Grass Mud Horse
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Literal meaning | grass mud horse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Grass Mud Horse is a Chinese Internet meme and kuso parody based on a word play of the Mandarin profanity cào nǐ mā (肏你妈), which literally means "fuck your mother".
Homophonic puns are commonly used in Chinese language as silly humor to amuse people, and have become an important component of jokes and standup comedy in Chinese culture.[1] Grass Mud Horse is one of the made-up "Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures" created in a hoax article on Baidu Baike in early 2009, whose names all come from obscene puns. It has become an Internet chat forum cult phenomenon in China and has garnered worldwide press attention, with videos, cartoons and merchandise of the animal (which is said to resemble the alpaca) having appeared. In the 2022 COVID-19 protests in China, Shanghai residents led "Grass Mud Horse" to protest on the streets.[2]
Etymology and species[edit]
The Caonima, literally "Grass Mud Horse", is supposedly a species of alpaca. The name is similar to a profanity (Chinese: 肏你妈/
According to the original, anonymous article from Baidu Baike, Grass Mud Horses originate from an area known as the "Mahler Gobi" Desert (马勒
The Grass Mud Horse can only eat fertile grass (沃草, wò cǎo, which resembles
Habitat[edit]
Because the Grass Mud Horse is said to be the dominant species which lives within the Mahler Gobi Desert, the region is also called the "Grass Mud Horse Gobi" (
The river crab (
The term "crab" itself is rural slang, meaning "a bully who uses power through force", and the "river crab" has become a symbol of crude censorship backed with the threat of force.[11] The river crab is often depicted wearing three wristwatches, since 带
Formats[edit]
Music videos,[13][14] "documentaries",[15][16][17] and cartoons about the Grass Mud Horse started appearing on the internet in 2009. The original Grass Mud Horse music video's musical arrangement of a children's choir has been compared to It's a Small World,[18] and it scored 1.4 million hits in its first three months. A cartoon about the Grass Mud Horse attracted a quarter million views, and a nature documentary on its habits received 180,000 more hits in the same amount of time.[8] Even though some Grass Mud Horse videos were not technically blocked by Chinese censors, some had their sound blocked, with a message saying "This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by WMG."[19]
Yazhou Zhoukan (
The "Grass Mud Horse" became widely known on the English-language web following the publication of a New York Times article on the phenomenon on 11 March 2009,[8] which sparked widespread discussion on blogs. In March 2011, "Grass Mud Horse" themed merchandise, such as plush dolls, began being sold over the Internet.[21] One Guangzhou toy manufacturer reportedly produced its first batch of 150 Grass Mud Horse cuddly toys with official birth certificates issued by Mahler Gebi Mystical Creatures Bureau. The animals come in brown and white, named "Ma Le" (马勒) and "Ge Bi" (
In 2009, renowned artist Ai Weiwei published an image of himself nude with only a 'Caonima' hiding his genitals, with a caption "
According to a study by NordPass, caonima was the 43rd most common password in China in 2021.[23]
Grass Mud Horse Day[edit]
In 2012, Chinese netizens started to designate the date July first as the "Grass Mud Horse Day". The date coincides with the "Party Day" in China which celebrates the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.[24]
Political discourse[edit]
The China Digital Times sees Caonima as the "de facto mascot of netizens in China fighting for free expression, inspiring poetry, photos and videos, artwork, lines of clothing, and more." It is an illustration of the "resistance discourse" of Chinese internet users with "increasingly dynamic and sometimes surprising presence of an alternative political discourse: images, frames, metaphors and narratives that have been generated from Internet memes [that] undermine the values and ideology that reproduce compliance with the Chinese Communist Party's authoritarian regime, and, as such, force an opening for free expression and civil society in China."
