# What the hell are these?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 13, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579 "2008-11-13T19:23:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/1 "2008-11-13T19:23:59Z")
A while back, when I went to China, we visited a clay figure factory that churned out figurines of ladies in traditional dress, grandpas fishing with their grandsons, pretty standard kitschy Asian stuff, except for two things: weird stereotypical figurines of black children (seriously, I was surprised they weren’t holding watermelon), and, er, [these](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/csharpmajor/china/S6000252.jpg). What the hell _are_ these?
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/2 "2008-11-13T19:28:42Z")
Frightening. _That’s_ what they are. Fucking frightening.
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### Author:  [@SylverOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SylverOne)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/3 "2008-11-13T19:34:44Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#):
>
> Frightening. _That’s_ what they are. Fucking frightening.
I’ll agree with that assessment. They’d give me nightmares.:eek:
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### Author:  [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/4 "2008-11-13T19:47:44Z")
And you know what **SylverOne** **Kalhoun**?
They’re both coming for you two in the night.
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### Author:  [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/5 "2008-11-13T19:52:03Z")
Bunnies!!
Silly **RamenMonster**.
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### Author:  [@4everkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4everkid)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/6 "2008-11-13T19:52:38Z")
My first thought… Lay that bad boy on it’s back. Slap a pat of butter in each ear, and use it to serve corn-on-the-cob.
A Google of “rabbit children figurine” brought me this:
A rabbit figurine is a popular Mid-Autumn Festival toy in old Beijing. The figurine is an artistic image of a personified or even deified rabbit based on the legendary jade rabbit on the moon. The figurines are made of clay and come in various shapes, but all are white-faced, wearing golden helmets and armors, with flags or canopies on the back. They ride such animals as lions, tigers, deer and elephants etc.
With a picture of something similar to your critters:
[Rabbit Figurines](http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/html/en/Traditions98bye402.html)
From Wikipedia:
The Moon rabbit, also called the Jade Rabbit, is a rabbit that lives on the moon in East Asian folklore. The legends about the moon rabbit are based on the traditional pareidolia that identifies the markings of the moon as a rabbit pounding in a mortar.
[More on that here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit)
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### Author:  [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/7 "2008-11-13T19:58:56Z")
They look like the bastard children of rabbits and samurai oompa-loompas.
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/8 "2008-11-13T21:02:58Z")
> [@FlyingRamenMonster](#):
>
> A while back, when I went to China, we visited a clay figure factory that churned out figurines of ladies in traditional dress, grandpas fishing with their grandsons, pretty standard kitschy Asian stuff, except for two things: weird stereotypical figurines of black children (seriously, I was surprised they weren’t holding watermelon), and, er, [these](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/csharpmajor/china/S6000252.jpg). What the hell _are_ these?
I once saw for sale some catholic religius figures very obviously made in China. and I could not help laughing out loud. The Virgin Marys were just relabeled Chinese godesses and looked nothing like your stereotypical Virgin Mary.
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### Author:  [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/9 "2008-11-13T21:10:52Z")
Hopefuly they are a props for an upcoming Doctor Who episode.
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### Author:  [@G1llyB4tes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G1llyB4tes)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/10 "2008-11-13T23:22:03Z")
Mr & Mrs Eastel Burrie
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/11 "2008-11-13T23:32:38Z")
You know…I’m having odd thoughts about Alice in Wonderland. A white Rabbit. A Queen of Hearts.
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### Author:  [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/12 "2008-11-14T03:38:06Z")
> [@4everkid](#):
>
> With a picture of something similar to your critters:
> [Rabbit Figurines](http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/html/en/Traditions98bye402.html)
Heh, thanks. I don’t think they ever really registered as rabbits in my head. Freaky rabbit-people-warriors, maybe. I totally would have bought one (the only thing in that damn factory I’d touch with a 10-foot pole, let alone buy) but they were like a foot tall and I’d never have fit one into my luggage.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2008, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/13 "2008-11-14T04:15:12Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#):
>
> You know…I’m having odd thoughts about Alice in Wonderland. A white Rabbit. A Queen of Hearts.
. . . after a horrible transporter accident. :eek:
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### Author:  [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/14 "2008-11-14T04:26:11Z")
Ah yes, the [bunny people.](http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=2585048)
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### Author:  [@Debon\_Err](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debon_Err)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/15 "2008-11-14T04:35:24Z")
I believe that would be the Chinese version of the Jackelope perhaps?
I’m a nutty bunny.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2008, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/16 "2008-11-14T04:42:17Z")
It’s [Devilbunny](http://www.devilbunnies.org/faq/part1.html) propaganda.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2008, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/17 "2008-11-14T04:43:29Z")
They’re used to cover up the rabbit ears on non-digital television sets. When the US switches over to digital TV next February, you will be able to hide the DTV converter box inside them.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2008, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/18 "2008-11-14T05:01:03Z")
Those aren’t sculptures you know. They are mummified bodies of real Chinese girls who got pressured into this by their families into volunteering for this as a way to make money for their family. Beauty contests for this sort of thing are popular there. The winner receives money to send back to to their family and then they undergo a painless death with adequate drugs and then mummified in a manner similar to shrunken heads to build them to the right size. Then they are dressed up. Buyers can hardly ever tell that their “sculpture” on the mantle was once a real girl. Girls aren’t valued much in China so that is one of the only ways they can volunteer to make a difference.
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### Author:  [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2008, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-are-these/472579/19 "2008-11-14T05:30:38Z")
Ah, you’ve finally discovered the legendary poorly designed Usagi Yojimbo action figure prototypes.