One of Ar To’s cartoons HK publisher sought to censor
A Hong Kong cartoonist has claimed that publishers there are censoring themselves rather than risk riling the Chinese government. “The political pressure has been stronger and stronger,” cartoonist Ar To complained in a May 26 Facebook post. “The [Hong Kong] publishing industry is not in good shape, with many obstacles now to publish a book.” One of the cartoons a publisher wanted Ar To to remove from his latest collection showed a character altering a sign welcoming President Xi Jinping to read “President Xi, you are very dictatorial.”
“The ‘game’ in HK is rather implicit and indirect. They do not have to directly pressure the artists but there can always be ways to suppress or to hinder such opposing voices,” Ar To says. “I am rather pessimistic about HK’s situation, as the so-called ‘One Country, Two System‘ is somehow in name only. From my point of view this kind of self-censorship or white terror may continue.”
[Go to CRNI interview with cartoonist Ar To]