Caonima is an expression of a broader Chinese internet culture of spoofing, mockery, punning, and parody known as e'gao, which includes video mash-ups and other types of bricolage.[25]
Censorship[edit]
The Beijing Television Cultural Center fire led to Chinese internet users creating a number of digitally manipulated image parodies, including one with a Caonima's outline in the smoke.
On 20 March 2009, the New York Times reported that a Chinese contributor to Global Voices Online posted a message from an Internet administrator to managers of online bulletin boards warning that "any content related with Grass-Mud Horse should not be promoted and hyped" because "the issue has been elevated to a political level ... The overseas media has exaggerated the incident as a confrontation between netizens and the government."[26][27]
In a press conference on 25 March, the Foreign Ministry confirmed that China's access to YouTube had been officially blocked since two days earlier. According to Reporters Without Borders, the block was an attempt to stem videos showing Chinese repression of the Tibetan population in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising of 10 March 1959, and to block access to the popular Grass Mud Horse video posted in early March.[28]
The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television issued a directive on 30 March 2009 to highlight 31 categories of content prohibited online, including violence, pornography, and content which may "incite ethnic discrimination or undermine social stability". Many netizens believe the instruction follows the official embarrassment over the rise of the "Grass Mud Horse" phenomenon. Industry observers believe that the move was designed to stop the spread of parodies or other comments on politically sensitive issues in the runup to the 20th anniversary of the 4 June Tiananmen Square protests.[29]
Following the government's directive, most Chinese essays and blog postings made about the Grass Mud Horse have been removed from the Internet after being discovered by government censors.[11] Some of these citizen efforts to keep the Grass Mud Horse alive have moved offshore to the U.S. and elsewhere, including for example the creation of an independent Canadian publishing house (see Mudgrass Press) referencing the meme.
The Caonima reappeared as a subject of online cartoon satire following the announcement of the Green Dam Youth Escort pornography blocking software project.[30]
See also[edit]
- Chun Ge
- Internet in the People's Republic of China
- Jia Junpeng
- Mat (Russian profanity)
- Mother insult
- Very erotic very violent
- Yax Lizard
References[edit]
- ^ The pun also rises: how the humble pun revolutionized language, changed history, and made wordplay more than some antics. 1 October 2011.
- ^ "
白紙 革命 》廣州 人 怒 唱「光輝 歲月 」上海 「草 泥 馬 」上 街 ". Liberty Times (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 28 November 2022. - ^ China Digital Times
- ^ Baidu Baike
- ^ Baidu Baike
- ^ Wen Yunchao
- ^ AsiaNews.it
- ^ a b c Wines, Michael (12 March 2009). "A Dirty Pun Tweaks China's Online Censors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
- ^ Tom Chatfield (1 July 2013). "The internet's new secret social codes". BBC. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
- ^ Michael Wines (11 March 2009). "A Dirty Pun Tweaks China's Online Censors". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
- ^ a b c Parker
- ^ . University of Pompeau Fabria, Barcelona. p. 2.
{{cite book}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ Skippybently
- ^ Feifei2226
- ^ PowerApple.com
- ^ Xh1120
- ^ Awflasher
- ^ Wang and Nguyen
- ^ Xiaohe1120xu
- ^ Li
- ^ Daddytypes.com
- ^ Nandu Daily
- ^ "Top 200 Most Common Password List 2021". NordPass. 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
- ^
中共 七 一 建 党 节 网民反 讽战当局 (in Chinese). RFA. 2 July 2012. - ^ Christopher Rea, “Spoofing (e’gao) Culture on the Chinese Internet.” In Humour in Chinese Life and Culture: Resistance and Control in Modern Times. Jessica Milner Davis and Jocelyn Chey, eds. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013, pp. 149-172.
- ^ Wines. 20 March 2009
- ^ Global Voices
- ^ Government blocks access to YouTube Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Reporters Without Borders, 25 March 2009
- ^ Vivian Wu (3 April 2009). "Censors strike at internet content after parody hit". South China Morning Post. Hong Kong.
