Stealth Middlefinger

SOME VERY CLEVER CHINESE have delivered a rousing middlefinger to the Chinese web censorship system, and it appears the Party is powerless to do anything about it. Read all about it in "A Dirty Pun Tweaks China’s Online Censors" by Michael Vines, published by the New York Times.

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 NYT, however, doesn't say exactly how much of a zinger this is. So, visit China Digital Times, and check out "The Song of the Grass Mud Horse" for a more scatological explanation. Reminds me of W.C. Fields' ongoing joust with the Hays Office — GodfreyDaniels!