A fan of Singaporean singer Stefanie Sun Yanzi has posted a photoshopped version of the singer's face superimposed over the image of Chairman Mao on his blog, according to a report from Xinhua News Agency.

Along with this digital head transplant, the parody RMB's blog was found to contain pictures of a 100 yuan RMB note with the People's Bank of China changed into the "Bank of Yanzi's Fans", with China's national emblem twisted into the Chinese character Yan.

An official from China's central bank describes this as an illegal action, flouting the Law of the People's Bank of China. He says the perpetrator can be fined up to 50,000 yuan (US$6,470) according to the law.

Quite a few such cases have arisen in the last few years. However, with the Internet often making the perpetrators of such crimes invisible, they are sometimes hard to police, added the official.

Video spoofs have become so popular that Chinese have even coined a new slang term, " E'gao," which means parody, to describe the act. It's become a recent craze in China, thanks to DVDs, video cameras, chopping and editing programs and internet video sharing sites.

In earlier cases, images of Twins and Lovely Baby have received similar defacement.

(CRIENGLISH.com February 2, 2007)