这种事了”，7,410票投给“无语，还真是荒谬绝伦”，8,217票投给“我最想知道事件的真相”。

一些人已经开始运用网络新语了。一个网民用上述流行语编了个故事：“早晨起床时做了几个俯卧撑，然后被家里支去打酱油，打完酱油后与小朋友一起玩躲猫猫。”

在愤怒声音之外，一些博客作者呼吁有关部门介入调查此事。许多人都将此案与去年6月的贵州瓮安事件相比；当时一个当地少女死亡后，民间传言警方掩盖了少女被奸杀的真相，愤怒的民众随后冲击了当地政府和警方大楼。

一条网上评论写道，常识让公众很难接受一个健康的年轻人会死于玩游戏，必须有令人信服的第三方介入调查，为公众挖出真相。