The Chinese language has a huge potential for creative punning and recent internet memes have been exploiting this with a series of mythical creatures. The '9 Mountains Monkey' (九岭猴 - jiulinghou) above is a pun on a word which refers to the generation born in the 90s (九零后 -jiulinghou), often derided as venal and vacuous by those a bit older.
This website has several of the classics, including the 'Civil Service Ape' (公务猿 -gongwuyuan) whose name sounds the same as the Chinese for civil servant.
There is also the 'River Crab' whose name sounds the same as the Chinese for 'harmonious', and is a play on the government's Harmonious Society propaganda campaign. In Chinese internet slang 'river crab' is now a term for government censors.
Wikipedia has a good piece on the original mythical creatures. Note in particular the Franco-Croatian Squid.
And here, for more on the grass mud horse that got everyone so excited.
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