- ^ Koman, Richard (18 June 2009). "China's not backing down but Green Dam Girl fights back". Archived from the original on 21 June 2009. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
Bibliography[edit]
- "Chinese Bloggers Protest Blocking of YouTube". AsiaNews.it. 25 March 2009. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- Awflasher. "What is the Grass Mud Horse?". Youtube. 1 February 2009. Retrieved 18 February 2012. [Chinese].
- "The Grass Mud Horse". Baidu Baike. 2009. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2012. [Chinese screenshot].
- "Introduction to the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon". China Digital Times. The Berkley Counter-Power Lab. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- "Plush Your Mother: Grass Mud Horse Dolls In China". Daddytypes.com. 11 March 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
- Estes, Adam Clark (11 April 2011). "More Theories on Ai Weiwei's Arrest: Nude Photos, Plagiarism". Atlantic Wire. Archived from the original on 17 April 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
- Feifei2226. "The Grass Mud Horse Song, Animated Version, Bring Your Own Sunglasses!!!!!!". Youtube. 6 February 2009. Retrieved 18 February 2012. [Chinese].
- "China: Goodbye Grass Mud Horse". Global Voices. 18 March 2009. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
- Li Yongfeng (5 April 2009). "Chinese Netizens create the Grass Mud Horse Phenomenon in order to Criticize the Foolishness of the Government". Yazhou Zhoukan (in Chinese). Vol. 23, no. 13. p. 8. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
- "Over 80 Develop the Guangzhou Version of the Grass Mud Horse". Nandu Daily (in Chinese). 5 March 2009. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
- Parker, John (14 April 2010). "Google vs China: The Endgame". Asia Times Online. Archived from the original on 16 April 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
- "The Original 2009 Popular Science Article on the Grass Mud Horse". PowerApple.com (in Chinese). 4 February 2009. Archived from the original on 5 March 2012. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- Rea, Christopher. "Spoofing (e'gao) Culture on the Chinese Internet". In Jessica Milner Davis; Jocelyn Chey, eds. (2013). Humour in Chinese Life and Culture: Resistance and Control in Modern Times. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. pp. 149–172. Archived from the original on 15 December 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
- Sheridan, Michael (11 April 2011). "Ai Weiwei Held for 'Obscene' Political Art". The Australian. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
- Skippybently (12 March 2009). "Song of the Grass-Mud Horse (Cao Ni Ma)". Youtube. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- "Music Video: The Song of the Grass Mud Horse 《
草 泥 马之歌 》" (PDF). University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 18 February 2012. - Wang, Jen; Nguyen, Diana (17 March 2009). "F*ck Your Mother Ship, F*ck Censorship". Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- Wen Yunchao (13 March 2009). "The 'Grass-Mud Horses' Battling Internet Censors". France24. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- Wines, Michael (11 March 2009). "A Dirty Pun Tweaks China's Online Censors". New York Times. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- Wines, Michael (20 March 2009). "China: Censors Bar Mythical Creature". New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
- Xh1120. "Animal World Special on the Mahler Gobi's Grass Mud Horse". Youtube. 28 January 2009. Retrieved 18 February 2012. [Chinese].
- Xiaohe1120xu. "Animal World Special on the Mahler Gobi's Grass Mud Horse: Complete Version". Youtube. 7 February 2009. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- James, Randy (18 March 2009). "A Brief History of Chinese Internet Censorship". Time magazine. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
External links[edit]
- "CDT Launches the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon", China Digital Times, 7 December 2010
- China Digital Times' Grass-mud Horse Lexicon, as retrieved by the Wayback Machine on 4 March 2016
- The official Mud Grass Horse Song in the original Chinese with English annotations.
- Sim Chi Yin, "Mythical creature a not-so-secret weapon against Net nannies", Straits Times, 27 March 2009
- CNN explains the grass-mud horse on YouTube
- Another viral Grass-mud horse song with English subtitles on YouTube