13 Songs about ‘Mother’ at the Verge

of Being ‘Harmonised’: Propagation

of Resistance against the
Great Firewall of China
 
Chow Ow Wei
 

Since March 2009, ‘grass mud horse’, one of the so-called 10 mythical
creatures created as an internet meme, has spread widely among Chinese
internet users. Its popularity has increased dramatically through netizens,
internet users who have enabled numerous creative spoofs in the format of
music videos, documentaries, cartoons, calligraphies, seal stamp etchings,
essays and encyclopedia entries going viral in Chinese social media.
The mascot image of ‘grass mud horse’ is a collage of elements that gives
the appearance of a species of alpaca. Texts in both the literature and
musical works are constructed using homophones that make a humiliating
reference to ‘mother’, a common derogatory type of profanity used in
Chinese. As variants of ‘grass mud horse’ are continuously invented, many
speculate ‘grass mud horse’ and other mythical creatures emerged as a
result of internet censorship by the State internet Information Office which
is the current agency in charge of the Chinese Government. It is controlled
by the leading group in the Chinese Communist Party,1 and has shutdown
numerous chat rooms and forums. Netizens and the content providers are
often watched by the censors, which are also known as the Great Firewall of
China. The firewall attempts to prevent netizens from accessing or posting
‘sensitive’ or ‘harmful’ materials. ‘Grass mud horse’, an internet meme with
layered meanings, surpasses the firewall filter that monitors chat rooms for
obscenity and vulgarity. One the one hand it has created a loophole in the
censorship blockade, but on the other hand, it has also come to be regarded
as a symbolic rebellion against the diminishing freedom of expression on
the internet.2

                                                            
1 In the following named as SIIO of the Chinese Government. The SIIO of the Chinese
Government is following the former State Council Information Office in this function.
2 Songs about ‘grass mud horse’ are initially noted in two versions. Ai Weiwei added
up a new one appearing as parody of a song popularised outside the Chinese border,
but an immediate block by the SIIO of the Chinese Government still echoes the
unchanged reality.
UPM Book Series on Music Research, No. 6, 2014 – ISSN 2289-3938. 
144 Chow Ow Wei
Introduction
Since 2009, ‘Grass mud horse’, or caonima (草泥馬) in Mandarin, has become
widespread among internet users in the Chinese speaking world. More than
just a widely used expression it also inspires artistic works such as ‘grass
mud horse’ themed music videos. At least 4.6 millions results are displayed
when ‘grass mud horse’ or ‘草泥馬＇is searched on the internet,3 but only
three songs about ‘grass mud horse’ are available so far. Among these, two,
similarly titled ‘草泥馬之歌’ (Grass Mud Horse Song), tell an intriguing
story of ‘grass mud horse’.4 The first features a children chorus singing in a
lively, marching tune (Figure 1a) and shows visuals of ‘grass mud horses’
moving about in their habitat. The latter (Figure 1b) shows an animation
depicting ‘grass mud horses’, their habitat and a nemesis called ‘river crabs’
(河蟹) with a storyteller rapping, playing a morinkhuur5 and singing a tune
closely resembling those of Xingjiang. Although these songs are presented
in different styles and musical moods, they share the same content that
narrates a ‘life form’ as described in the following section.

Figure 1a: Images captured from the music video of the “Grass Mud Horse Song”
musically distinguished as the children chorus version (Source: “草泥馬之歌”, 2009,
00:00:20);

Figure 1b: Stills captured from the animated music video of the “Grass Mud Horse
Song” musically distinguished as the male vocal version (“動畫版草泥馬之歌”, 2009,
00:00:04).
Original song text: Translation:

在那荒茫美麗馬勒戈壁 In the remote but beautiful Mahler Gobi Desert

有一群草泥馬 There is a group called the grass mud horse
他們活潑又聰明 They are lively and smart
他們調皮又靈敏 They are cheeky and sensitive

