Grass Mud Horse

An old story, but it cheers me up so I'mma remember it here.



The Chinese government has the most sophisticated software "Net Nanny" on the planet, yet this video and other stories of the "grass mud horse" get by.  In Mandarin the written characters for "grass mud horse" when spoken aloud, "cao ni ma," can be heard as, "fuck your mother."

The spoken phrase for the written characters "river crabs" sounds very much like "harmony," a euphemism for censorship in China. President Hu Jintaos regularly encourages Chinese citizens to create a "harmonious society."  Bloggers who've had to re-write a post say they've been "harmonized." 

The friendly grass-mud horse has become an icon of resistance to censorship among Chinese netziens.