Hexie Farm title as seen on official blog

''Hexie Farm'' (), by an author known as Crazy Crab, is an online

political cartoon A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically co ...

in China critical of the Chinese government. ''Hexie'' in Chinese

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

is a pun on harmony and river crab. The cartoon started running in August 2010, focusing on animal characters living in a "Harmonic Farm". It is loosely based on

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

’s novel ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' (originally ''Animal Farm: A Fairy Story'') is a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic far ...

''.

Author

The author of ''Hexie Farm'', who uses the pen name Crazy Crab, remains pseudonymous for safety reasons; no photo or personal information has been released. Crazy Crab is a fan of ''

Calvin and Hobbes ''Calvin and Hobbes'' is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was Print syndication, syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly described as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin a ...

'' as well as ''

Snoopy Snoopy is an anthropomorphic beagle in the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by American cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. He also appears in all of the ''Peanuts'' films and television specials. Since his debut on October 4, 1950, Snoopy has become one of ...

''. The author began drawing political cartoons after reading news about Feng Zhenghu, and Tang Fu-zhen self-immolation incident.

History

''Hexie Farm'' was started in August 2010 and at the time focused on the life of the protagonist farm animals. The web cartoon quickly gained attention from

Internet activists The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, publi ...

in China, and first gained media attention in July 2011. It used

micro-blogging Microblogging is a form of blogging using short posts without titles known as microposts or status updates. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links", which may be the ...

platforms in China such as Weibo to gain attention. By October 2011, ''Hexie Farm'' was recognized by the Chinese government and was officially banned in China. All content related to the cartoon was marked as ''harmful content'' and deleted from Chinese search engines and websites. Crazy Crab stated in an interview that they regard the censorship of their cartoons an honor. On October 4, 2011, Crazy Crab launched the online campaign Dark Glasses Portrait to support the blind lawyer

Chen Guangcheng Chen Guangcheng (born November 12, 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently describ ...

. Following Chen's escape in April 2012 the campaign continued, though now in support of Chen's family, who were under arrest, with the motto "Together, let's support Guangcheng, aid Guangcheng, until Chen and his family are completely free!" (''"让我们一起，关注光诚，声援光诚，直至他和他的家人得到完全自由!"''). In early 2012, Crazy Crab published multiple cartoons that were influenced by the

self-immolation Self-immolation is the act of setting oneself on fire. It is mostly done for political or religious reasons, often as a form of protest or in acts of martyrdom, and known for its disturbing and violent nature. Etymology The English word ' ...

incidents in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

References

External links

''Hexie Farm''{{'s Official Blog

Dark Glasses. Portrait Campaign
Political webcomics Chinese webcomics Internet censorship in China 2010s webcomics

Author

History

See also

References

External links