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Bai Budan took a morning stroll on Tiananmen Square to find inspiration for a new series of satirical cartoons, an art form only barely alive on the mainland.
He wondered about the sheer number of surveillance cameras installed on the square, opposite the entrance to the Forbidden City with a huge portrait of Mao Zedong.
"These cameras are for whose safety? Are they for the safety of the ordinary people?" he asked.
He remembered the popular children's song I love Beijing Tiananmen that he sang when he was young. He sketched the Mao portrait and made a note about updating the lyrics.
Back in his studio, he quickly drew two pink cupids pointing to three security cameras, with the Forbidden City as a background. The caption read: "I love the security cameras of Beijing Tiananmen."
When he feels the work is finished, where will he show it? Who in the country will see it? Those questions are fraught with risks.
Cartoons used as political satire have been rare on the mainland since 1949, though some began gaining notice about three years ago. In particular, single-panel cartoons from an artist known as Rebel Pepper were widely circulated on social media.

In December 2013, President Xi Jinping made headlines for stopping to have a simple lunch of steamed buns in a small Beijing restaurant, in an event staged to portray China's most powerful man as one of the people. Rebel Pepper's rendition showed Xi as steamed bun surrounded by other breakfast foods kowtowing to him as though he were an old-time emperor.
Another cartoon, in October 2014, shows Xi in bed with a nationalistic blogger named Zhou Xiaoping; Xi had praised Zhou, though the young man had drawn attention for writing exaggerated negative claims about the United States.
Read More: Xi Jinping handshake has bloggers thrust into the mainstream
Authorities abruptly closed social media accounts belonging to Rebel Pepper, whose real name is Wang Liming, and searched his house last year. He later went into self-exile in Japan. The crackdown was part of broader moves by the leadership to curb online discourse of intellectuals, lawyers and any groups pushing for societal change from outside the Communist Party.
Bai avoids targeting leaders and instead takes aim at society in general, often using cute and irreverent characters to make his point. Even so, his Facebook-style microblog account was terminated last year after he posted a cartoon of Tiananmen Square immersed in red ink. It looked like a possible reference to the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy students there, still a taboo subject on the mainland.

Bai said it was a challenge to show his cartoons to the public and he often resorted to private exhibitions.
"I have not exhibited many of my paintings publicly. My Weibo account was closed down last year. But I try not to think too much about the possible risks. I try to think about positive things, or try to be optimistic," Bai said outside his Beijing home.
"Any career has risks attached. Right?"
Art critic Li Xianting said a normal society would have these types of artists.
"If no one raises their voice, then of course that is not a normal society," Li said.
"There are fewer and fewer cartoonists in China. This is because there is no space for them to grow. They have no access to the public and there is no platform for them. In the past, newspapers and print media played a very important role."
Read more:Leading lights of cinema condemn closure of Beijing Independent Film Festival
Bai, originally from Shanxi province, creates cartoons using ink and inkstone on rice paper, and also remarks on social issues through photography and documentaries.
"All the things happening in our society concern me," he said. "I think about them and I paint them."


Chinese cartoonist Bai Budan draws cute, risky battle lines in political satire

Cartoonist and political satirist Bai Budan dips his brush in ink as he works on a sketch in his studio in central Beijing. He often uses cute and irreverent characters to make his point about social issues but struggles to have his work shown in public. Photo: AP

Bai said it was a challenge to show his cartoons to the public and he often resorted to private exhibitions. Photo: AP

Bai, originally from Shanxi province, creates cartoons using ink and inkstone on rice paper. Photo: AP

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China

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The cuteness of Bai Budan's characters often belie a serious point about life on the mainland
