Year of the MONKEY - Chinese New Year 2016

[GeneChing]

Blame it on the monkey

2016 Tiger Claw Elite Championships: Part 2 – Monkey Steals the Peach


Meanwhile, there's this (more messed up than my take on our tournament above):

North Korea's New Star: Azalea the Smoking Chimp at Pyongyang Zoo
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PYONGYANG, North Korea — Pyongyang's newly opened zoo has a new star: Azalea, the smoking chimpanzee.

According to officials at the newly renovated zoo, which has become a favorite leisure spot in the North Korean capital since it re-opened in July, the 19-year-old female chimpanzee, whose name in Korean is "Dallae," smokes about a pack a day. Dallae is short for azalea.

They insist, however, she doesn't inhale.


Azalea lights a cigarette at the Central Zoo in Pyongyang, Wednesday. Wong Maye-E / AP

Thrown a lighter by a zoo trainer, the chimpanzee lights her own cigarettes. If a lighter isn't available, she can light up from lit cigarette if one is tossed her way.

Though such a sight would draw outrage in many other locales, it seemed to delight visitors who roared with laughter on Wednesday as the chimpanzee, one of two at the zoo, sat puffing away as her trainer egged her on.

The trainer also prompted her to touch her nose, bow thank you and do a simple dance.

The zoo is pulling in thousands of visitors a day with a slew of attractions ranging from such typical fare as elephants, giraffes, penguins and monkeys to a high-tech natural history museum with displays showing the origins of the solar system and the evolution of life on Earth.

Another of the most popular attractions that might come as a surprise to foreign visitors is the dog pavilion, which has everything from German shepherds to Shih Tsus.

The zoo also has performances featuring other animals trained to do tricks, including a monkey that slam dunks basketballs, dogs trained to appear as though they can do addition on subtraction on an abacus and doves that fly around and land on a woman skating on an indoor stage.


Azalea smokes about a pack of cigarettes a day but apparently doesn't inhale. Wong Maye-E / AP

Renovations for the new zoo began in 2014, as part of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's efforts to create more modern and impressive structures and leisure centers around the capital.

The zoo actually dates back to 1959, when Kim Il Sung, the nation's first leader and the grandfather of Kim Jong Un, ordered it built on the outskirts of the city.

According to its official history, the zoo started off with only 50 badgers.

[GeneChing]

And deaf too.

Wish there was a viral vid of this.

Seven 'Monkey Kings' taken to police station after fighting bloody turf war in Chengdu streets
BY ALEX LINDER IN NEWS ON NOV 9, 2016 7:40 PM



Police in Chengdu briefly detained seven mythological figures on Sunday, in order to figure out why exactly they were battling it out on the city's streets.
At around 3 p.m. that afternoon, police received a curious report that multiple Monkey Kings were fighting in public nearby. When they arrived, police were astonished to in fact find seven men that were all dressed up as Sun Wukong, the famous character from the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.
At first, officers had quite a tough time figuring out who was attacking who. Not only were they dressed similarly, but the men were all also deaf. To clarify the situation, police decided to just take all the Monkey Kings back to the station for questioning, Sichuan News Network reports.
There, a sign language instructor was called in. After a few exchanges, police discovered that the seven performers were part of two separate groups that each worked the same popular streets in Chengdu, performing tricks and posing for photos with curious passersby and tourists.
However, on this day, the two groups had squabbled over one premium piece of sidewalk. Things then turned violent when one Monkey King knocked another in the head with his golden staff, drawing blood.



In the end, the two sides agreed to a settlement in which the injured man received 1,500 yuan in compensation. Police then allowed them to go back to their monkey business.
[Images via Tencent]

[GeneChing]

I wonder what next year, the Year of the Flaming ****, will bring?

Mystical Chinese monkey predicts Donald Trump will be the next US president
BY ALEX LINDER IN NEWS ON NOV 7, 2016 8:10 PM



While most economists, retired generals, newspapers, former presidents and American voters don't think that Donald Trump should be president, at least he has the backing of China's magical monkey king.
Last Thursday, Geda, aka the "king of prophets," chose Trump as the winner of Tuesday's election by rejecting the banana nearest Hillary Clinton and instead choosing the one on Trump's podium, sealing the deal by giving the Donald's life-sized cutout a big smooch on the lips, AFP reports.



