Jun 19, 2012 10:28am | ABC News
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5X4fQMf9A98" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The discovery of a double-headed mysterious object mistaken for a mystical rare fungus brought national
notoriety to a Chinese village and TV program this week.
Villagers from Liucunbu, a rural community outside western Chinese city of Xi’an, encountered the sex toy
while drilling a new well shaft. Hard-pressed to identify the flexible, fungi-like object, perplexed residents alerted
the local news station, which immediately sent reporter Yunfeng Ye to the scene.
In her coverage of the finding, broadcast last Sunday on the station’s investigative journalism program Xi’an
Up Close, Ye thoroughly probed different aspects of the discovery, interviewing locals and inserting her own
research on the alleged mushroom. Despite Ye’s earnest reporting, her and the villagers’ obliviousness of the
object’s real identity has now lent itself to national amusement.
Describing the object’s qualities in explicit detail, Ye and the villager determine that it is a type of lingzhi, a shelf
fungus of the Ganoderma lucidum species, which according to legend has the ability to give immortality. Asserting
that the mushroom is rarely seen because it grows underground, she says, “When the Emperor Qin Shi Huang
was on the hunt for the secret to longevity, it is said he discovered this lingzhi was the answer.”
After the program aired, many viewers immediately recognized the object as a sex toy modeled after female genitalia,
and online video of the report gained millions of views overnight. While the video received many comments lauding
the station’s and villagers’ “purity,” the day after the program aired the Xi’an news station posted an apology on
Sina Weibo, a Chinese blogging website.
“Our program last night made everyone laugh,” the apology said, expressing regret for an “uncomfortable and
misleading” report. “Our reporter is very young and sheltered.”
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5X4fQMf9A98" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The discovery of a double-headed mysterious object mistaken for a mystical rare fungus brought national
notoriety to a Chinese village and TV program this week.
Villagers from Liucunbu, a rural community outside western Chinese city of Xi’an, encountered the sex toy
while drilling a new well shaft. Hard-pressed to identify the flexible, fungi-like object, perplexed residents alerted
the local news station, which immediately sent reporter Yunfeng Ye to the scene.
In her coverage of the finding, broadcast last Sunday on the station’s investigative journalism program Xi’an
Up Close, Ye thoroughly probed different aspects of the discovery, interviewing locals and inserting her own
research on the alleged mushroom. Despite Ye’s earnest reporting, her and the villagers’ obliviousness of the
object’s real identity has now lent itself to national amusement.
Describing the object’s qualities in explicit detail, Ye and the villager determine that it is a type of lingzhi, a shelf
fungus of the Ganoderma lucidum species, which according to legend has the ability to give immortality. Asserting
that the mushroom is rarely seen because it grows underground, she says, “When the Emperor Qin Shi Huang
was on the hunt for the secret to longevity, it is said he discovered this lingzhi was the answer.”
After the program aired, many viewers immediately recognized the object as a sex toy modeled after female genitalia,
and online video of the report gained millions of views overnight. While the video received many comments lauding
the station’s and villagers’ “purity,” the day after the program aired the Xi’an news station posted an apology on
Sina Weibo, a Chinese blogging website.
“Our program last night made everyone laugh,” the apology said, expressing regret for an “uncomfortable and
misleading” report. “Our reporter is very young and sheltered.”
