And this is world's next super power?
An investigative journalism programme which airs on Xi'an TV, has become a national laughing stock after airing a report on June 17 on a "mystery mushroom" which was discovered by villagers in a rural part of the city.
Residents of the Liucunbu village on the outskirts of the capital of the Shaanxi province say they came across a strange fungi-like object as they hit bedrock while drilling a new well. The perplexed villagers decided to call up their local TV station for help, which sent intrepid reporter Ye Yunfeng to their sleepy little hamlet to get down to the bottom of things.
One villager who was there during the fateful discovery of the unidentified object tells the reporter, "When we dug down to about 80m deep, we fished out this long, fleshy object. It's got a nose and an eye, but we have no idea what it is!"
"Even our 80-year-old neighbour here says he has never seen anything like this before," he adds.
Reporter Ye then begins to describe the curious object as the camera pans in on it. "As we can all see, this looks like a type of fungus, on both ends of which you'll find mushroom heads."
"On this side, you can see what looks like a pair of lips," she adds. "And on that side, there is a tiny hole which extends all the way back to this side. The object looks very shiny, and it feels really fleshy and meaty too."
"I've done my own research on the internet," says the afore-mentioned villager. "It's a type of lingzhi mushroom, called the taisui." [Editor's note: Taisui refers to 60 celestial generals named in the Chinese zodiac.]
Without skipping a beat, reporter Ye chimes in with her own research, saying this type of lingzhi is generally found in the Shaanxi region deep underground and is hence rarely seen. "When the Emperor Qin Shi Huang was on the hunt for the secret to longevity," she elucidates, "it is said he discovered this lingzhi was the answer."
Eagle-eyed viewers who saw the report on Sunday immediately identified the mystery mushroom as a double-headed masturbation toy with an artificial vagina on one side and an artificial anus on the other. Yes, you read that right, it was a jack-off aid that some guy used to spank his monkey when he wasn't getting it from his wife.
There are pictures and video I won't show here. But you can see them here
And the Chinese, being the entrepreneurs that they are, quickly seized on the confusion to make some cash...
One very enterprising street cleaner who makes additional income by hawking things off the street is now passing off artificial vajayjays as the long lost magic mushroom, and selling them for as much as 18,000RMB (US$2,800)!
He even has a highly authoritative sales pitch playing off his laptop on loop -- the Xi'an TV news report which has since gone viral all over the world.
When one "prospective buyer" questions the man about the veracity of the report, he answers matter-of-factly, "It's on the news. How can it be fake?"
Pointing to the cheapest taisui available which is labelled "young mushroom" and going for a very affordable 800RMB, the buyer fails to contain his laughter as he asks the seller how old the mushroom is.
"About ten years old," came the response.
"Why doesn't it have an 'eye' then?"
"That's because it hasn't matured fully," replied the seasoned salesman. "Once it's fully grown, it'll have the 'eye'."You know, I half-way expect that mantyhose salesman to stop by and call me closed-minded and ignorant for bringing this to light.
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