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Saga of Fake Tiger Photos Rears Head Again in China

The Southern Tiger photo scandal is still ongoing, over a year after the photos were initially contested. Reuters reports:

The pictures, which showed a tiger crouching in a forest setting, sparked an Internet furore led by experts who identified the photos as faked. Local media accused officials of endorsing them as a means of promoting tourism in a poor region.

But Zhou, who was given a suspended jail sentence this year for the fraud, has returned to his original claim that he really did photograph a tiger, the official Xinhua news agency said in a report on its website (www.xinhuanet.com) [Chinese].

It published a brief handwritten letter by Zhou describing his first encounter with a tiger in the summer of 2007, which he said he was unable to photograph due to a problem with his camera. He said was only able to take pictures in October of that year.

From Xinhua, selectively translated by CDT:

According to media reports, Zhou Zhenglong has issued a statement that his tiger photos were not faked. With this news, the South China tiger furor which was thought to be settled, has now been reignited.

Zhou has claimed that he has already commissioned a defense lawyer to prepare materials for an appeal in his second hearing. This has been confirmed by the lawyer Gu Yushi, who stated that he will finish his defense preparation within the next two to three days.

However, this is a contentious issue for those on the other side who contest the photos, as people like Hao Jinsong [a prominent Beijing lawyer] and Liu Liyuan [associate professor at Beijing Normal University] who have proposed their own opposing statement in an interview.

[Zhou Zhenglong's letter]

From August to September 2007, I followed the tiger’s tracks. On September 17th, I stayed in the mountains for two days; there was light rain. I followed the footprints. It was only until I was eating wild boar that I saw the back half of the tiger’s body. I took a photo, but the camera was bad; the film didn’t develop. It was an adult female tiger.

Because the footprints were big, on October 3rd, I was still in the mountains, following the tiger’s tracks. That day, before daybreak, a little later than 4 AM, I saw one young tiger … Altogether, after following tracks for over a month, I saw it twice.

… These photos are real, and were not faked.

» Read more
- December 22, 2008 10:06 PM
China Farmer Sentenced For Faked Rare Tiger Photos

From AP:

A Chinese farmer who claimed to have taken photos of a rare tiger was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Saturday for faking the pictures, a court official and state media said.

Zhou Zhenglong was tried for fraud in Xunyang County People’s Court in Shaanxi province Saturday morning and was sentenced a little over five hours later, the Xinhua News Agency said.

An official who answered the telephone at the court said in addition to the prison sentence, Zhou was also fined $290. She refused to give her name or any other details.
» Read more
- September 27, 2008 3:16 AM
South China Tiger Snapper Held On Mystery Charge

From China Daily:

Zhou Zhenglong, the Shaanxi farmer involved in the South China Tiger photograph controversy, has been detained by police for possessing prohibited items at home.

Chengdu Commercial Daily quoted an unnamed Shaanxi provincial forestry administration bureau source as saying the 53-year-old Zhou was actually detained for questioning about the authenticity of the tiger photographs as the police did not mention what the prohibited items in his home were.

“Please wait for a while, information will be issued soon,” an official with the Shaanxi provincial government, who declined to be named, told China Daily yesterday.

The Chengdu-based newspaper said Zhou was detained two weeks ago, and had confessed that the photographs he had taken of the South China Tiger were fake.

Read also Tiger picture probe goes public by Li Xinan.

And Finding Trust Online: Tigergate to the Sichuan Earthquakes by Guobin Yang
» Read more
- June 25, 2008 7:16 PM
China Says Field Survey Fails to Find Tiger at Controversial Photo Site

The controversy surrounding the Huanan (South China) tiger photos is finally approaching closure, since Xinhua has announced that experts failed to find any tiger.

Months of field survey by experts from the State Forestry Administration of China has failed to find any “concrete evidence” of South China tiger in Zhenping county, Shaanxi province, where controversial tiger photos were taken in 2007.

However, the field survey will last for a while and the team will publicize the results as soon as it is finished, said Yin Hong, deputy director of the administration Monday…

The State Forestry Administration’s latest comment came after a deputy to China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, vowed early Monday to pressure forestry authorities into telling the public whether the photos were true or false.
» Read more
- March 3, 2008 11:34 PM
Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Office’s Public Apology for the Huanan Tiger Scandal

An update in the brouhaha over allegedly faked photos of a South China Tiger. From Xinhua Net, translated by CDT:

On October 12, 2007, our office held a news conference, during which we announced that ‘Zhenping County found wild South China tigers’, and published two photos of a South China tiger shot by Zhou Zhenglong. Later, the public questioned the two published photos, and it soon become a hot social topic.

