A Dirty Pun Tweaks China’s Online Censors

[redqueen]

BEIJING — Since its first unheralded appearance in January on a Chinese Web page, the grass-mud horse has become nothing less than a phenomenon.

A YouTube children’s song about the beast has drawn nearly 1.4 million viewers. A grass-mud horse cartoon has logged a quarter million more views. A nature documentary on its habits attracted 180,000 more. Stores are selling grass-mud horse dolls. Chinese intellectuals are writing treatises on the grass-mud horse’s social importance. The story of the grass-mud horse’s struggle against the evil river crab has spread far and wide across the Chinese online community.

Not bad for a mythical creature whose name, in Chinese, sounds very much like an especially vile obscenity. Which is precisely the point.

The grass-mud horse is an example of something that, in China’s authoritarian system, passes as subversive behavior. Conceived as an impish protest against censorship, the foul-named little horse has not merely made government censors look ridiculous, although it has surely done that.

link

An anti-censorship movement building steam in China. Nice. :)

[moggie]

1. The article is a little coy

But opposing repression with smut and ridicule: that's awesome! And I think the democracy campaign called Wang is a great idea. I hope Wang continues to grow.

[redqueen]

2. Hah...

thank you. I really needed that chuckle.

[Buzz Clik]

3. The NYT article dances around this issue; this one does not:

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/03/02/china-more-on-grass-mud-horse/

China Digital Times has translated the Song of Grass Mud Horse, a big hit in the Internet, in early February. In brief, Grass Mud Horse （草泥馬） is said to be a legendary creature in China, but it is phonetically equivalent to “Fxxk Your Mother!” in Chinese. There are other similar vulgar terms circulating in the Internet (via DANWEI)....

...The article said that “Grass Mud Horse” is a creature living in “Ma Le Desert” (translator note: phonetically equivalent to “mother's cxxt”), the creature launches a battle with “river crab” (translator note: harmony / meaning censorship policy) in order to keep their stock grass (translator note: also phonetically equivalent to “fxxk”).

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/03/02/china-more-on-grass-mud-horse/

Oh, my!

[redqueen]

4. I wasn't overly concerned with knowing the specifics....

about what the dirty parts were.

[Buzz Clik]

5. On the other hand, I was ONLY concerned with the dirty parts.

:evilgrin:

[redqueen]

6. Heheheh...

and I'm sure you're not the only one, so thanks. :)

[moggie]

7. That makes sense

The only bit of Chinese I know (apart from "ni hao") is that "ma" pronounced with first tone means "mother", but with third tone it means "horse". Tone accent is crazy.

[hack89]

8. Here is the video - it's great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKx1aenJK08