Wednesday 1 April 2009

After the "Grass Mud Horse", the "Hairy Cat"?


Saw this photo of sometimes-controversial Chinese blogger Zuola/Zola* with an toy alpaca and a tufted cat. The alpaca's meaning can be easily worked out by anyone familiar with the Chinese blogosphere, or even those outside of it. The tufted cat's meaning, however, can only be worked out if you realise that "Hairy Cat" (多毛猫) is pronounced similarly to the Chinese word for hide-and-seek (躲猫猫), which links it to a recent case of a prisoner's death in a police-run jail, which the police have sought to blame on a game of hide-and-seek gone bad. How did I work this out? Well, I cheated.

Anyone wanting to buy one of these cute cats can go here.

*The security certificate for Zuola's website appears to be out of date, however none of my anti-spyware/virus stuff seems to be lighting up on it.

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