Hao, Hao, Hao!*
(Terracotta Warrior Santa from Taoyuan Furniture Store. Photo by The Foreigner.)
Those interested for related shots might also want to check out this fellow’s compilation of The Top Ten Strange Santas from Japan. Liked what commenter #4 at Neatorama had to say about them:
Wait a minute…we turn a Turkish bishop into a red-suited fat elf who lives at the North Pole and flies reindeer around the world and you wanna argue that the Japanese are the ones who got it wrong?
Touche’!
* Mandarin for good, good, good.
UPDATE (Dec 30/07): This December’s political correctness news was that a store in Australia insisted its Santas say, "Ha, ha, ha," because prostitutes might find the more traditional "Ho, ho, ho," offensive.
If this is true, then someone obviously needs to be packed off to sensitivity re-education camp. Because as John Derbyshire points out, the new laugh is **GROSSLY OFFENSIVE** to members of the Hha-ha ethnic minority.
i-1
Hao Hao Hao