Monkeys Take Center Stage for Chinese New Year
Posted on: Thursday, 22 January 2004, 06:00 CST
By TED ANTHONY
BEIJING (AP) -- "Hooligan monkeys" harassing female visitors at a park. Monkey fur dyed in assorted brilliant colors at a safari park. Monkeys in the newspapers. Monkeys on TV. Monkeys on the collective brain of the world's most populous country.
On Thursday, day one of the Year of the Monkey, mainland China suddenly took on a definite simian flavor. All manner of monkey-like iconography, from Tarzan's chimp to the ape in the old "Donkey Kong" video game, festooned the Chinese media.
Why not? After all, said the Beijing Youth Daily, "the golden monkey presents us with fortune."
One of China's most popular legends is that of Song Wu Kong, the painted-face, mischief-making "Monkey King" who is consistently brewing up trouble in the heavens. But real-life monkeys can get just as weird, if the state-controlled media are to be believed.
In the western Chinese town of Longchi, in a park where wild monkeys range freely, there's been a problem of late - a problem that, oddly enough, didn't make it onto the Chinese news radar until the first day of the Year of the Monkey.
"The hooligan monkeys," says the Chengdu Evening Post, "have been hitting on the ladies for a long time, igniting social outcry."
Park officials blamed the miscreant monkeys' behavior - including scratching and groping - on the visitors'"colorful outfits" and imposed rules for the creatures, the official Xinhua News Agency said: politeness, humility, no harassment and "no scuffling."
"It is really tough for the 'always free and unrestrained' monkey group, according to local monkey tamers," Xinhua said.
It wasn't clear what methods would be used to instill humility in the monkeys, but the park does have a Plan B: monkey contraception.
Across the country, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, the Forest Safari Park in Shenyang is atwitter with the latest action by its operators - dyeing the fur of monkeys in sundry bright hues in celebration of the New Year.
"It was no easy job to dye monkeys," Xinhua deadpanned.
Local advocates for animal welfare have expressed concern, saying they worried that the cream used to color the monkeys might be harmful. Zhu Chengwei, director of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station, was cited as proposing scientific testing to determine whether the dye could hurt the monkeys.
Xinhua continued its report with this extraordinary paragraph: "We had to anesthetize them first. They seemed to be surprised at their new strange coats when they woke up. But after a while, they indulged themselves in pleasure."
Fortunately, the agency didn't elaborate.
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