Man registers swear word as company name

A man in Zhuzhou, Hunan province successfully registered the use of a popular Chinese Internet meme that is also a play on words for the dirtiest of curses in Putonghua as his company's name, local media reported Wednesday.

Caonima, which literately means "Grass-Mud-Horse" and is often depicted as an alpaca, is also a widely used homophone for a swear about someone's mother.

"At the very beginning, I was afraid that the name wouldn't be approved," said Tu Yanliang, the owner of Caonima, a cultural promotion company, on Tuesday.

In order to advertise his enterprise, Tu has ordered 11 alpacas from the Netherlands from 70,000 yuan ($11207) to 80,000 yuan each to serve as company mascots.