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, a form of 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 combine a ...

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

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

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), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

’s novel ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to crea ...

''.

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 syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin and Hobbes'' has enjoyed ...

'' as well as ''

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

''. The author began drawing political cartoons after reading news about

Feng Zhenghu Feng Zhenghu (born 1 July 1954) is a Chinese economist and scholar based in Shanghai. Citing Amnesty International, ''The Guardian'' said that Feng was "a prominent human rights defender" in Mainland China. In 2001 he was sent to prison for t ...

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

micro-blogging Microblogging is a form of social network that permits only short posts. They "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links",. Retrieved June 5, 2014 which may be the major reason for ...

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 describe ...

. 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 The term self-immolation broadly refers to acts of altruistic suicide, otherwise the giving up of one's body in an act of sacrifice. However, it most often refers specifically to autocremation, the act of sacrificing oneself by setting oneself o ...

incidents in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

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