At the news conference, we did not undergo procedures for higher approval. We did not conduct on-the-spot validation of the South China tiger photograph. In the absence of evidence, we hastily released the significant news of the discovery of the South China tiger. This reflects the problems in our office with a superficial work style and lax discipline.

Under the State Forestry Administration and the provincial government requirements, the commission on the South China tiger photo identification has done a great deal of work. We will continue to push forward. Once we accept the conclusions of the national professional accreditation team, we will truthfully release it to the public.

(Photo: Zhou Zhenglong’s photo of Huanan Tiger)
» Read more
- February 4, 2008 11:24 PM
Farmer Accused of Fake Tiger Photo Returns to Forest - Isabelle Duerme

The Huanan tiger drama is getting more complicated, as Zhou Zhenglong, the farmer who provided the photos, says he intends to go back to the forests and take more tiger photos to defend himself. From AHN:

Chinese farmer Zhou Zhenglong, 52, has gone back into the wilderness to take more photos of the tiger, in an effort to refute accusations that the photo he earlier submitted was a fake.

A former hunter in the Chengguan Township of Zhenping County, Zhou said that he planned to track down the tiger and bring back more photographs. He has been searching for tiger tracks for the past three days…

The posters of what is being referred to as the “paper tiger” has been in circulation since 2002. The printing press’s manager, upon being asked if the poster was a copy of Zhou’s photograph, was enraged and called the claim “ridiculous.” [Full Text]

(Image: Farmer Zhou Zhenglong shows his photos of the Huanan Tiger.)
» Read more
- November 24, 2007 4:50 PM
How to Photograph a Huanan Tiger

Southern Metropolis Daily interviewed a tiger expert, Hu Huijian, on the recent Huanan (South China) tiger dispute. He demonstrated a way to fake the image of the Huanan tiger by taking photos of a paper tiger.

Meanwhile, since it has been discovered that the photos of the allegedly newly discovered Huanan tiger bear a striking resemblance to a popular New Year’s poster, CDT has collected photos from netizens of the poster as well as Zhou Zhenglong’s original Huanan tiger photos just released by Shaanxi Forestry Bureau.

Watch the slideshow below to see the various ways the Huanan tiger photos could have been faked: through photoshopping a New Year’s poster, or by placing a paper cut-out in the woods.

Read the history of the dispute via CDT, and see below for examples of the creative ways Chinese netizens are having fun with this story:
» Read more
- November 23, 2007 8:13 PM
South China Tiger Photos Are ‘Fake’ - China Daily

From China Daily:

The controversy over the authenticity of photographs of the believed-to-be-extinct wild South China tiger seemed to have come to an end on Friday when a netizen posted online what he claimed was a “convincing proof” that the pictures are fakes - a New Year picture of a tiger that hangs on the wall of his home.

The man, named “panzhihua-xydz”, said: “It’s the same picture. Even the stripes are identical”.

He left an online message that he bought the picture last year, but did not specify the date.

The discovery has encouraged skeptics who have always believed the pictures were a hoax for financial gain. [Full Text]
» Read more
- November 17, 2007 4:09 AM
Chinese Netizens’ Satire of South China Tiger

The debate over the discovery of South China Tiger is heating up. Chinese netizens have even participated and made fun of it by rewriting a children’s song, “One Two Three Four Five, Climb the Hill and Kill the Tiger”/(一二三四五,上山打老虎), as well as producing a mashup video. Image and Story from Xin Kuai News. The rewritten song’s lyrics reads,

“One two three four five,

Climb the hill and kill the tiger.

There is no tiger,

He made up a false tiger.

He said it is a Huanan Hu(South China Tiger),

He guaranteed with his head…”

(Image: Netizen photoshopped Zhou Zhenglong, who provided the photo of a South China tiger, to compare the size of his hand and the leaf on the top of tiger’s head. Caption reads, ” Look! Zhou’s palm is larger than the fake leaf!)
» Read more
- November 10, 2007 6:32 PM