China's fights Sars in song

The rap is designed to appeal to young people

A light-hearted rap song is circulating in China about the face mask designed to guard against Sars.

The BBC's Francis Markus in Shanghai says the rap is Chinese state television's latest offering designed to try to lighten the mood while keeping up precautions against the deadly virus.

While the song is aimed at a young, urban audience, some of rural China's responses to the outbreak have been deeply traditional.

Chinese peasants have been letting off fire-crackers to scare off the "god of plague", the official Xinhua news agency reported.

There is also a rumour in many provinces that a baby spoke immediately after being born, saying that firecrackers and green bean soup could prevent infection, according to an official at the Public Security Bureau in Anhui.

Thousands of people received the rumour via text message, the official told the Associated Press news agency.

'Typical' response

Vinegar, turnips and cicada soup have all been touted as possible cures for Sars.

The price of turnips shot up last month after China's Health Daily included them in a recipe recommended to guard against the disease.

Professor Hugh Baker, head of the East Asia department at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said it was "perfectly normal" for people in China to respond in this way to the Sars outbreak.

"The Chinese have always had these mass responses," he told the BBC's East Asia Today programme.