In response to the grass mud horse

Since I had no idea what the grass mud horse meant and why it pissed off Chinese censorship officials so much. I have never done any research because I just assumed that being in China, websites that can tell me what it means will also be blocked. My roommate, Sarah, just told me to try anyway. So, with the magic of Wikipedia, I realized what it meant. The grass mud horse, in Chinese: 草泥马, Pinyin: Cao Ni Ma, literally translated means "Fuck your mother." The grass mud horse is depicted as a white alpaca and is the symbol of the resistance to Chinese online censorship. The grass mud horse is one of the ten mythical creatures that was created by Baidu, China's online search engine. Basically Baidu is a Chinese version of Google. Anyway, the grass mud horse got millions of hits on YouTube and elsewhere on the internet in China. The grass mud horse was made in a documentary about the species of white alpacas in China's Gobi Desert. Since that some brave Chinese documentary makers had depicted the grass mud horse-Cao Ni Ma-fuck your mother as a stand to China's increasing online censorship. This was one of the events that led to China blocking YouTube; the final event before the censorship of YouTube was the use of videos to show Tibet's uprising against the harsh rule and human rights violations of the Chinese government.

Online censorship is definitely something new to me. Of course, I knew about the censorship being used in China, being a Communist country. I am living in Shanghai, the most liberal city in all of China, it is ALMOST like home; well, without all of the Chinese-the language, people and culture. I have always overlooked the censorship in China, mainly because the websites I have used were gmail, facebook, wikipedia, google, nytimes and YouTube. I always had access to them. The fact that China does block websites just didn't really hit me until they blocked YouTube and the explosion of controversy of the grass mud horse.

As I said before, the grass mud horse is one of the ten mythical creatures. I find this really interesting since that it gives me the pleasure of mind that there are still some radical people in China and those that are brave enough to stand against the Chinese government, even if they are the ones that have to pay for the consequences. Naturally, I have learned about all of the other nine. The source I got all of this information from is Wikipedia, as you all know is the world's most reliable source, haha.

1) The Grass Mud Horse- Cao Ni Ma- 草泥马 the one you all already know about and is the most famous one.

2) French-Croatian Squid- Fe Ka You- 法克鱿 "The name is derived from the direct Chinese transliteration of "fuck you" in English, was supposedly a species of squid discovered simultaneously by France (法国) and Croatia (克罗地亚). The Baidu Baike article claims that "Fa Ke You" is a species of invertebrate, an aggressive squid found in Europe. When agitated, it is said that they release a form of "white-coloured liquid". These squids are said to cause great harm to humans when attacked. When some of these squids reached East Asia, it is said that they became hunted, and eaten with corn. Such a dish is known as 玉米法克鱿 (yù mǐ fǎ kè yóu, "Corn French-Croatian Squid", resembles "you, me, fuck you"), being one of the world's top five greatest delicacies.

3) Small Elegant Butterfly-Ya Mie Die-雅蠛蝶. It literally means "stop", a reference to rape and common conceptions and stereotypes that the Chinese display towards the Japanese in regards to pornography and erotomania, was supposedly a type of butterfly discovered on 1 January 2009 at Tibetan Plateau, and that legends state that there was once a Japanese girl who turned into these butterflies after harsh pressures during a romantic relationship. These butterflies are able to change colour, and are luminescent, naturally emitting light from its wings. This is due to the cold temperatures and low oxygen environment these butterflies live in. There is an estimated 14,000 butterflies living throughout the world, and thus are considered to be precious and highly uncommon.

4) Chrysantemum Silkworms-Ju Hua Can-菊花蚕 It refers to intestinal worms, where the term "Chrysanthemums" (júhuā) is vulgar slang which refers to the anus. This referred to Chrysanthemum Terrace, a song by Jay Chou (a famous Chinese pop singer), where the lyrics 菊花残，满地伤 (Chrysanthemums scattered, fill the floor with wounds) are re-rendered with homophones and similar sounds as 菊花残，满腚伤 ("Chrysanthemum" worms, fill the buttocks). Ju Hua Can can also be interpreted as a pun on another homophone, 菊花残, meaning "broken chrysanthemum", which would be slang for a "broken anus", referring to (possibly painful) anal sex, as 残 is a homophone meaning "broken". Such a phrase implies hopelessness, as once a person is given a "broken anus", they would find difficulty in sitting down, and so "broken Chrysanthemum" is a common (vulgar) Chinese idiom. These silkworms are said to feed on chrysanthemum flowers rather than mulberry leaves. The article also states that the usage of Chrysanthemum Silkworms dates back to 3000 years ago in Ancient China, and that they were the first cultivation method of silk obtained by early scientists.

5) Quail Pigeon-Chun Ge-鹑鸽 The term Chun Ge has been used to refer to the female singer Li Yuchun due to her apparent masculine appearance. Pinyin: chūn gē chún yé men meaning "Brother Chun is all man." The 春 Chun can also refer to "fa chun" 发春, which is slang for sexual arousal - literally "Spring has come".

6) Lucky Journey Cat-Ji Ba Mao-吉跋猫 This is a homophone referring to pubic hair, as the homophone 鸡巴 (jiba) translates to "penis", while the definiton of 毛 máo is "hair" or "fur."The original article states that this cat lives in dark, damp environments and competes for food with the White Tiger (white tiger is a slang term for a woman's shaved pubic area). Additionally, the Ji Ba Mao flourished during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor.

7) Superior Tail Whale-Wei Shen Jing-尾申鲸 This is a homophone referring to menstrual pads. From the Baidu Baike article, it was discovered by Zheng He during his maritime adventures, this creature was hunted for clothing material to manufacture women's lingerie.

8) Singing Field Goose-Yin Dao Yan-吟稻雁 This is a homophone meaning a Vaginitis infection. From the article on Yin Dao Yan, in the Kangxi era, a large goose dove into a certain field, damaging it and causing the local farmers to come down with a strange sickness.

9) Intelligent Fragrant Chicken-Da Fei Ji- 达菲鸡 This is a homophone that means slang for masturbation while literally meaning "shooting the aeroplane." According to the original article, Da Fei Ji is a species of bird that likes exercise, and the males use neck spasms and spitting out a white secretion to impress females during mating seasons.

10) Mysterious Fiery Crab-Qian Lie Xie-潜烈蟹 This closely resembles 前列腺 (qián liè xiàn), which translates to prostate glands, A legendary crab that once stopped up the Grand Canal, referring to the urinary tract."

This now ends the very, very long quote from Wikipedia.

Well, what do you think? I am not sure what I think about all of this. Obviously I like reading about this because it shows radicalism in China. Also, I think it takes a very clever person to do the English transliteration and how similar it sounds in English. I think that this was also targeted for Westerners to read this. And possibly corrupting the younger generation of China as they are the ones who are learning English in today's modern China society. China is changing, getting richer and becoming more powerful; so why wouldn't the radicals not want to change the face of China's conservative culture? China wants to have the power like the rich countries, but not act exactly like them. After all, the rich countries of the world are the most liberal ones and doesn't condone censorship.

Ps: I have been hearing rumors that China may block this site. Grrrr, I don't want find a new blog site.