啊呀呀 中国的“草泥马”火啦!!

GRASS MUD HORSE: WHAT IS IT?!

Posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009
By Gerry Dorsey

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CHENGDU - Word has spread of the mythical creature, the “grass mud horse”, which is rumored to live in the Chinese desert. But what is it truly?​
The New York Times has just published an article explaining what they believe to be the origins of the “grass mud horse”. Apparently, in protest of severe censorship, Chinese citizens “created” a list of 10 mythical creatures with names that sound similar to Chinese profanities. One of these animals is the grass mud horse, or cao ni ma.​
The cao ni ma live in the Gobi Desert, where they have adapted to the harsh conditions. Their arch-nemeses are the “river crabs”, whom they do daily battle with.​
Weekly World News protests this ill-informed article! It is well known the grass mud horse do indeed exist. This is clearly a conspiracy led by the Chinese government itself to fool outsiders into believing they do not have a cryptid “problem”. Footage has been shared world-wide of this mythical beast, even accompanied by the voices of children singing worship.​


A Dirty Pun Tweaks China’s Online Censors

By MICHAEL WINES
Published: March 11, 2009
BEIJING — Since its first unheralded appearance in January on a Chinese Web page, the grass-mud horse has become nothing less than a phenomenon.
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Songs about a mythical alpaca-like creature have taken hold online in China.

Multimedia

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKx1aenJK08"]
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The mud-grass horse[/ame] (youtube.com)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Fl3q5gZNc"]
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A grass-mud horse cartoon[/ame] (youtube.com)


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The popularity of the grass-mud horse has raised questions about China’s ability to stanch the flow of information.



