The Megaphone, 2015
ink and watercolour on Xuan paper mounted on silk
20 1/8 x 20 1/2 in
51.2 x 52 cm
51.2 x 52 cm
$ 18,000.00
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In The Megaphone, what at first glance appears to be a fantastical meeting of man and beast is also a statement on contemporary politics. The river crab in the foreground...
In The Megaphone, what at first glance appears to be a fantastical meeting of man and beast is also a statement on contemporary politics. The river crab in the foreground of the composition is a physical manifestation of internet slang: 河蟹 (héxiè, “river crab”) is a near-homonym of 和谐 (héxié, “harmonious/harmonize/harmonization”), which refers to China's Harmonious Society ideology. “River crab society” and “to be rivercrabbed” are shorthand amongst Chinese netizens for online censorship of speech and the oppressive forces undergirding the Harmonious Society project.