                                                            
3 Google search engine provides 9,910,000 results for ‘grass mud horse’ and 4,666,000
for ‘草泥馬’, as of 29 July, 2013.
4 While the other one is a parody titled “Caonima Style” created by Ai Weiwei.
5 A traditional bowed string instrument originating from Mongolia.
 Propagation of Resistance against the Great Firewall of China 145 
他們由自在生活在那草泥馬戈壁 They live freely on Mahler Gobi Desert
他們頑強勇敢克服艱苦環境 They are strong and brave in overcoming harsh
噢 臥槽的草泥馬 conditions
噢 狂槽的草泥馬 Oh excellent grass mud horse
他們爲了臥草不被吃掉 打敗了河蟹 Oh superb grass mud horse
河蟹從此消失草泥馬戈壁 They defeated the river crab to save fertile
grass(land)
The river crab disappeared from Mahler Gobi Desert
forever
Figure 2: Song text of the “Grass Mud Horse Song” as children chorus (English
translation by Wang et al 2012: 22).

A ‘Horse’ Is ‘Born’
The origin of a ‘grass mud horse’ (Figure 3) is widely explained in the
internet6 as a partially domesticated animal classified as a member of the
‘caoni’ (草泥) species. It has a long and bumpy neck, a comparatively small-
sized head, upright ears, a flat back, a raised tail and long legs. Its fur is
light grey, brownish yellow or dark brown and covers its body with a
length of 60–80 mm. The male has a slightly larger body size than the
female. In the highlands 4,000 meters above sea level, they reside in a troop
of 10 or more, which is piloted by a strong male leader, and are feed on
mountainous plants with thorns. Male ‘grass mud horses’ fiercely compete
with each other during mating seasons as only one male will finally lead the
troop. Mating seasons usually take place in spring and summer, and
females are expected to deliver only one offspring after 8-month pregnancy.
The fur of the animal, which is longer than that of the sheep, is glossy and
highly elastic and thus it can be made into better-quality woollen products.
Its skin and flesh also have economical value in the leather and food
industry, while tamed ones can serve as a means of animal-powered
transport. ‘Grass mud horses’ live in the wild and the beautiful ‘Mahler
Desert’ (馬勒戈壁), which is also named Grass Mud Horse Desert after this
dominant animal species. Being smart, active, playful and keen, they adopt
survival skills to overcome the extreme environmental insufficiencies. With
the shortage of water and food in the desert area, they feed on almost all
kinds of grasses. But those that feed on ‘fertile grass’ (沃草) or ‘crouching
grass’ (臥草) grow fur, skin and flesh considered of superior quality. As this

                                                            
6 Available in editable online encyclopedia websites such as Wikipedia and Hudong
Baike (互動百科) but not in Baidu Baike (百度百科).
146 Chow Ow Wei
special grass grows around human populated areas, a ‘grass mud horse’ has
been domesticated as a companion to humans for generations7.

Figure 3: Four images generally regarded as the ‘grass mud horse’. [Open source].

Additionally, there are two subspecies called ‘fertile grass mud horses’
(臥草泥馬) and the stronger ‘crazy grass mud horses’ (狂草泥馬), which are
the ‘kings’ of the so-called horses.
However, they face threats from another animal species, a huge crustacean
population of ‘river crabs’ (河蟹). These crabs invade the ‘Mahler Desert’
and destroy the ‘fertile grass’ as much as possible to intentionally cause
hardship for the survival of ‘grass mud horses’.

                                                            
7 Translated from the original text in Chinese available on http://www.baike.bcom/
wiki/%E8%8D%89%E6%B3%A5%E9%A9%AC as viewed on 26 Jul 2013.
 Propagation of Resistance against the Great Firewall of China 147 
‘Grass mud horses’ must fight
against the ‘river crabs’, which
are often depicted ‘wearing three
wrist watches’ (帶三個表) (Figure
4), hoping to eventually chase
them out of the desert.8

Figure 4: A ‘river crab’ wearing ‘three

wrist watches’ that symbolize the
three representatives. [Open source].