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 [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3tPA_Z_MT0"]grass-mud horse[/ame] 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.
It has also raised real questions about China’s ability to stanch the flow of information over the Internet — a project on which the Chinese government already has expended untold riches, and written countless software algorithms to weed deviant thought from the world’s largest cyber-community.
Government computers scan Chinese cyberspace constantly, hunting for words and phrases that censors have dubbed inflammatory or seditious. When they find one, the offending blog or chat can be blocked within minutes.
Xiao Qiang, an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, who oversees a project that monitors Chinese Web sites, said in an e-mail message that the grass-mud horse “has become an icon of resistance to censorship.”
“The expression and [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Fl3q5gZNc"]cartoon videos[/ame] may seem like a juvenile response to an unreasonable rule,” he wrote. “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.”
Wang Xiaofeng, a journalist and blogger based in Beijing, said in an interview that the little animal neatly illustrates the futility of censorship. “When people have emotions or feelings they want to express, they need a space or channel,” he said. “It is like a water flow — if you block one direction, it flows to other directions, or overflows. There’s got to be an outlet.”
China’s online population has always endured censorship, but the oversight increased markedly in December, after a pro-democracy movement led by highly regarded intellectuals, Charter 08, released an online petition calling for an end to the Communist Party’s monopoly on power.
Shortly afterward, government censors began a campaign, ostensibly against Internet pornography and other forms of deviance. By mid-February, the government effort had shut down more than 1,900 Web sites and 250 blogs — not only overtly pornographic sites, but also online discussion forums, instant-message groups and even cellphone text messages in which political and other sensitive issues were broached.
Among the most prominent Web sites that were closed down was Welcome to bullog.com, a widely read forum whose liberal-minded bloggers had written in detail about Charter 08. China Digital Times, Mr. Xiao’s monitoring project at the University of California, called it “the most vicious crackdown in years.”
It was against this background that the grass-mud horse and several mythical companions appeared in early January on the Chinese Internet portal Baidu. The creatures’ names, as written in Chinese, were innocent enough. But much as “bear” and “bare” have different meanings in English, their spoken names were double entendres with inarguably dirty second meanings.
So while “grass-mud horse” sounds like a nasty curse in Chinese, its written Chinese characters are completely different, and its meaning —taken literally — is benign. Thus the beast not only has dodged censors’ computers, but has also eluded the government’s own ban on so-called offensive behavior.
As depicted online, the grass-mud horse seems innocent enough at the start.
An alpaca-like animal — in fact, the videos show alpacas — it lives in a desert whose name resembles yet another foul word. The horses are “courageous, tenacious and overcome the difficult environment,” a YouTube song about them says.
But they face a problem: invading “river crabs” that are devouring their grassland. In spoken Chinese, “river crab” sounds very much like “harmony,” which in China’s cyberspace has become a synonym for censorship. Censored bloggers often say their posts have been “harmonized” — a term directly derived from President Hu Jintao’s regular exhortations for Chinese citizens to create a harmonious society.
In the end, one song says, the horses are victorious: “They defeated the river crabs in order to protect their grassland; river crabs forever disappeared from the Ma Le Ge Bi,” the desert.
The online videos’ scenes of alpacas happily romping to the Disney-style sounds of a children’s chorus quickly turn shocking — then, to many Chinese, hilarious — as it becomes clear that the songs fairly burst with disgusting language.
To Chinese intellectuals, the songs’ message is clearly subversive, a lesson that citizens can flout authority even as they appear to follow the rules. “Its underlying tone is: I know you do not allow me to say certain things. See, I am completely cooperative, right?” the Beijing Film Academy professor and social critic Cui Weiping wrote in her own blog. “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.”
In an essay titled “I am a grass-mud horse,” Ms. Cui compared the anti-smut campaign to China’s 1983 “anti-spiritual pollution campaign,” another crusade against pornography whose broader aim was to crush Western-influenced critics of the ruling party.
Another noted blogger, the Tsinghua University sociologist Guo Yuhua, called the grass-mud horse allusions “weapons of the weak” — the title of a book by the Yale political scientist James Scott describing how powerless peasants resisted dictatorial regimes.
Of course, the government could decide to delete all Internet references to the phrase “grass-mud horse,” an easy task for its censorship software. But while China’s cybercitizens may be weak, they are also ingenious.
The Shanghai blogger Uln already has an idea. Blogging tongue in cheek — or perhaps not — he recently suggested that online democracy advocates stop referring to Charter 08 by its name, and instead choose a different moniker. “Wang,” perhaps. Wang is a ubiquitous surname, and weeding out the subversive Wangs from the harmless ones might melt circuits in even the censors’ most powerful computer.
Zhang Jing contributed research.


 
真挺不容易,让老外解释这个。。

中国人的聪明啊。语言和文化底蕴都很深。
 
Global Voices Advocacy




China: Grass Mud Horse Disappeared in Google and Yahoo Search

posted by Oiwan Lam on Mar 20, 2009
categories: China, Features
Two days ago, a notice was distributed among online forum managers asking them not to continue the Grass Mud Horse Hyperbole by active moderation of posts. The latest report from GFW blog is that the term “Grass Mud Horse” has disappeared in Google and Yahoo search engine in China.
The ban is related to western mainstream media report (in particular New York Times) on the Grass Mud Horse and the interpretation of the spoof as a netizen resistance towards the internet censorship mechanism in China. The administration notice said:
One shouldn’t promote any content related with Grass Mud Horse, don’t turn it into hyperbole (including xx legendary creatures and river crab). It names and criticizes mop.com. The issue has been elevated into a political level, overseas media has turned it into a story of netizen and government confrontation.
However, it seems that the authority feels micro management in the forum level is inadequate and decides to give pressure to search engines. Below is GFW blog’s screen capture of the search result of “草泥马”:
 
屁民们大笑:搞,真搞。。。



80后开发广州版“草泥马” 让网友填写手册(图)​

来源:南方都市报  2009-03-05 08:28:04  作者:

http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/nfdsb/200903050022.asp

  
  
