‘Humour Is a Sharp Weapon Challenging an Authoritarian Regime’ · Global Voices
<PERSON>'s award-winning political cartoon about the White Paper issued by the Chinese government's State Council on “one country, two systems.” People in Hong Kong believe that the new interpretation of “one country, two systems” will ruin the city's autonomy. Used with permission.
Below is an interview with <PERSON>, a mainland Chinese political cartoonist who recently won the Best Political Cartoon in Hong Kong In-Media's E-Citizen Awards, which aim to promote original reporting, political cartoons, photography and commentary online. The interview was originally written in Chinese by <PERSON> and translated into English by <PERSON>.
“I never thought I could win this award, especially when I saw so many excellent creations at the Occupy Central sites. I felt a little ashamed,” says <PERSON> humbly. He won the Best Political Cartoon in Hong Kong In-Media’s E-Citizen Awards this year.
<PERSON>'s profile picture in social media. Use with permission.
<PERSON>, which means <PERSON>, is the pseudonym of <PERSON>, a mainland China-based political cartoonist. During his honeymoon in Japan, he was criticised by a number of state-run media outlets in China and labelled a “pro-Japanese traitor”. He decided to stay abroad and now lives in Japan as a university researcher. He hopes to travel to Hong Kong to receive the award and observe the creative political expressions at the sites of the so-called Umbrella Revolution there.
He used to draw cartoons for iSun Affairs Magazine, an independent publication focused on greater Chinese communities, but the magazine was shuttered in 2013. Compared to other mainland netizens, Biantailajiao pays close attention to the political affairs of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, and Taiwan, whose independence as a country China rejects. He believes the democratic future of these two places will serve as examples for the mainland. Although Hong Kong doesn’t have democracy, the citizens’ determination in the pursuit of democracy excites him. 341
In contrast, in mainland China, many people defend the communist party’s totalitarian rule, which leaves citizens hopeless.
An recent example of intellectuals protecting Chinese authoritarianism came during a literature forum in October, when Chinese President <PERSON> praised young writer <PERSON> for spreading “positive energy” on the Internet. Mainland netizens have largely debunked <PERSON>'s work as “full of lies”. In fact, famous blogger <PERSON>, who is a skilled fact-checker, was kicked off popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo for his criticism of <PERSON>. <PERSON> created a figurative caricature of the incident; netizens who retweeted the cartoon were questioned by police.
<PERSON> points out that since <PERSON> took office, Chinese citizens have enjoyed less freedom of expression. In October 2013, when the Central Propaganda Department cracked down on Weibo's opinion leaders, he received a subpoena from police accusing him of “spreading false information”. During the interrogation, the officers cautioned him to be careful, given that he had hundreds of thousands Weibo followers at the time.
Facing such pressure, <PERSON> and other online opinion leaders have acted more cautiously since November 2013. Following the questioning, he limited his drawings to social problems that didn’t criticise the communist regime. Instead, he put his energy into a Taobao online store selling snacks from Japan and Taiwan that he operated with his friends. He never imagined that in May, when he was on honeymoon with his wife in Japan and collecting items for his Taobao store, that mainland authorities would level accusations of being a “pro-Japanese traitor” against him.
His accounts on Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo, a similar service, were later deleted, and his Taobao shop was closed (later re-opened), cutting off a major source of income. On 9 August, he described the episode in a tweet as “the worst censorship” he had ever experienced.
Some speculated that the move was a retaliation against his satirical cartoon on Hong Kong's Occupy Central protests, a massive movement calling on the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese governments to allow genuine democratic elections. On 17 August, he published a cartoon that featured a mainland delegate going to Hong Kong to denounce Occupy Central and implied that mainland Chinese authorities mobilized anti-Occupy Central protests from behind the scenes. The next day, dozens of official mainland media outlets republished an article titled “See Through the Pro-Japanese Traitor Face of Biantailajiao”.
He felt wronged. 341