White rabbits run amok for Chinese New Year (Feature)

By Bill Smith Feb 2, 2011, 6:19 GMT

Beijing - As some Chinese revellers tuck in to dry-pot rabbit's head late Wednesday, others might be feeding their new pet rabbits or perhaps unwrapping another White Rabbit candy.

The windows of many homes in the Chinese capital display red rabbit-motif lanterns or paper-cut rabbits, while entrances are flanked by pairs of door-god pictures and good-luck couplets for the new lunar Year of the Rabbit.

The rabbit is the fourth of the 12 Chinese animal zodiac signs. The animal signs are linked each year to the ancient binary opposition of yin and yang and to one of the five elements of metal, fire, wood, earth and water. Each individual combination recurs every 60 years.

The metal-rabbit year is the 28th of each 60-year cycle, and the metal element makes it a 'golden' year that is good for business.

In astrological lore, people born in a rabbit year are regarded as calm, compassionate and cautious. They are wise, good at business but prone to wilt under pressure.

Famous rabbits include golfer Tiger Woods, singer Whitney Houston, actor Brad Pitt, director Francis Ford Coppola, basketball star Michael Jordan, writer George Orwell, physicist Albert Einstein and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

According to Chinese superstition, the rabbits will all appear laid-back but can show great determination and guile.

In modern China, the lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, has become a huge commercial event.

Shops nationwide have sold millions of toy white rabbits, which represent longevity, as well as rabbit-shaped cakes and decorations.

The ancient eastern city of Jingdezhen, famed for its porcelain, has erected a giant white rabbit sculpture made from 30,000 plates.

Demand has also surged for pet rabbits. Zhao Xiaoli, the owner of a Beijing pet shop, told the Beijing Youth Daily she had sold an average of 10 rabbits a day since December for between 80 and 300 yuan (12 to 45 dollars) each.

Tan Nenghui, a pet shop owner in the south-western city of Chengdu, told local media that more expensive breeds of non-white rabbits were popular with wealthier families.

Most people will spend much of the week-long New Year holiday at traditional feasts with friends and family, and at temple fairs and shopping centres.

But smaller families and greater affluence have prompted some people to eat their New Year feasts at restaurants.

One large restaurant in Jinan, the capital of the eastern province of Shandong, organized a New Year banquet with rabbit in seven of the 21 dishes.

The dishes included roast whole rabbit, spicy wild rabbit, pickles with rabbit and dry-pot rabbit's head, the Shandong Online website reported.

Several Beijing restaurants also said they would offer rabbit's head, a common dish in many areas of China, on Wednesday night.

But a manager at the well-known Baguo Buyi restaurant in Beijing's Haidian district told the German Press Agency dpa that it would not offer its usual dishes of rabbit's head and Little White Rabbit on a Stone from the Three Gorges.

'They are not on the menu because some customers don't like to see the rabbits on the dinner menu for the Year of Rabbit,' the manager said.

The white rabbit is always present, in spirit, in China's lunar space missions, which are named after the fairy goddess Chang'e.

Chang'e is said to live on the moon with her companion white rabbit, who is known as the Moon Rabbit or Jade Rabbit.

Chinese children are likely to be inundated with animated white rabbits this year, with six animated films featuring cute cartoon versions scheduled for release.

The new titles include Moon Castle: The Space Adventure and Legend of Kung-fu Rabbit.

A seventh, adult-oriented white rabbit cartoon was posted briefly on Chinese websites before censors deleted it last month. It was later viewed more than 130,000 times on YouTube.

The climax of the satirical animation shows the oppressed rabbits stage a violent revolt against tigers, who represent both Chinese authorities and the old lunar year.

World-famous artist Ai Weiwei also showed the festive spirit with his satirical depiction of a pair of door-gods and his dissident's version of New-Year couplets.

Traditionally hand-written on red paper, the couplets usually promise such things as happiness, prosperity, longevity and harmony.

Ai's couplets, circulated on popular Chinese websites, call for equality and justice.

They promise that the door-gods will help people to 'evade the police, ward off spies and subdue National Security [police].'

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