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白色的“草泥马”玩偶名为“歌碧”,咖啡色的名为“马勒”。  本报记者范舟波实习生  刘有志摄[/FONT]​
  

本报讯(记者 刘黎霞)被网友恶搞,喻为“中国十大神兽”之一的“草泥马”近期一下子成了网络的流行词。3月2日,5个广州本土的80后青年开发出两款“草泥马”玩偶,分别起名为“歌碧”和“马勒”,并且成品带着“出生证”被卖到了广州一些写字楼中。

  广州版“草泥马”有“出生证”
  昨日,记者在广州的一些写字楼里看到,“歌碧”和“马勒”在一夜之间流行起来。这种“草泥马”玩偶有纯白色和咖啡色两种。
  这两只神态憨厚可爱的“草泥马”还配有“出生证”,“出生证”上盖着鲜红的大印,上写“马勒戈壁神兽管理局计划生育专用章”。据介绍,这种广州版的“草泥马”售价为39.9元人民币/只。
  准备用网络漫画小说来包装
  开发者之一“麦糖”是一家网络公司的职员。“麦糖”告诉记者,今年2月,风行网络的“十大神兽”在受到网友追捧之后,他与几个朋友麦逗、麦乖、麦葱组成“麦X”组合,动起开发玩偶的念头。
  “歌碧”和“马勒”均是广州本土制造,其出生地就在番禺的某玩具厂,但它们却不是全国首批“草泥马”玩偶。“麦糖”说,3月2日首批150只“歌碧”和“马勒”新鲜出炉,但此时网络上已出现了如“萌萌”、“雷雷”等版本的“草泥马”,这让他们颇为遗憾。
  “麦X”们有着一脑子的奇思妙想。“我们不仅仅是想售卖”草泥马“,更想通过它们能让爱玩的朋友一起来参 与,”“麦糖”说,他们正在通过网络漫画、网络小说的形式来包装“歌碧”和“马勒”,还将在其官网上制作《草泥马饲养手册》、《草泥马使用说明》,至于“ 饲养手册”有啥内容,要让更多网友来“填空”,比如“养好草泥马,要喝草泥奶,不喝三鹿奶”之类。
  记者昨日登录“歌碧”和“马勒”的官方网站发现,虽然刚开通不到两日,网络点击率已超过5000次。
  雷人网络十大神兽
  近日,网上出现了一批关于中国十大神兽的网帖,列出了十种大家在现实中闻所未闻的全新物种的相关百度百科词条,这些词条基本都是粗口或者恶搞,包括草泥马、尾申鲸、潜烈蟹、达菲鸡、吉跋猫、吟稻燕、菊花蚕、雅麽蝶、法克鱿、春鸽。
  记者观察
  网络恶搞从“文化衫”到“玩偶”
  网络恶搞之风近年来很盛,而恶搞的手法也越来越多样化,以往在人们印象中,大概是玩玩“文化衫”的行为艺术,而“草泥马”玩偶横空出世让人大跌眼镜,原来还可以这样玩!
  记者留意到,这批年轻人的推广渠道不再是通过传统的窗口销售方式,而更多是通过网络人际传播,果然吸引一批玩家。
  “麦糖”告诉记者,买家中七八成都是通过网络订购,多数为喜欢卡通、漫画的80后、90后。互动也是这群年轻人 最看重的传播方式,为此,“麦糖”特意在每张出生证上附了编号,为何?除了是防止克隆之外,还更有深意,“有的网友不一定只买一对草泥马,只要上论坛上吆 喝一声,谁买了和我同样编号的草泥马啦?志同道合的朋友通过号码寻找组织,这样论坛会有趣很多。”




















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“草泥马”:读懂中国


6398个读者
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Benig @ yeeyan.com 7天前22:13
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简介
“草泥马”不仅一个文化现象,也可以看作中国政治和商业现状的缩影。

