Heads Up: Chinese Online Lit and Fossils Galore

Avoiding censors with "grass mud horse":

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/world/asia/12beast.html

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.

Netizens React to Censors:

"Apparent government directives widely posted on forums, chatrooms and on instant update services such as Twitter are now ordering Internet service providers to clamp down on spoof items about the “grass-mud horse,” a fictional alpaca-like creature dreamed up by netizens in response to a recent anti-porn campaign."

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/caonima-03242009121529.html

Free speech with 'grass mud horse'; Mythical creature a not-so-secret weapon against Net nannies:

http://www.contentagenda.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&xmlId=947299695