China Digital Times (CDT) » Post Tag: cartoons

Eurozone Crisis, China and The Begging Bowl

Scott Greene — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 02:27:44 +0000

With Europe turning to China to bolster its bailout fund, the BBC News Magazine examines the shift in global power over the past century and assesses the impact of European dependence on Chinese capital going forward:

In October 1911, China rose up in revolution. Four months later the last emperor had fallen and European moneymen were flocking to Beijing, eager to finance the bankrupt new republic.
In October 2011, another European moneyman headed for Beijing. But Klaus Regling, head of the European Financial Stability Facility, did not go there to lend to China. He was there to borrow, asking China to save Europe from economic disaster.
In just one century, China has gone from financial basketcase to the world’s banker, and Europe has made the same trip in the other direction. It is one of the biggest turnarounds in history. How did it happen? And, more to the point, what does it mean?

Business Insider published a chart from Nomura over the weekend demonstrating why China should not bail out Europe, while a cartoon appeared in today’s Global Times depicting the political turmoil surrounding Greece’s bailout plans. Yesterday, Al Jazeera posted a video interview with Chinese economist Jin Liqun, who remains skeptical about a Chinese investment in Europe’s recovery.

See also CDT coverage of the EU rescue package and speculation that Europe may ease human rights pressure on China in exchange for a bailout.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cartoons, debt crisis, EU relations, Europe
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Cartoon: Qaddafi's Last Words

Xiao Qiang — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 05:39:13 +0000

The following Cartoon by Biantailajiao has gone viral in Chinese cyberspace since Qaddafi’s death last week.

301 Hospital refers to the General Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the most prestigious hospital in Beijing, which specializes in treating high officials of the Communist Party.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cartoons, Libya, PLA
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Cartoon: Fang Binxing Confronts the 404 Problem (Updated)

Sophie Beach — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 06:08:35 +0000

The following cartoon is being distributed on Chinese social media networks. It depicts Fang Binxing, President of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications who is also known as the Father of the Great Firewall, sitting on the toilet. The caption reads: “President Fang Encounters the Mysterious 404 Problem.” In Internet HTTP protocol, a “404 error” indicates that the requested resource may be available again in the future, and is the error message Chinese netizens get when they try to access a website that has been blocked by the Great Firewall.

Update: Another related joke is also circulating among Chinese microbloggers. It goes like this:

Q: What if President Fang microblogged a “help” message on his cellphone from the toilet for his “404 problem”?
A: The Men’s Room would be locked tight within 20 minutes.

Read more about the Great Firewall and Fang Binxing via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cartoons, Fang Binxing, Great Firewall, satire
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Comic Strip: Birth of a Fifty Cent Party Member

Xiao Qiang — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 23:02:07 +0000

Netizens first coined the term “Fifty Cent Party” to refer to undercover Internet commentators who were paid by the government to sway public opinion (“fifty cents” is a reference to the alleged pay received per post). Now, however, the term is used to describe anyone who actively and publicly posts opinions online that defend or support government policy. As such, the so-called Fifty Cent Party has become the object of much scorn for many netizens. See, for example, this post by Han Han, and this satirical “training manual” for Fifty Cent Party members. Read more about the Fifty Cent Party via CDT. The following cartoons about the Fifty Cent Party have been widely distributed in Chinese cyberspace, translated by CDT.

Birth of a Fifty Cent Party [Member](...)
Read the rest of Comic Strip: Birth of a Fifty Cent Party Member (370 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cartoons, fifty cent party, humor
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BlogTD: Cartoons About Recent News Events

Xiao Qiang — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:49:34 +0000

Guangzhou-based cartoonist Guaiguai is an extremely popular and prolific blogger. His work and name is all over Chinese cyberspace, as well as his brand name BlogTD. Here are some examples of his recent work:

Hillary Leading the People, a photo-shopped version of Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People.

Man: Darling, my cell phone service was cut off because I did not pay the bill, really not because I sent out those dirty jokes.” (As part of the recent anti-vulgarity campaign, China Mobile stopped clients’ service if they sent out porn jokes by text message.)

Watch out! He is backing out!

“Are you saying this slogan is vulgar?” (The slogan reads “Building a Socialist Country with Chinese Characteristics!” The circled characters, “characteristics” (te se) sounds like “very pornographic.”)

Helping people in Haiti. (Chinese official media’s reporting of earthquake aid for Haiti carries a nationalistic, self-promotional tune.)

Google walked away. (TMD is an abbreviation for Tamade (???) or “Fuck it!”)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-vulgarity campaign, bloggers, cartoons, Googlecn, satire
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Renowned Chinese Caricaturist Passes Away

Liu Yong — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:29:44 +0000

From Xinhua:

Ding Cong, a popular Chinese caricaturists known for portraying famous fiction figures, passed away Tuesday in Beijing at the age of 93, Wednesday’s China Daily reported.
He died of cerebrovascular disease, the newspaper quoted his wife Shen Jun as saying.
The caricaturist left the words that no farewell ceremony or memorial meeting would be held after his death, Shen said. “He was a common person and wanted to leave as a common person.”

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: artists, cartoons, Ding Cong
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Government Officials Say “Smoke More or Face a Fine”

Paulina Hartono — Sun, 10 May 2009 02:49:50 +0000

Earlier this month, leaders in Gong’an County of Hebei Province issued an order for officials to smoke 23,000 packs of locally-produced cigarettes a year, but were met with a backlash from local media. The order was later repealed.