Truth, Derivatives and ‘Contemporaries’

Never before have global internet users come across such animals in the
natural sciences. Although what is written about ‘grass mud horse’ on the
internet is intellectually stimulating and provoking, it is also interesting to
find out that according to some younger netizens9, ‘grass mud horse’ is a
better known common name for an animal commonly known in the past as
an alpaca whose ‘identity’ was nevertheless borrowed for the making of
‘grass mud horse’. Unaware internet users, perhaps of a younger
generation, are likely to believe in such intrigue. However, the wit and
notion behind it is even more noteworthy.
It is commonly understood that the SIIO of the Chinese Governmenthas a
high-level sensitivity to people’s use of the internet and regularly blocks
online content regarded as ‘inappropriate’. Therefore, while producing the
largest population of internet users,10 China blocks netizens from accessing

                                                            
8 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse, viewed on 23 December,
2012.
9 As told by a Malaysian student on what her local course mates said about ‘grass mud
horse’ when studying in Tsinghua University, Beiijing, China in December, 2012.
10 Based on the estimation of Wang Chen, the chief of the Information Office of the State
Council, the population of Internet users in China has exceeded 500 million in 2012 as
compared to merely 60 million in 2002. The latest statistics from China Internet
Network Information Center (CNNIC) suggest that the broadband penetration rate in
China is now over 98%, and the average time spent by a Chinese netizen online is 2.6
hours per day. (Wang et al, 2012: 15–16).
148 Chow Ow Wei
internet applications such as Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, Google11 and
Twitter, although netizens are still allowed to use cloned applications that
serve as ‘alternatives’ to theses inaccessible sites.12 Furthermore, in early
2009, the authorities started monitoring ‘vulgarity’ over the internet
through online policing, causing numerous allegedly causing the shutdown
of indecent online discussion boards and chat rooms.13 Websites, inside and
outside China, are constantly ‘harmonised’ (和諧) through a content
blocking system14 (Clayton et al, 2006). The process of ‘harmonisation’
extends into emails and messenger texts to scan for ‘vulgar’ and ‘harmful’
keywords before allowing the contents to display for their intended viewer.
This sophisticated censorship system is widely known as the Great Firewall
of China.15
Issues arise when platforms are made existent to store user-created content
but at the same time are denied in the name of ‘harmony’ by the authorities’
standard. However, annoyed netizens found a satirical way to react in a
vulgar manner to the institutional surveillance against vulgarity. Jiayuan
Baike16 indicates that initially a netizen posted a pun on mop.com17 but later
it spawned in the internet and provoked zealous netizens to drastically
participate in the construction of a fictional animal called ‘grass mud horse’.
Once the construction – the narratives of name, shape and form, habitat and
food, nemesis and economical values – was completed with borrowed

                                                            
11 Google.cn commenced in China in 2000 and achieved a level of success as a popular
Chinese-language search interface but totally vanished in the Chinese Internet
landscape on 3 September, 2002 (Thompson, 2006).
12 Within the Chinese border, Sina (新浪網), Sina Weibo (新浪微博), Baidu Baike
(百度百科), Tudou (土豆網), Baidu (百度), QQ (騰訊網) are popular clones to Yahoo,
Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, Google and Skype respectively. According to Ai
Weiwei, these companies work within the framework set by the Chinese authorities
“with regards of what users can say on these services”. (Lardinois, 2010).
13 Being two of the most popular Internet platforms for Chinese netizens (Thompson,
2006).
14 Three distinct methods of such were identified as packet dropping, DNS poisoning
and content inspection (Dornseif, 2003), whereas equivalent terms such as IP
blocking, IP address misdirection and data filtering are also noted (Hu, 2011).
15 Colloquially known as 防火長城 (fánghu chángchéng) in Chinese.
16 This website is known as the Canadian Chinese Wikipedia (家園百科).
17 Known as 貓撲 (māopù) in China, it is well known and influential bulletin board
system (BBS). In January 2009, it was reported to contain ‘vulgar content’ by Chinese
Internet Illegal Information Report Centre. Source: http://net.china.com.cn/qzl/
txt/2009-01/05/content_2668340.htm, viewed on 28 July, 2013.
 Propagation of Resistance against the Great Firewall of China 149 
images of an alpaca (Figure 3), a type of camel living in the South American
highlands, an internet meme was finally formulated. The successfully
created metaphorical figures of ‘grass mud horse’ and ‘river crabs’ as
representations of ‘the repressed’ and ‘the repressor’ (Wang et al, 2012: 21)
were well received and thus the internet meme became extraordinarily
popular and went viral. Various products such as cartoon, video and
stuffed toys were subsequently developed,18while other creative art forms
continued to proliferate according to cultural references.

