Western audiences may not understand the appeal of the video at left, which features a children’s song about an alpaca-like creature. But, in China, "grass-mud horse" has a very different meaning.
This video and ones like it are a phenomenon in China because in Chinese “grass-mud horse” sounds like the phrase “fuck your mother.” Since the written characters and literal translation are benign, the video slipped past the strict censors that police the internet in China. The mythical creature has now become an anti-censorship mascot, with stores selling grass-mud horse dolls and scholars analyzing the videos’ significance. [The New York Times via Newser]
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