File this under "Headlines You'll Only See in Xinjiang". From the China Daily:
"Police shot a rampaging bull on a middle school campus Thursday in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region."
Photo from Tianshannet.com
While a headline like this may make the front page in any major Chinese city or practically any western city, here in Xinjiang it is merely a side blurb - an article barely worth a few paragraphs. Nobody was killed, bull problem taken care of, folks. Everybody go back home now.
According to a more detailed Chinese article on Tianshannet.com, a man named Maimaiti (a Chinese transliteration of a Uyghur name) bought a bull at a local Urumqi market, used a few ropes to tie him to his three-wheeled motorcyle and led him home. To his surprise the bull wasn't quite content with this arrangement and proceeded to free himself.
Of the many people who involuntarily participated in this running of the bull, only one woman was injured. She is in stable condition at the local hospital, which is more than can be said for the bull. His 15 minutes of fame ended fatally to the sound of police gunfire in the middle of #43 middle school.
Personally, I love the irony of this considering that 2009 is the year of the ox. I'm surprised that nobody else has caught onto this. I've had fun trying to think of alternate headlines for this crazy story. Here's two that I've come up with so far:
- "Xinjiang Welcomes "Niu Year" by Killing a Bull ("niu" is the Chinese pinyin meaning cow and is pronounced similarly to "New")
- Xinjiang Bull Mistaken for Terrorist, Given the Death Penalty
Livestock meandering city streets is not an uncommon sight in Xinjiang
Sources:
China Daily (English): Police shoot rampaging bull at middle school
Tianshannet (Chinese):待宰黑牛使性 拽断绳子冲上大街顶路人
4 Comments:
This seems to happen quite a lot. We had a similar situation here in Guangxi last October.
http://liuzhou.blog-city.com/bull.htm
I'm not clever enough to come up with a good headline. Just wanted to pop in and let you know I enjoy your blog very much.
"Mad Cow Disease Eradicated in western China, Middle School #43 announces Monday lunch special"
@Liuzhou...yea, I concede this may not just be a "Xinjiang" thing, more of a "rural China" thing maybe. I still find it absolutely humorous to pass by a donkey cart on the street, though, considering the city I live in boasts over 200,000 residents!
@J...beautiful! I like it. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Well, how about this?
"Cop drops bull in China shop"
Not so great? Surely there is some opportunity here to use "like a bull in a china shop". Or is that just your mom's offbeat humor?
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