“在A年B省C城D宾馆发生的E事件中,一个男姓F青年和一个女姓G青年”——面对这样一种离奇的文字,恐怕谁都会感到丈二和尚模不着头脑。不过,你别以为这是哪位文学新秀的艺术创新,它可是眼下正在一些报刊上广为传播的流行病,无以名之,姑且称之为“外文字母替代症”。这种症状,常見于那些涉及伦理道德与法律纲纪的新闻特写、通讯、报告文学之类,作者往往将真实的时间、地点、人物、场合隐去,而以外文字母代之,用的是《红楼梦》中 “In the E incident that occurred in Hotel D at Hotel C in City B Province in year A, a male surnamed F young and a female surname G young” - in the face of such a bizarre letter, I am afraid that anyone will feel that the monk Zhang Zorb could not figure it out. However, you do not think this is a literary rookie’s artistic innovation. However, it is now a pandemic widely spread in some newspapers and magazines, which is tentatively referred to as “foreign alphabet substitution syndrome.” This symptom is often found in news features, communications, reportage and the like that involve ethics and law. The author tends to conceal the real time, place, people and occasion, and use the foreign letters instead of “ Dream of Red Mansions ”