Yangzhou Times
January 25, 2010

Today's award for "most out of touch newspaper" goes to the Yangzhou Times, which has finally discovered the Grass Mud Horse more than a year after it exploded onto the Chinese Internet.

The Grass Mud Horse (草泥马), an alpaca repurposed for use as a juvenile pun on a common curse (操你妈), appeared in online games, hoax dictionary entries, and online forums, and then made the leap to the real world in the form of plush toys. But it's been many months since netizens have gotten worked up about the animal's antics.

The Zhuyuwan Zoo in Yangzhou has just acquired a pair of three-year-old alpacas from Hangzhou, and the Yangzhou Times anticipates the animals receiving more attention in the upcoming Year of the Tiger than the zoo's tigers.

The article inside follows the same basic model as a report aired on Beijing TV last March: a description of the weird creature, an amused reference to its popularity among Internet users, and a brief explanation of how it came to China.

Naturally, there's no mention of the dirty pun that made it all possible.