New Year Turds

Paul Pennay | Feb 2, 2009 5:00 pm | 10 comments | 5952 reads

Anyone who ventured out to a Temple Fair over the past week may have noticed some rather interesting floats wafting along with the standard toys, masks and devil horns that traditionally add a bit of color to the holiday season. Given the bleak economic circumstances, both in China and around the world, it seems that a lot of temple fair attendees thought that it made sense to mark the rather shitty start to the Year of the Bull by traipsing around with an inflatable turd on a stick.

The inflatable toy goes by the name 牛奋/粪 Niu Fen (Fight like an Ox/ Cow Dung) and quickly became one of the most popular items at temple fairs around the capital. Its inventor, Li Bin - vendor No. 156 at the Ditan Park Temple Fair, said that he got the idea last October while watching a popular TV show called Struggle (奋斗/Fen Dou). According to this Xinhua article, Li Bin first thought of calling his invention Bull Market/Sh*t (牛市/屎Niu Shi). But after discussing it with his brother, they decided to use the more evocative Niu Fen.

A Japanese cartoon called Dr Slump, which was popular in China last decade, inspired the shape of the dung. The manga series features a character called Arale (阿拉蕾) who uses a stick to play with a cute smiley-faced turd. You can watch the series here.

Li Bin found it a little tricky to get the poo to stay on the stick and it was only after visiting a lot of toy manufactures in Zhejiang that he was finally able to find a Korean-owned factory that could solve the problem. Now, according to Mr Li, over 3,000 Niu Fen have been sold and the price of the inflatable toy continues to rise from the original RMB 20, to RMB 50 - with the inventor predicting that demand might push the price up further to RMB 60.

Asked about his plans for next year’s fair Li Bin replied “ I’ve already got an idea but it’s a secret but here is a hint—it’s something to do with the Super Mario game.” What could it be?

Links and Sources
Xinhua: 摊主创意谐音牛奋 "牛粪"热销北京地坛庙会[图]
Baidu: 谁有阿拉蕾捅便便的图片啊？？(image)
Youku: Dr Slump Cartoon
Tudou: Dr Slump Cartoon

Comments

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Re: New Year Turds
Posted Feb 3, 2009 9:54pm by Sharan

I can see amazing potential for this product.

For starters, imagine these things filled with ice creams and drinks. You could actually walk around licking and sucking at turd spirals. What could be cooler than that, eh?

Imagine you're at a restaurant with your date, and during a hiatus in your coo-cooing you pick up a turd spiral and suck at it pensively. What could be more conducive to romance than that?

Next, what about dispensers? You could have real lifelike figures squatting over bowls, and the ice cream spiralling out of the bottom end.

What if you attached real faces to those figures? Imagine the fun you could have ordering your favorite ice cream.

One large Britney Spears, please.
The Obama family, please (without the grandma, thanks).
One Lord Voldemort to go.

What if those spirals emerged autographed?

Madame Tussaud's would be no match for this. Who'd want to go and stare at wax figures when they could literally get a taste of those people?

Damn. I'd better stop and rush to the patent office before I squander away any more billions in original ideas.

Re: New Year Turds
Posted Feb 3, 2009 12:11pm by Nomadz
lodgerly wrote:
LMAO!
Turd Sandwich vs. Giant Douche.

I see you know your classics... Beee

Re: New Year Turds
Posted Feb 3, 2009 12:00pm by lodgerly

LMAO!

It might cause the Third World War. Like...Turd Sandwich vs. Giant Douche.

Show Oligarch

Re: New Year Turds
Posted Feb 3, 2009 11:40am by admin
ChinaBoy wrote:
Yay, another story about the Chinese stealing someone else's ideas. These things have been around Japan and Korea for a decade (with the face and on a stick - note he went to a Korean-owned factory)

i'd love to see an international trade dispute arise over the issue of which country should be assigned the Intellectual Property Rights for the Inflatable Plastic Turd.

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20

Re: New Year Turds
Posted Feb 3, 2009 11:30am by alex the droog
lodgerly wrote:

I'm so surprised about your sensitivity to everything.

:O :O :O WOW, sludge.

Re: New Year Turds
Posted Feb 3, 2009 11:20am by Count_zero

That does not resemble real cow dung.

Mr Li, I shall not be buying your product.

Re: New Year Turds
Posted Feb 3, 2009 11:09am by lodgerly
ChinaBoy wrote:
Yay, another story about the Chinese stealing (????)someone else's ideas. These things have been around Japan and Korea for a decade (with the face and on a stick - note he went to a Korean-owned factory)(????)

I used to hit bad students with the "dong stick".

I'm so surprised about your sensitivity to everything.

Jia you! You could possibly be China's next Defense Minister.

Show Oligarch

Re: New Year Turds
Posted Feb 3, 2009 8:04am by yajiya

funny.

Re: New Year Turds
Posted Feb 3, 2009 7:02am by admin

perhaps china *can* replace america as the world's uber-consumers of worthless shit. I see the light at the end of the recessionary tunnel!

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20

Re: New Year Turds
Posted Feb 2, 2009 9:22pm by ChinaBoy

Yay, another story about the Chinese stealing someone else's ideas. These things have been around Japan and Korea for a decade (with the face and on a stick - note he went to a Korean-owned factory)

I used to hit bad students with the "dong stick".