Figure 5: The dedicated Chinese character and a seal carving design for ‘grass mud
horse’ [Open source].

For instance, a new, dedicated Chinese character19 (Xu 2009) integrating the
radicals of ‘grass’ (草), ‘mud’ (泥) and ‘horse’ (馬) characters (Figure 5) was
introduced. Subsequently, cultural products based on this dedicated
character, such as calligraphy and seal carvings (Figure 5), were also
created. Other notable products included Chinese New Year traditional
illustrations, internet emoticons, stuffed toy merchandise, T-shirts, an
emblem for a nation called People’s Republic of Caonima (Figure 6a) and an
identity card of a citizen named Grass Mud Horse (Figure 6b). However, the
creators remain unknown and thus ‘grass mud horse’ is likely to be owned
and shared by the mass.
Moreover, the pun becomes conversationally witty when ‘grass mud horse’
is pronounced in Mandarin and sounds like a profanity commonly used to
insult one’s mother. But the subversive narratives do not end there.
Through word play, ‘10 mythical creatures’ were invented as well. These

                                                            
18 For an industry described as the ‘grass mud horse industry’ (Wu 2012).
19 Recommended to pronounce as “jià” or “yú” by a netizen named Kenneth Tan.
Source: http://shanghaiist.com/2009/03/23/character_of_the_day.php, viewed 30 July,
2013.
150 Chow Ow Wei
‘mythical creatures’20 are also fictional and created as widespread internet
meme that are homophonic as vulgar expressions.

Figure 6: A dedicated design of the national emblem for the ‘People’s Republic of
Caonima’ and a ‘PRC’ national’s identity card [Open source].

Through parody or kuso (くそ)21 in Japanese language, Chinese netizens

seem to find a way to mock the SIIO of the Chinese Governmentand amuse
themselves by spreading fake content with obscure vulgarity as spoofs and
hoaxes to pass through the censors. This is interpreted as a passive criticism
tossed around by netizens against the Great Firewall of China. I may also be
interpreted as a symbolic resistance against the political idea of a
‘harmonious society’, which is ‘a real effort in building a culturalist/
humanist image of the state’ (Wang et al, 2012: 12).

The Trouble with Homophonic Puns

Although the Chinese language is the most spoken language in the world,
one may probably find it difficult to learn due to its unique property in
pronunciation. Many Chinese characters have designated pronunciations
even though they are romanised similarly. For example, 馬 (literally ‘horse’)
                                                            