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何为“草泥马”?答曰“草泥马”是中国人对政府审查制度表达不满的方式。
Rebecca Mackinnon说,如果你在读今天的《纽约时报》,你大概看到了一则介绍中国互联网上流行的一条奇特的谜米——“草泥马”的报道。

Mackinnon是一位学者,博客作者和驻中国的记者。她今天在奥莱利电子科技会议上发言的时候指出,《纽约时报》的那篇报道——实际上介绍了一条肮脏的双关语如何被用作对审查制度的挑衅——并没有告诉你作为报道对象的这句脏话到底 是什么。而Mackinnon保证,她会告诉我们《纽约时报》所不愿说的。

她真的直言不讳地(好吧,她其实还是比较委婉地)告诉了我们中文中与“草泥马”谐音的那个词语。对于各位生性敏感的读者,以下内容非礼勿视:

这个词其实是“干 你 娘” 的意思。(Mackinnon当时说的是“F your mother",写到那个F开头的四字母单词时用了星号。)

“由于(中国互联网)受到官方审查,很多人觉得它很无聊,但其实中国互联网很有趣,”她说。事实上,最有趣的事情莫过于看人们怎样绕过审查。

“在中国,网站的内容受到审查,一般是通过关键词,所以当你试图在网站上发表政治敏感或者淫秽内容的时候,网站的‘错误提示’会告诉你‘对不起,您的帖子含有非法内容,请再试’。”

所以人们就使用那些秽亵语的谐音词,或者那些能使他们的政治言论躲过审查系统过滤的说法。Mackinnon举了另外一条谜米作为例子:“河蟹带三个表”。
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这条谜米的背景是中共领导人提出的两条口号——胡 锦 涛的“和 谐 社会”和江 泽 民的“三 个 代 表”。网民把这两条口号放在一起,做了一点加工,直到它们听上去像极了“河蟹带三个表”。

“这些词基本上是在说‘政府的口号多得令人厌烦,我们要拿这些口号找点乐子,”Mackinnon说。

现在的问题是中国国内的形势是什么样的。这种形势健康合理么?它会鼓励民主的发展么?

中国政府正逐渐了解因特网,并开始试图对中国的网络公众施加影响。中国的网络正孕育着一种辩论的氛围,如果不是传统意义上的民主的话。

“学者们把这称作一种独裁主义的探讨——你身处一个独裁社会中,没有民主机构,没有对言 论 自由的法 律保障,也没有公开的法 庭 审判。但你可以在网上发帖子、上传视频。”

但是,她接着说,“那不是民主”。

Mackinnon还补充说,许多公司在这件事中与政府串通一气,这是许多西方人无法理解的。毕竟并非中国政府亲自审查网络信息。政府制定规则,但这些规则很松散——而最后解读这些规则并执行审查的是那些公司。

如果你登录Google.com搜索“天 安 门 事 件”,你可以找到许多令人毛骨悚然的血腥图片。你也可以试试登录Google.cn进行相同的操作。但在中国本土的搜索引擎百度上,你却根本什么也找不到。

她说,是私营的科技和网络公司在政府和普通人之间扮演了结合部的作用——而且这些公司不会照顾普通公民的利益。

“在政府和民众之间形成的这层‘隔膜’对政府更有利,因为这些经营信息业务的公司都承受着巨大的审查压力。各公司可以选择对客户言论内容审查的程度。”

这就是Mackinnon之所以支持最近开始的全球网络倡议的原因。全球网络倡议是一个公司群体,旨在了解网络公司怎样可以更好运行。在中国经营互联网业务的公司都应该加入这项行动,它们应该明白它们的决定对普通民众有着实在的影响。

最后,Mackinnon说:“只有不断反思我们日常活动造成的影响,我们的自由才能保持健康。”
 
真不知道是哪个牛人想出来的,,,,都是人才啊````
 
西方媒体就是这样,只要冠以民主、自由等头衔,啥玩儿都伟大地掉渣儿。。。
 
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