Ahead of the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which opened yesterday in Beijing, a number of political cartoonists posted subtle visual critiques through Chinese social media. In this cartoon, posted by artist Kuang Biao (邝飚), we see an egg-shaped head with a queue, or braid, like that worn during the Qing Dynasty, symbolizing feudal backwardness. The subtle link to China’s present-day politics is made by the red tie at the end of the braid. The translation of Kuang Biao’s Chinese post would be something like: “Piss off, you bastard.” In Chinese, however, both words (“piss off”/混蛋 and “bastard”/滚蛋) include the character for “egg.”
David Bandurski
CMP Director