20 Also known as ‘Baidu 10 mythical creatures’ or ‘Baidu 10 Deities’ (百度十大神獸). The
spoofs were first available on Baidu Baike. They include ‘grass mud horse’, 法克鱿
(f kèyóu, literally ‘French-Croatian squid’), 雅蠛蝶 (y mièdié, literally ‘small elegant
butterfly’), 菊花蠶 (júhuācán, literally ‘chrysanthemum silkworm’), 尾申鯨
(wěishēnjīng, literally ‘stretch-tailed whale’), 潛烈蟹 (qiánlièxiè, literally ‘hidden fiery
crab’), 吉跋貓 (jíbámāo, literally ‘lucky journey cat’), 吟稻雁(yíndàoyàn, literally
‘singing field goose’), 達菲雞 (dáfēijī, literally ‘intelligent fragrant chicken’) and 鹑鴿
(chúngē, literally ‘quail pigeon’). Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu_10_
Mythical_Creatures, viewed on 29 July, 2013.
21 Means ‘crap’ or ‘shit’ in Japanese. It is also a popular term in Chinese media to denote
惡搞 (è g o).
 Propagation of Resistance against the Great Firewall of China 151 
and 媽 (literally ‘mother’) are homophonic as they are romanised as ma but
pronounced as mă and mā.
Therefore, when ‘grass mud horse’ is pronounced in Mandarin as caonima, it
can also refer to a typical profanity in Chinese language that means ‘f**k
your mother’ (肏你媽). Further examples from the "Grass Mud Horse Song"
with such connotations that potentially escape the censors are shown in
Figure 7.
Terms&
Literal Meaning Romanisation Reference and Meaning
Pronunciation
草泥馬 grass mud 肏你媽 f**k your
caoni ma
cǎonímă horse càonǐmā mother
沃草泥馬 fertile grass 我肏你媽 I f**k your
wocaoni ma
wòcǎonímă mud horse wǒcàonǐmā mother
臥草泥馬 crouching grass 我肏你媽 I f**k your
wocaoni ma
wòcǎonímă mud horse wǒcàonǐmā mother
狂草泥馬 狂肏你媽 violently
crazy grass
kuángcǎonímă kuangcaoni ma kuángcǎonímǎ f**k your
mud horse
mother
馬勒戈壁 Mahler Gobi 媽了個屄 mother’s
ma le ge bi
mǎlègēbì Desert mǎ le gèbì c*nt
卧槽 我肏
crouching grass wocao I f**k
wòcǎo wǒcào
沃草 我肏
fertile grass wocao I f**k
wòcǎo wǒcào
朝尼 肏你
Chaoni people chaoni f**k you
cháoní càonǐ
河蟹 和諧
river crab hexie harmony
héxiè héxié
帶三個表 wearingthree 三個代表 The Three
dai san gebiao
dàisāngèbiǎo watches sāngèdàibiǎo Represents

Figure 7: List of terms from the “Grass Mud Horse Song” with possible homophonic
references to profanity.

In typical profanity in the Chinese language, vulgar connotations of

genitalia and sexual acts are often associated. In order to achieve
humiliation as the ultimate purpose of vulgarity, ‘mother’ of the referred
person is unfortunately often insulted and cursed. Chinese censors have
forbidden the use of obscene language on the internet such as ‘肏你媽’, but
‘grass mud horse’ embarrassingly slips through the censors and makes it
even more difficult to filter all internet content containing words of ‘grass’,
‘mud’ and ‘horse’. With such a loophole on the Great Firewall of China,
netizens surprisingly find an uncontrollable way to misbehave and at the
same time to mock the authorities with “impunity that eventually makes
152 Chow Ow Wei
the word an icon of grassroots aspirations for freedom of speech” (Wang et
al, 2012: 20). In such context, netizens find a convenient way to swear
without any nasty word when they transmit ‘grass mud horse’ as a text or
graphic entry.

