Home » World » Corona in China: Happy Rabbit or Blue Angel of Death? – Policy

Corona in China: Happy Rabbit or Blue Angel of Death? – Policy

Commemorating important events with postage stamps is common practice in most countries. In Germany, for example, the Federal Ministry of Finance recently issued a special Christmas stamp. Unspectacular, there’s an Early Renaissance angel on it, with a quote from the Bible: “I bring you great joy.”

China Post also releases several new series every year to celebrate political and social events. So it is also on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, which will begin in a few days and heralds the year of the rabbit. The tradition of using motifs that correspond to the current sign of the zodiac has existed since 1980. But what message does the state-owned company with its this year’s design want to send is a mystery to many.

It’s a rabbit, sure, but what kind? He has glowing red eyes, his body is blue and he has human hands in which he holds pen and paper. As reported by state media, the design is meant to symbolize a plan for the new year, because “blue rabbit” is pronounced similarly to “project” in Chinese.

Commentators on online platforms, however, attribute a “demonic aura” to the rabbit. Others refer to him as a “death bunny” who writes the names of the dead, alluding to the corona wave currently rampant: “A clear indication of reality in the coming year.” However, or because of this, the stamps quickly sold out.

The stamp debate has quickly become a major topic on the Twitter-like platform Weibo. The rabbit’s designer, 98-year-old artist Huang Yongyu, finally explained in a live stream that he wanted to make people happy with his work. Some netizens added that the design is exactly the childlike style that made the artist famous.

Huang is a legend in the Chinese art world: among other things, the painter and poet designed the very first stamp of the series for the celebrations of the 1980 New Year, the year of the monkey. Born in 1924 in the central Chinese province of Hunan, he has lived through the civil war and the rise of communist leader Mao Zedong, suffering the Great Leap when tens of millions of people are believed to have died of starvation, the persecution of alleged dissidents during the Cultural Revolution, which also affected him.

However, he has retained a lightness that is reflected in his philosophy of life: “Get up and move forward,” the professor of Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts said in a documentary on state television last year. It is a message of trust that state propaganda wants to spread even in these days of overcrowded hospitals and traffic jams in front of crematoria.

However, he is hampered by the fate of the designer of the second New Year’s brand, introduced alongside Huang’s. According to state media, it shows “three rabbits running in circles, an auspicious implication for the ‘circle of life’ as well as family reunions and happiness.” Its designer, the eminent Beijing art professor Wu Guanying, is said to have died just before Christmas at the age of 67. Cause of death: “severe cold”, often code for Covid-19.

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