The prophetic primate from Shiyan Lake Ecological Tourism Park in Hunan has a documented history of his banana-eating predictions coming true. In July, he picked Portugal to win the 2016 European football championships in the very same way.
While Trump has an infamous love-hate relationship with the polls -- believing that they are rigged when he is losing and not rigged when he is not -- it's unclear how he feels about being Geda's chosen candidate.
Trump doesn't only have the support of mystical Chinese monkeys, but Chinese toilet paper and mask manufacturers as well. While scientific polls of Chinese people and Chinese Americans aren't going his way, veteran China watchers believe that the top leadership in Beijing is rooting for the Republican presidential candidate.
“It was Mao Zedong who said: ‘Without destruction there can be no construction’. And, if I interpret him correctly, Donald Trump is the suicide bomber of American politics,” Orville Schell, the head of the Center on US-China Relations at New York’s Asia Society, told The Guardian.
“He wants to just bring the whole house down and start over. And I think there is an element [of that] that is quite tantalizing to China.”
Still, Beijing shouldn't get too greedy, this tumultuous election has already been a godsend for Chinese propaganda, allowing state news media to freely attack both candidates and trash the American political system in general.

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

This goes all sorts of ways in my mind. None of them are flattering to our readers, and I want to cater to our readers, so I'll just leave this here.

Stop monkeying around, time to study! Chimpanzees enjoy reading magazines in China

Two chimpanzees were spotted reading magazines in a zoo at Chongqing, south-west China
The magazines are all about photography and internet knowledge, according to the zookeeper
Visitors were surprised by the act of the two animals and the pictures were widely shared in China

By TIFFANY LO FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 05:38 EST, 29 December 2016 | UPDATED: 07:30 EST, 29 December 2016

These two chimpanzees might just be the most diligent animals yet.

The pair of animals have been spotted reading magazines in a zoo at Chongqing, south-west China this week.

According to Huanqiu.com, an affiliation to People's Daily Online, the caretaker put a few copies of magazines in the room to see if the chimp will be interested. Soon after, visitors found the two chimps picked up the magazines and started reading.


Self-study: The chimpanzees showed some serious interests on these magazines in a zoo in China


'If the chimps start reading books and magazines, it's time for me to get back to my study!' One visitor commented

'The magazines are all about photography and internet knowledge,' said one of the caretakers.

Pictures of the amusing scene, taken on December 27, were quickly shared on Chinese internet.

'They didn't hold the magazines upside down. They are really smart animals,' Liu, one of the web users said.

Chimpanzees are often referred as human's closest primate relatives and have high intelligence in learning and adapting new environment.


Sshh! Time to study: The chimpanzees showed a huge interest in photography magazine as it appears in the picture


Unexpected: Chimpanzee caretakers put the magazines in the room and was surprised to see the animals reading them


The two chimps are living in Yongchuan Wildlife Animal World, Chongqing, south-west China

The chimpanzees are residents of a zoo inside Leheledu Holiday Resort, in Yongchuan, Chongqing.

The zoo was opened in 2000 with more than 430 animal species, including some endangered and protected species such as snow leopard and Strawberry tiger.

Later, the zoo expanded to Leheledu Holiday Resort with restaurants and accommodations.

BTW, I started a 2017 Year of the Fire Rooster thread.

[GeneChing]

As the Year of the Monkey draws to a close...

Star Wars inspires name for new gibbon species found in China
A new species found in China has been named after Luke Skywalker, because the scientists are big fans of the franchise.
13:27, UK,
Wednesday 11 January 2017


A young Luke Skywalker and the youngest species of hoolock gibbon

By Duarte Garrido, Entertainment Reporter

A new species of gibbon found in the remote forests of China has been named after one of Star Wars' most famous characters.

Scientists on the China-Burma border have found a new species of hoolock gibbons after rigorous genetic examinations.

Because the team of researchers are big fans of the Star Wars franchise, the newly found gibbon has been named after one of its most iconic characters.

The originally named Gaoligong hoolock gibbon is also called Skywalker, after the Jedi.

But that is not the only reason.

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Mark Hamill ✔ @HamillHimself
So proud of this! First the Pez dispenser, then the Underoos & U.S. postage stamp... now this! #GorillaMyDreams #SimianSkywalker #JungleJedi https://twitter.com/BBCMorelle/statu...73845302849536 …
1:03 AM - 11 Jan 2017
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When spelled out in Chinese characters, the name Skywalker reads "Heaven's movement" - a supposed reference to the way the gibbon acts.

It was previously thought the gibbons belonged to one of two already-known species of hoolock gibbons, a type of primate found in Bangladesh, India, China and Burma, where they live in the trees, feeding mostly on fruit, leaves and shoots.

In response to the news, actor Mark Hamill - who plays Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies - tweeted: "So proud of this! First the Pez dispenser, then the Underoos & U.S. postage stamp... now this!"

With the animals facing illegal hunting and destruction, damage and fragmentation of their habitat, scientists have recommend the gibbon to be categorised as "endangered".

"The discovery of the new species focuses attention on the need for improved conservation of small apes," the researchers said.

"Many of which are in danger of extinction in southern China and Southeast Asia."