A New Height through Digital Activism

No doubt the many overwhelming contributions by Chinese netizens in
making ‘grass mud horse’ an enormously successful internet meme has
somehow projected a rare reaction against the censorship of internet
expression in China. However, without the participation of activists ‘grass
mud horse’ will remain a short-lived phenomenon or an interminable
business opportunity. ‘Grass mud horse’, now signifies more than a life
form in natural sciences and vulgar profanity. It has found new life through
activists who are deeply affected by the constantly questionable governance
in China. The solution is digital activism which stresses resistance against
actual and virtual repression from the authorities. Ai Weiwei (艾未未), a
dissident artist and an exemplary activist who constantly challenges the
boundary of 'freedom in expression' in China, applies ‘grass mud horse’ as
an icon of resistance in a series of art works. Referencing the example above,
the ‘mother’, as suggested by some of Ai Weiwei’s works, is of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party in the People’s Republic of China.
Being an artist, curator, architectural designer, and social commentator who
emerged in China after co-curating his first solo exhibition held in Shanghai
in 2000,22Ai is now perhaps an iconic figure in the contemporary cultural
scene in China. He has been involved in numerous art projects that evoke
critics towards authorities, especially in art works like Breaking of a Han
Dynasty Urn23 and So Sorry.24 Philipsen (2011) sees in him both an artist as
hacker and a social critic. As an artist as hacker, he goes across traditional

                                                            
22 Since then, his artworks have been exhibited extensively in Australia, Belgium, China,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea and the United States. Source: ArtSpeak China
(ASC) Wiki, http://www.artspeakchina.org/mediawiki/index.php/Ai_Weiwei_ %E8%
89%BE%E6%9C%AA%E6%9C%AA, viewed on 3 May 2013.
23 失手(Chinese title, literally ‘accident’), 1995, 1 set of 3, medium: black & white
photography, 148 x 121 cm each. (Ai 2010, plate 2).
24 她在這個世界上開心地生活過七年 (Chinese title, literally ‘she lives happily in this
world for 7 years’), 2009, medium: children’s backpacks, 920 x 10605 cm,
photographed by Jens Weber. (Ai 2010, plate 13).
 Propagation of Resistance against the Great Firewall of China 153 
boundaries, in terms of his artistic media and his role as an artist, and
combines all conceivable genres together through a conceptualised process,
that one art form always strongly indicates other art form and thus Ai
should be more accurately regarded as a multi-media artist. As a social
critic, his artistic format is recognised by cultural references, materials,
forms and installations which instil ‘a complex expression that contains
many facets and, hence, has an ambiguous appearance’. A more prominent
side of him being uncommonly vocal by Chinese standards is his sharp,
open criticism of conditions in China that can be visible via his expression
on his blog, tweets25 and documentary films. Often in conjunction with
specific incidents, Ai criticised the oppression of individual rights and made
no attempt to hide his criticism of the authorities. As indicated in
‘Fairytale’26 and ‘Sunflower Seeds’27, his recent projects are ‘not formulated
as part of his art practice but springs from concrete social and political
indignation’, and therefore the SIIO of the Chinese Governmentstarted to
keep a watchful eye28 on him.
Ai collaborated with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron and worked as
the artistic consultant for designing the architecture of the Beijing National
Stadium, which is better known as the Bird Nest, but later distanced himself
from the project in dispute. He was involved in a so-called citizen’s
investigation of student casualties in the Sichuan earthquake in 2008,
documenting his findings on his internet blog which was later shut down
by the Chinese Communist Party. He has been beaten up by police, hacked
by the People’s Liberation Army, placed under house arrest and was
eventually arrested by the police for alleged economic crimes. He was
released after an 81-day detention, and his supporters believe his arrest was
retaliation for his vocal criticism of the government. In contrast, in 2012 he

