2011 Year of the Iron Bunny

[GeneChing]

Xin nian kuai le!

Our Year of the Hare Horoscopes from our March April 2011 issue are posted.

Also check out our new Year of the Hare 2011 shirts.
Year of the Hare 2011
Year of the Rabbit 2011
We even have a promo vid: Year of the Hare.

[Lucas]

RAM"79: Battles are won with your mouth."

hahahahah

I have been given astrological leave to be a big mouth all year. Muahaha

nice vid btw

[David Jamieson]

新年快樂!!

and all that!

[GeneChing]

Several Chinese martial arts items are marked down for Chinese New Years at MartialArtsMart.com.

[SPJ]

I was tired from work last nite

but had a good family dinner

and watched some CCTV4 new year show.

happy metal/gold/iron bunny year.

[SIFU RON]

It is a pleasure to wish everyone Happy New Year again. My best to all.

Sifu Ron

[GeneChing]

They used to come in these bright red tins with a white rabbit hopping past a giant mushroom with a red cap and white polka dots. How can you not love that?

27 January 2011
China White Rabbit sweets hop into Lunar New Year

An advertisement poster shows Chinese actress Zhao Wei posing with White Rabbit sweets at a supermarket in Suzhou. The makers of China's White Rabbit sweets -- hit hard by a massive tainted milk scandal in 2008 -- hope the beloved brand will make the leap into the 21st century in the coming Year of the Rabbit.

A Chinese salesgirl sells bags of the popular White Rabbit sweets to customers at a shop in Shanghai. The sweets, first made in Shanghai in 1943, will be promoted in a pioneering overseas ad campaign and featured in a Chinese animated film tie-in to mark the coming Year of the Rabbit.

A worker dressed in a White Rabbit costume promotes the Chinese sweets outside a supermarket in Shanghai. White Rabbit's storied history is due in part to the edible rice paper wrapper that envelopes the sweets, fascinating children in China and around the world and helping to make it one of the country's most recognised brands.


AFP - The makers of China's White Rabbit sweets -- hit hard by a massive tainted milk scandal in 2008 -- hope the beloved brand will make the leap into the 21st century in the coming Year of the Rabbit.

As the rabbit is the star of the Chinese lunar calendar only once every 12 years, 2011 will be the start of an ambitious period for the milk-flavoured "creamy candies", a senior executive at Guan Sheng Yuan Group said.

The sweets, first made in Shanghai in 1943, will be promoted in a pioneering overseas ad campaign and featured in a Chinese animated film tie-in. The company also plans to more than double production and widen its offerings.

"Every year we rank as the number one milk candy in China, so we are always positive about the growth outlook," group general manager Lan Xue told AFP.

"Throughout its history, White Rabbit has always been just a soft candy, but now we're promoting new products like White Rabbit hard candy and bubble gum."

The confectioner has moved on from a trying 2008, when it halted sales in China and 50 other countries after the sweets were found to contain melamine -- an industrial chemical illegally added to Chinese dairy products to make their protein content seem higher.

The scandal bankrupted Sanlu, once one of China's largest milk firms, after six infants died and nearly 300,000 fell ill -- but White Rabbit survived.

The sweets, which contain 45 percent milk powder, were relaunched in China a month later with "melamine-free" labels and banners in stores reading "a healthy White Rabbit is jumping back into a big market".

State-controlled Guan Sheng Yuan does not release specific financial figures, but Lan said White Rabbit sales rose 20 percent on-year in 2010 and net profit climbed 18 percent.

James Roy, a senior analyst at China Market Research Group in Shanghai, said Guan Sheng Yuan's plans for White Rabbit showed it was moving in the right direction.

"I think a way for a very traditional brand like White Rabbit to regain trust from customers would be to modernise the image somewhat," Wolf told AFP.

"I think it makes sense for them not to shy away and be very low-profile but take the brand in a new direction. It is something that is very difficult to bounce back from fully once you get tarred with that image."

White Rabbit's storied history is due in part to the edible rice paper wrapper that envelopes the sweets, fascinating children in China and around the world and helping to make it one of the country's most recognised brands.

The sweets were presented as a state gift to US president Richard Nixon in 1972.

The company's Year of the Rabbit campaign starts with the third animated "Pleasant Goat and Big Bad Wolf" film, a hit children's series that opens in mainland cinemas next week to coincide with the Chinese New Year holiday.

The mascot for White Rabbit's new lollipop line is a character in the film, Lan said.

Guan Sheng Yuan will launch its first-ever White Rabbit ads in Singapore and other markets with large ethnic Chinese populations to "remind them of home", Lan said. Previously, only distributors promoted the brand overseas.

The confectioner will also step up promotions in rural China, where incomes are rising fast and the number of supermarkets is growing with them, the executive said.

"In the Year of the Rabbit, we will place more White Rabbit promotional displays in supermarkets and food shops than ever," he added.

White Rabbit's makers also broke ground last month on a new Shanghai factory to replace its 1950s facilities. The plant will push up production of the sweet by 2.5 times the current level once it is completed in 2012.

[SPJ]

Zhao Wei

I am a big fan.

I like her movie "Mulan".

a female general that weeps about lost soldiers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ySQHCFikU

a very good performance.

[Yum Cha]

So, not many people chasing white rabbits.....might be a hit in SF.

[David Jamieson]

It's a good and auspicious year for us dragons.


mmmmm, come to daddy 2011!

[SPJ]

some tidbits

1. the most famous rabbit is the jade rabbit. jade means perfect or something so esquisite in chinese culture.

jade rabbit (yu tu) lives with chang er in the great coldness palace on the moon.

2. smart rabbit has 3 hiding places, we always have to have plan a, b, c in case of the first plan fails-- jiao tu you san ku.

3. turtle won the race over rabbit, b/c of diligence and persistence, some virtures

---

[Lucas]

so on easter is the best egg from the easter bunny a jade egg

[TaichiMantis]

...my hubby is year of the rabbit, 20 yrs married for us this week

[SPJ]

jade is said to harness or harbor your Qi

almost all cheses kids got a piece of jade when they were born

we carry that jade for life, it is called pei yu.

[SPJ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRkov...eature=related

somehow, talking about bunny in the west

most people would think about play boy