Brave enough to touch the tiger’s butt?

That’s the challenge in a game featuring the image of a tiger on Tencent Holdings Ltd’s WeChat messaging app regaling users since a corruption investigation into retired security chief Zhou Yongkang was announced on July 29. Zhou is the highest-level official to fall in China’s bid to sweep away both “tigers and flies” in an antigraft campaign. The mere fact that WeChat’s almost 400 million users can access the game reflects how discussion of Zhou’s fate is no longer taboo, and may even be encouraged, as the Communist Party builds support for a case against him.

The game highlights the shifting censorship landscape in China where leaders and sensitive topics may be off limits to ridicule for years — until they’re not. “It’s OK if you play the game with Zhou Yongkang, but when the character s start to change, and someone figures out a way to swap it and gets someone else’s name on there that they don’t want to get after, that’s when they will end the game,” said David Zweig, a professor of political science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The risk is that budding online humourists may crack jokes publicly about China’s current leaders, who remain off limits. So do retired ones — earlier this month, web users circulated jokes that a giant inf latable yellow toad at a Beijing park bore an uncanny r e s embl anc e t o former President Jiang Zemin , a nd one eve n photoshopped a pair of thick black glasses like Jiang’s onto an image of the animal.

WeChat users are invited to touch the yellow-glowing butt of the black-andwhite tiger to access Zhou’s web of corruption. Tapping on the tiger prompts a choice of four virtual playing cards with the names of Zhou’s spheres of inf luence: the oil industry, where he once led state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.; Sichuan province, where he served as party secretary; internal security; and his family. Selecting a card, gamers may test their knowledge of Zhou’s network of company executives, government officials, military personnel and family connections. The right answers win the accolade, “You’re a tiger-beating hero.” The game is also available on Tencent’s QQ mobile messaging service. Chen Liming, a spokeswoman for Tencent Holdings Ltd, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.