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:o Some Chinese citizens are fighting censorship with subversive humor. To any native Mandarin speaker, the video of the grass-mud horse is at first shocking, then hilarious, and has been viewed over 1.4 million times in 2 months. With disneyfied children's chorus, the video tells of the grass-mud horse's triumph over the invading river crab as it encroaches on its habitat, the Ma Le Ge Bi desert.
There is no such horse, nor such desert.
The video in fact is exceedingly lame, as it is just looped images of alpacas. It is the children's chorus that matters: both the horse and the desert sound like vile obscenities in Mandarin. Follow-up videos have been posted, such as this cartoon whose imagery is also subversively vaguely reminescent of genitalia and sex acts.
The whole point is, the Chinese government has recently implemented a major crack down on Internet pornography, and used the crack down as a cover to purge political dissent as well, such as Charter 08, appealing for democracy in China.
The Chinese authorities refer to such censorship in doublespeak as 'harmonization.' So now, if something is censored on the web, Chinese citizens cynically refer to the material or its author as being 'harmonized.' And guess what? 'River crab' sounds like 'harmonize.'
So the video is clearly referring to the triumph of smut, and political dissent, over censorship. The New York Times qoutes Xiao Qiang, a professor of journalism: 'The expression and cartoon videos may seem like a juvenile response to an unreasonable rule... But the fact that the vast online population has joined the chorus, from serious scholars to usually politically apathetic urban white-collar workers, shows how strongly this expression resonates.'
The subversion continues to grow: buy your own copulating plush grass-mud horses.
A prominent intellectual calls herself a grass-mud horse. Which is delectably humorous, and shows the serious steel in this Chinese online revolt:
As for "Grass Mud Horse", I applaud the one who invented such a pun. Its underlining tone is: I know you do not allow me to say certain things. See, I am completely cooperative, right? Of course I think it inappropriate to utter these obscene words. I need not to demean myself below some level because of you. Even if you force me to say those words, I won't comply. I want to keep my decency and dignity. Even if you retreat to a barbarian level, I am going to keep my identity as a civilized person. You gonna tell me I can't do that? So, I say "Grass Mud Horse", not fxxx your mom. What is "Grass Mud Horse"? It always works hard in harsh conditions. See, it is from the vast grassland. I like it. I love it. This whole thing is too far away from you, out of your jurisdiction. Oh well, why are you always staring at me? Am I not perfectly fine? I am innocent. I have not been snatched away by some crooked folks. I have not been put under their control. And I am not vulgar. Why do you have to worry so much about me?
I am singing a cute children's song - I AM A GRASS MUD HORSE! Even though it is heard by the entire world, you can't say I've broken the law. |
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