I was just asking a Chinese associate what year it was going to be and what were the best greetings and he said Rooster and I'd never go wrong with Gong Xi Fa Cai (respectfully wishing you make money in the new year), very close to the '..Fat Choy' from Hong Kong and I know I would have come up with the giant inflatable Trump rooster with just a little thought but no, it's Hunter S Thompson for me:
"Still humping the American Dream, that vision of the Big Winner somehow emerging from the last minute pre—dawn chaos of a stale Vegas casino. Big strike in Silver City. Beat the dealer and go home rich. Why not? I stopped at the Money Wheel and dropped a dollar on Thomas Jefferson—a $2 bill, the straight Freak ticket, thinking as always that some idle instinct bet might carry the whole thing off. But no. Just another two bucks down the tube. You bastards! No. Calm down. Learn to enjoy losing....
-Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
From Reuters:
A factory in eastern China is racing to keep up with demand for its new clutch - giant inflatable rooster balloons that bear what some say is an uncanny resemblance to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
The Zhejiang-based factory has already produced 30 of the inflatables, some of which are up to 20 meters (65.6 feet) in height, and all sporting puffed-up combs of gold.
Li Haiyan, manager at Caile Inflatable Products Co, said he still has plenty of orders to go before the Lunar New Year arrives on Jan. 28.
The likeness to Trump is pure coincidence and unintended, Li said, and many Chinese will only associate its appearance with that of this year's zodiac animal - the rooster.
Li would not say where the inspiration for the design came from, but local media have commented on the inflatables' remarkable likeness to a statue that appeared in front of a shopping mall in northern Shanxi province in late December.
Seattle-based U.S. graphic artist Casey Latiolais, the statue's designer, said he was commissioned to produce something rooster-like but agreed there were some similarities.
"I can definitely say Mr. Trump has a lot of similarities in that he likes to tweet," Latiolais said.
"And he also likes to tweet at or around sunrise, and if you take away the fact that roosters are kind of loud and self-absorbed, then I think you can start drawing similarities that way."...MORE
