The following illustration, posted by artist Li Yongqiu (李永秋) to Sina Weibo on May 3, 2013, shows a man (apparently unclothed) wearing a bright red mask, a reference possibly to poor air quality as much as to controls on speech in China. Li writes with his post: “This is a drawing from last year called, ‘The Way Things Are,’ recording my own feelings of helplessness and speechlessness over the continued occurrence of absurd events. Today, I can’t even remember what those events were, but still today I can only open my frightened eyes . . . “
David Bandurski
CMP Director