                                                            
25 Using Twitter in China is considered “very physical and dangerous” (Lardinois,
2010).
26 Also known as “童話” in Chinese. This was his solo exhibition in 2007 where 1,001
Chinese nationals were brought to Kassel, Germany (Ai, 2010, plate 6–7).
27 His solo exhibition in 2010 as Tate Modern, London was filled up with 100 million
hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds.
28 An extremely literal example is that they set up surveillance cameras outside his
house located in Beijing, China (Philipsen, 2011: 32; Springford, 2010; Klayman, 2012).
154 Chow Ow Wei
was number three on the Art Review’s list of the 100 most powerful figures
in the art world.29
Ai did not invent ‘grass mud horse’, but he clearly advocates it as an artist
obsessed who constantly conflates the pun in his recent artworks to
‘challenge the Communist Party’ (Fisher, 2012). One of his better known
works, displayed as a semi-nude self portrait with a stuffed ‘grass mud
horse’ covering his private parts, bears the title ‘Grass Mud Horse Covering
the Middle’ (草泥馬擋中央), which homophonically refers to ‘f**k your
mother, the Central Committee of the Communist Party’ (肏你媽黨中央). He
also produced a few videos and disseminated them on the internet. One
shows him learning to sing the “Grass Mud Horse Song” (Figure 8), while
another one (Figure 9) represents a parody of ‘Gangnam Style’, a global hit
song by Psy30 from South Korea. The parody titled ‘Grass Mud Horse Style’
(草泥馬 Style) was set in blatant political context31 collected over 100,000
views over a short period after the video was published.32 On May 22nd
2013, he published a music video33, titled ‘Dumbass’34 (傻伯夷). Today,
netizens who are able to traverse the Great Firewall have a chance to see
how he continues to protest the abuse of individual rights in China with
visuals that reconstruct his nightmarish detention experience (Figure 10), as
well as song texts that contain vulgar expressions as shown in Figure 11.

                                                            
29 He indeed topped the list in 2011. Source: Art Review Power 100, http://www.
artreview100.com/2012-power-100, viewed on 1 August, 2013.
30 Born Park Jae-sang, he is a South Korean entertainer, songwriter, record producer and
television personality and became globally well-known with his hit song “Gangnam
Style” which have collected 1,739,711,771 views on YouTube as of 16 October, 2013.
31 In the video, a handcuff and sunglasses suggest Ai’s detention and the case of Chen
Guangcheng (陳光誠) who was a blind civil rights activist and lawyer being arrested
by the Chinese authorities but later he fled to the United States in May 2012 (Xin,
2012; Ji, 2012).
32 On 25 October, 2012, Ai posted the video on his blog at midnight and some netizens
uploaded it on Tudou but the video only survived for few hours before it was
completely removed in the next morning (Xin, 2012).
33 As the first single of his debut music album, Divine Comedy (神曲), in which he
collaborated with musician Zuoxiao Zuzhou (左小祖咒).
34 Language guardians at Wall Street Journal found this Chinese title is too vulgar to be
printed (Chin, 2013).
 Propagation of Resistance against the Great Firewall of China 155 

Figure 8: Still captured from “ ” (Ai Weiwei learns to sing the Grass Mud
Horse Song), a video directed by Ai (2011, 00:01:07).

Figure 9: Still captured from “ Style” (Grass mud horse style), a video directed by
Ai (2012, 00:00:23).

Figure 10: Still captured from “傻伯夷” (Dumbass), a video directed by Ai (2013,
00:00:18).
156 Chow Ow Wei
Original song text: Translation:
當你要出擊他嘟囔非暴力 When you're ready to strike, he mumbles about non-violence
你擰他的耳朵他說這樣不治拉稀 When you pinch his ear, he says it's no cure for diarrhoea
你說你馬勒隔壁他說他天下無敵 You say you're a motherf**ker, he claims he's invincible
你說你馬勒隔壁他說他天下無敵 You say you're a motherf**ker, he claims he's invincible
寬恕你大爺容忍你媽逼 F**k forgiveness, tolerance be damned
素質你妹耶至賤則無敵 To hell with manners, the low-life's invincible
寬恕你大爺容忍你媽逼 F**k forgiveness, tolerance be damned
素質你妹耶至賤則無敵 To hell with manners, the low-life's invincible

傻伯夷啊傻伯夷 Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!

