Yax Lizard
The Yax lizard or Jacques lizard is a Chinese internet phenomenon related to the Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures. It mocks a musical dance program that excessively praised the Chinese government.
| Yax Lizard | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 A Komodo dragon | |||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 亞克蜥 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 亚克蜥 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | Yax Lizard | ||||||||
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| Jacques lizard | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 雅克蜥 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 雅克蜥 | ||||||||
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| Uyghur name | |||||||||
| Uyghur | ياخشى | ||||||||
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The creature was supposedly a Komodo dragon. The name is derived from "yakexi" (Chinese: 亚克西; pinyin: yàkèxī), which is the Chinese transliteration of an Uyghur term "yaxshi" (Uighur: ياخشى), which means "good" or "great"; "xi" also means "lizard" in Chinese.
Origin
It is named after the Xinjiang musical dance program "Happy life Yaxshi" (Chinese: 幸福生活亚克西; pinyin: Xìngfú Shēnghuó Yàkèxī, formerly "The Party's Policy Yaxshi") in the CCTV Spring Festival's Gala 2010. In the program, singers and dancers sing praises of how happy their life is, with the chorus line of, "What is yakexi? What is yakexi? The Chinese Communist Party's policies are yakexi."[1][2]
Description
Blogger Han Han said that Yax lizards live in the area between Gurbantünggüt Desert and Irtysh River, north to Dzungaria, Xinjiang. They eat snails and even mice. They also arrive the riverine area of Irtysh River to eat dead fishes, river crabs, frogs and so on every year from April to June.
Response
Han Han held a contest on his blog asking for submissions of alternative lyrics to the song, keeping the original chorus line of "What is yakexi? What is yakexi? The Chinese Communist Party's policies are yakexi." Submissions included lyrics mocking the original song by describing things such as bad housing situations and high tuition prices.[3]
To demonstrate their dissatisfaction towards Chinese government's propaganda, some netizens name the species as "Yakshit" by the Chinese character's pronunciation.
References
- "党中央的政策亚克西". Tudou (in Chinese).
- "党的政策亚克西 歌功颂德遭网民反感". YouTube (in Chinese). Radio Free Asia.
- Custer, Charlie (17 February 2010). "Yakexi: The New Year's Hottest Internet Slang?". ChinaGeeks. Archived from the original on 21 November 2010. Retrieved 21 November 2010.
External links
South China Morning Post article Douban full party song lyrics translated in English Global Voices brief report article LA times mention