Yu Zhang of France 24′s The Observers has compiled an entry and has posted cartoons that mock the proposed smoking plan. Below are two of the cartoons. Yu Zhang and Du Xiaodong of The Observers provided the translation:

On the sleeve: “red letter order”. People.com.cn is a state-run website. The caricature was published in the opinion section. [From People]

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cartoons, local officials, smoking
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Cartoon: “Take it Off. Now It’s Your Turn!” (Updated)

Xiao Qiang — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:17:36 +0000

The above cartoon, from Southern Metropolis News, has become an online phenomenon in China: More than 4560 websites have posted it. On Kaidi.net, one of China’s most popular online communities, this cartoon was visited more than 780,000 times in the last nine days and has received over one thousand pages of reader comments.

The related news event took place during the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, when one unnamed representative, a provincial-level official (“The Representative”), answered Caijing Online’s reporter’s question: “How do you see the proposal of publicizing government officials’ financial status?” The representative’s answer was, “Why don’t we publicize financial records of ordinary people?”

After Caijing.com.cn publicized this news on March 10, without mentioning the official’s name, netizens started to heatedly “publicize my financial status.” And the above cartoon became extremely popular in this context.

Here is the original dialogue between the Caijing reporter Wang Heyan (???) and the representative translated by CDT:

Reporter: “Chairman So-and-So, How do you see the proposal of publicizing government officials’ financial status?”
The Representative answered with a smile: “I am sorry. I did not look into this question.”
Reporter: “Aletai in Xinjiang, and Cixi in Zhejiang are all experimenting with this… Would your province be willing to experiment as well?”
The Representative: “I don’t know.”
Reporter: “Have representatives discussed this question?”
The Representative, walking while answering: “No. In our Chinese Communist Party discussion group, no one discussed this.”
Reporter, not wanting to give up: “Would you raise such a proposal or suggestion?”
The Representative turned around and looked at the reporter: “No. If this needs to be publicized, why don’t we publicize financial records of ordinary people? Why are the profits of corporate bosses not publicized to their workers?”
“Why don’t we publicize financial records of ordinary people?” The reporter almost could not believe his own ears and asked immediately, “Corporate bosses? Do you mean managers from state-owned enterprises?”
The Representative answered: “No. I mean bosses of private enterprises.”

(...)
Read the rest of Cartoon: “Take it Off. Now It’s Your Turn!” (Updated) (50 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Caijing, cartoons, corruption, CPPCC, Southern Metropolis News
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Cartoon: The Nth Period of the Celestial Empire

Paulina Hartono — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:49:34 +0000

A Chinese blogger posted the following cartoon online, apparently mocking the National People’s Congress. “Celestial Empire” is a term frequently used satirically by netizens to refer to the current regime.

Banner?The Nth Period of the Celestial Empire: The Nth Plenary Session of the Orz People’s Congress
?

Rostrum

Representative Seat

?List of names by character stroke order: ?

Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz
Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz
Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz
Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz
Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz
Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz
Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz Orz

“Orz” is a frequently used posture emoticon online in East Asia. From Wikipedia:

Orz (also seen as _|?|o, OTL, Or2, Orz, OTZ, O7Z, Sto, Jto, _no, ?rz) is a Japanese emoticon representing a kneeling or bowing person, with the “o” being the head, the “r” being the arms and part of the body, and the “z” being part of the body and the legs. This stick figure represents failure and despair. It is also commonly (mis-)used for representing a great admiration for (sometimes with an overtone of sarcasm) someone else’s view or action. It was first seen in late 2002. It was first used at the forum on Techside, Japanese personal website. At the “Techside FAQ Forum” (TECHSIDE????BBS(???BBS) ), a poster asked about a cable cover, typing “?|?|?” to show a cable and its cover. Others commented that it looked like a kneeling person, and the symbol became popular. These comments were soon deleted as they were considered off-topic. However, one of the first corresponding reactions can be found on the thread on “Techside Chitchat Forum” (Techside????) at the Internet Archive, on December 23, 2002, and spawned a subculture in late 2004.

?, or “jiong” is another popular piece of Internet slang. Its original meaning is “bright,” though it is hardly used in that context online. From chinaSMACK’s glossary:

A popular Chinese character/pictogram often used on the Chinese-language internet to express being shocked, amused, or stupefied. Possibly originated from Taiwan, and similar to “Orz” which looks like a person kneeling/bowing.

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cartoons, online culture, political satire
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Cartoon: Chinese Netizens on “Netizens’ Day”

Xiao Qiang — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:13:11 +0000

Last week, a group of government officials and Internet executives announced the first “Netizens’ Day” on September 14th, which apparently marks the anniversary of the first e-mail message sent from China in 1987.

Rebecca MacKinnon blogged this news: “Wang Xiu Jun of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology gave a speech. Her remarks are a good illustration of how the Chinese government is putting an increasing amount of energy into trying to shape and guide the Chinese Internet’s development in a “harmonious” direction. She spoke of how, in 2008, Chinese netizens provided support and comfort to disaster victims, and how they showed their patriotism. She emphasized President Hu Jintao’s remarks last summer, in which he said that the Party and government place great importance on the opinions of netizens.”

Here is some additional feedback from the Chinese blogosphere. Cartoonist Guaiguai has published his new work, called “Netizens’ Day“:
(...)
Read the rest of Cartoon: Chinese Netizens on “Netizens’ Day” (72 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cartoons, CDT translation, humor, netizens' voices
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