傻伯夷啊傻伯夷 Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!
傻伯夷啊傻伯夷 Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!
傻伯夷啊傻伯夷 Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!
啦啦啦啦啦…… Lalalalala…

像一個傻逼一樣站出来 Stand on the frontline like a dumbass

國家就是一隻雞啊 In a country that puts out like a hooker
菊花開遍原野哪哪兒都是傻逼 The field's full of f**kers… dumbasses are everywhere
菊花開遍原野哪哪兒啊都是傻逼 The field's full of f**kers… dumbasses are everywhere
寬恕你大爺容忍你媽逼 F**k forgiveness, tolerance be damned
素質你妹耶至賤則無敵 To hell with manners, the low-life's invincible
寬恕你大爺容忍你媽逼 F**k forgiveness, tolerance be damned
素質你妹耶至賤則無敵 To hell with manners, the low-life's invincible
你說你馬勒隔壁他說他天下無敵 You say you're a motherf**ker, he claims he's invincible
你說你馬勒隔壁他說他天下無敵 You say you're a motherf**ker, he claims he's invincible
菊花開遍原野哪哪兒都是傻逼 The field's full of f**kers… dumbasses are everywhere
菊花開遍原野哪哪兒啊都是傻逼 The field's full of f**kers… dumbasses are everywhere
Figure 11: The song text of “Dumbass”. (Translated by Calusarul) [Source:
http://http://lyricstranslate.com/en/dumbass-%E5%82%BB%E4%BC%AF%E5%A4%B7-
dumbass.html, viewed on 1 August, 2013].

Conclusion
Quoting Ai from his blog which is no longer available (Custer, 2009; Fisher,
2012):
In sixty years, [I] have never seen a ballot. There isn’t education for
everyone. There isn’t medical insurance. There’s no freedom of the
press. There’s no freedom of speech. There’s no freedom of
information. There’s no freedom to live and move where you choose.
There’s no independent judiciary. There’s no one supervising public
opinion, there are no independent trade unions, there’s no armed
 Propagation of Resistance against the Great Firewall of China 157 
forces that belongs to the nation, there’s no protection of the
constitution. All that’s left is a ‘grass mud horse’.35
The disappearance of Ai’s blog is not an isolated event in China’s internet
landscape. Today, the ’10 mythical creatures’ have been wiped from Baidu
Baike, and all ‘grass mud horse’ songs are blocked for obvious reasons.
However, being prohibited by the decision of few people, these data often
find their way back to feed on the internet, and the discussion about ‘grass
mud horse’ has not concluded. ‘Grass mud horse’, being an internet meme
constructed through common profanity in Chinese that unfortunately
makes an offensive reference to ‘mother’, appears as a contemporary sym-
bol that demonstrates how musical parody functions as a social expression.
Behind the vulgarity where all the amusement and ridicules came up to,
what makes ‘grass mud horse’ an ever-popular icon or a tool of social
activism is that whenever this meme is used, a rebellious idea to resist
institutional surveillance is also expressed. In a certain context of interpret-
tation, ‘grass mud horse’ could also refer to virtually anyone’s mother and
everyone in the masses could be a ‘grass mud horse’. It further symbolises a
fighting spirit to protect something which is ever diminishing in applicable
contexts, such as freedom of expression in the internet and the human rights
of citizens. To put it as a personal theoretical statement, ‘grass mud horse’
appears as a perfect counterpart of ‘harmony’; the more ‘river crabs’ seize
control in the internet, the more ‘grass mud horses’ proliferate. Ai
intelligently shows how ‘grass mud horse’ works to advocate a notion of
activism. Nevertheless, a major problem of musical parody is whether
music expressing a different opinion is what the authorities of any
institution want to hear. If not, how much effort in ‘harmonisation’ needs to
be done in a more sophisticated approach in order to silence music? But first
and foremost, one should undoubtedly prioritise the roles of music in the
social progress for a more liberal institution and deliberately consider the
futility of any prohibition against music expression in the digital era.

                                                            
35 Translated by C. Custer (2009). The original text in Chinese is said to be available on
http://blog.aiweiwei.com/2009/06/14/225.htm but the blog was still inaccessible as of
16 October, 2013.
158 Chow Ow Wei
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160 Chow Ow Wei
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