The New York Times has a brief piece about the “grass mud horse” being “put out to pasture” by Chinese censors (or, “river crabs“):
A Chinese contributor to the site quoted a message from an Internet administrator to managers of online bulletin boards warning that “any content related with Grass-Mud Horse should not be promoted and hyped” because “the issue has been elevated to a political level.” It went on to say, “The overseas media has exaggerated the incident as a confrontation between netizens and the government.”
[…] The order also said the grass-mud horse should not be associated with river crabs and other mythical creatures, many of whose Chinese names sound obscene.
