Ming Pao Weekly comics completely removed. Unwilling to be deprived of my due rights by those in power: comic artist
Translated by Guardians of Hong Kong
After comic artist Ar To's [artohk] special column on Ming Pao Weekly was discontinued, the strips of illustrators So Winghong (sowinghong) and Jackson Ng were, likewise, "not allowed to stay". The Ming Pao Weekly webpage for "Comics Life" started its publication in March of last year and alternately featured five Hongkonger comic artists: Ar To, Lai Tat Tat Wing, Sowinghong, Jackson Ng and Katrina Glimpse.
Besides public statements from two of the artists, Katrina Glimpse also told Stand News that it was scheduled to be suspended as early as April. Lai Tat Tat Wing has not responded since the column stopped accepting new material.
Stand News inquired of Ming Pao Weekly editor-in-chief Patrick Lam into the incident. He responded on 1 Aug that the magazine has been "regularly reviewing its layout" over the past 50 years. He described this as a "regular change in content with no unusual reason". Ming Pao Weekly continues to have special columns, including comics and illustrations.
So Winghong: it stopped rather abruptly, believed that there was no other alternative
On 31 July, the creator of the WhatsApp sticker set "Granny and Tai Ma Shing" [阿婆與大麻成], So Winghong made a new post on his Facebook page, "One Road Northbound" [acitystory]. The post titled "Truth and Lies" was to be his last contribution to the Culture special column on Ming Pao Weekly. The column had run for over a year. He was grateful that the editors "didn't care about what I drew. They didn't intervene at all." As for the special column's termination, he described it as "rather abrupt" but he understood that the financial risks [for continuing] were great. He believed that there was "no other alternative" to the decision.
The story in his last piece, "Truth and Lies", is very straightforward. The scene opens with propaganda of 1+1=3 everywhere. The protagonist tells the police officer that 1+1=3 but when he returns home alone, he murmurs, "1+1=2". "Is it an act of dishonour to save one's skin and blindly go with the flow? Or do we remember our convictions with this narrow glimmer of hope? I don't know either. It probably depends on your mentality." He quoted Martin Luther King as an encouragement to his readers, "We must accept finite disappointment but we must never lose infinite hope."
So Winghong's black and white six-panel comics on Ming Pao Weekly's special column often touched on social issues. Last September, he published a comic contrasting the past and present. In one panel depicting the present, a youngster was having "Liber[ate] Hong Kong, ... out time" tattooed on his back. Another panel showed a mother singing to her swaddled baby, "may glory be to Hong Kong". On January this year, he published another comic titled "Speaking of Independence" ["speaking" is a pun on the last character of "Hong Kong"]. It showed a black finger pointing at atypical people, cursing them [in simplified Chinese], "[Hong] Kong independence".
Jackson Ng: Unwilling to be deprived of my due rights by those in power
Last Friday (24 July), Jackson Ng, another comic artist, posted on Facebook that Ming Pao Weekly published his final piece. "Stepping into July, the atmosphere has changed. You can feel the apprehension in the air." He had considered being "less vocal" but stated, "I'm unwilling to be deprived of my due rights by those in power who disrespect me." He believed that pointing out nonsensical events had nothing to do with comparing "political views" or "ideologies". Rather, "from top to bottom, [it's about] unfairness and lack of logic". He stressed that he would keep speaking out until he can no longer do so in Hong Kong. Then, he would "just keep doing it somewhere else".
Unlike Ar To and So Winghong, Jackson published serial comics on Ming Pao Weekly. He worked on two series titled "Chow Ming Sees the World" and "A Single Moment". Both are life sketches but the latter focused more on social issues like the 831 Prince Edward MTR incident. His last issue shows the protagonist having a haircut. "A small portion" of hair is shaved off, seemingly taken from the rhetoric of government officials that the National Security Law would only target a small portion of the people. That this piece would be his last on Ming Pao Weekly, he admits, "is really a bit ironic".
Jackson told Stand News that after the National Security Law was implemented, many comic artists had their work dropped, citing "restructuring content" as the reason. "The timing really makes us wonder," he said. He stressed that Ming Pao Weekly had never censored his work and that he did not want to guess at the newspaper's intent. "Be water. Let's not fight amongst ourselves. Let's all work hard."
Katrina Glimpse: one naturally connects the National Security Law with the column's discontinuation.
Katrina Glimpse has not publicly commented on the situation at Ming Pao Weekly. Her name remains on the "Comics Life" special column webpage.
When Stand News initiated contact with her, Katrina Glimpse admitted that her comic was also terminated. She quoted the editor's email, "Since April's publication of Ming Pao Weekly (issue 2682) will be modified, your special column only needs material up to this issue (2680)."
Most of the work by Katrina Glimpse are short comics on social issues and current affairs. She has portrayed scenes of Lennon walls and riot police opening fire. One piece titled "Misrepresenting a Deer as a Horse" hit the nail right on the head by opening with a riot policeman pulling the leash of a deer with a yellow helmet. The middle panel showed a man calling it a "yellow object". It was likely in response to the foreigner Acting Senior Superintendent Vasco Williams describing "an officer kicking a yellow object" after a member of "Protect the Children" [a pro-democracy elderly volunteer group] was kicked repeatedly [by the police] in a back alley.
When asked about her perspective on the column's termination, Katrina Glimpse candidly said that it supposed to happen sooner. She claimed that it was difficult to determine if the reason was modifications in content or the National Security Law. "But with these changes happening right now, one naturally connects it with the National Security Law."
Source: Stand News