The Yax lizard or Jacques lizard is a Chinese internet phenomenon related to the Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures. It mocks a musical dance program that excessively praised the Chinese government.
The creature was supposedly a Komodo dragon. The name is derived from "yakexi", which is the Chinese transliteration of a Uyghur term "yaxshi" (ug|[[wikt:ياخشى|ياخشى]]), which means "good" or "great"; "xi" also means "lizard" in Chinese.
It is named after the Xinjiang musical dance program "Happy life Yaxshi" (formerly "The Party's Policy Yaxshi") in the CCTV Spring Festival's Gala 2010. In the program, singers and dancers sing praises of how happy their life is, with the chorus line of, "What is yakexi? What is yakexi? The Chinese Communist Party's policies are yakexi." (什么亚克西？什么亚克西？党中央的政策亚克西。)[1] [2]
Blogger Han Han said that Yax lizards live in the area between Gurbantünggüt Desert and Irtysh River, north to Dzungaria, Xinjiang. They eat snails and even mice. They also arrive the riverine area of Irtysh River to eat dead fishes, river crabs, frogs and so on every year from April to June.
Han Han held a contest on his blog asking for submissions of alternative lyrics to the song, keeping the original chorus line of "What is yakexi? What is yakexi? The Chinese Communist Party's policies are yakexi." Submissions included lyrics mocking the original song by describing things such as bad housing situations and high tuition prices.[3]
To demonstrate their dissatisfaction towards Chinese government's propaganda, some netizens name the species as "Yakshit" by the Chinese character's pronunciation.