Welcome Linping, finally a name for Thailand’s panda cub

By John Le Fevre

CHIANG MAI (thaivisa.com): -- After much fan-fare, hype, promotion, speculation and most important of all, more than 22 million mailed submissions, Thailand’s panda cub now had a name. Welcome Linping.

The name, which means "forest of ice" in Chinese was selected by 60 percent of people who responded by mail to a national search for a name for the baby mammal.

The other names available were:

Kwan Thai – a Thai expression meaning, “darling of the Thai people".

Tai Jin – meaning "Thai gold" but can also refer to the Thai-Chinese relationship as “jin” is the Thai way of saying China.

Ying Ying – Chinese for "prosperity", while in Thai “ying” means girl.

Suvit Khunkitti, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment said the name is a mixture of the first half of her mother's name (Lin Hui - beautiful forest) with the name of the main river in Chiang Mai - the Ping River.

Suvite said, "It is a very appropriate name because it has a good meaning, both in Thai and in Chinese”.

Linping was born as a result of artificial insemination after years of efforts to get her celibate parents to breed naturally - including showing the male partner, Chuang Chuang, whose name means “clever”, 15-minute video clips of pandas mating.

Giant pandas are notorious for their low sex drive and are among the planet's most endangered animals.

About 1,600 pandas are believed to survive in the wild in China and about 180 are being raised in captivity in zoos worldwide.

Since her birth Linping has become a “must see” attraction at Chiang Mai Zoo and the subject of countless print and electronic articles in both the English and Thai language media.

-- thaivisa.com 2009-08-10

The CUB is CUTE!!! and will save Thailand, or at least Chiang Mai. Nothing else matters.

Linping was born as a result of artificial insemination after years of efforts to get her celibate parents to breed naturally - including showing the male partner, Chuang Chuang, whose name means “clever”, 15-minute video clips of pandas mating.

I heard some feminist pandas was protesting outside the Zoo over this sexual objectification of their panda sisters in the video and proclaimed that it was typical of the male panda oppression of its females.