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SCMP Reporter

A comic depicting the chief executive as a foolish emperor is a hit at the book fair

The latest comic to satirise Tung Chee-hwa stole the show at yesterday's opening of the Hong Kong Book Fair, with teenagers queuing at the Convention and Exhibition Centre for a chance to have a laugh at the chief executive's expense.

Five booths run by veteran satirist  Jimmy Pang Chi-ming were crowded with young people eager to snap up his latest title, Chee-hwa Uprising.

Portraying Mr Tung as a bumbling emperor, the book suggests his role in causing social unrest is comparable to historical events such as the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.

One of the strips says history will find Mr Tung 'guilty' - like certain harsh emperors - as he has ruined Hong Kong.

At the end of the book there is a scene showing former security chief Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and ex-financial secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung being dumped in a rubbish bin under the heading: 'It's not the end of the story.'

Pang said about 2,000 copies of Chee-hwa Uprising were sold yesterday, mostly to teenagers.

'Sales on the first day of the book fair are usually bad, but we sold double what we sold on the first day last year,' Pang said. Silly Old Tung, his first satirical comic to target the chief executive, sold more than 40,000 copies after being published in 2000.

Pang said he was surprised that his new comic was proving so popular among teenagers.

'It was quite shocking to see so many teenage buyers, as most people who bought our books last year were adults,' he said. 'We only set up five booths, half the number of last year, as all publishers were expecting a bad year.'

Primary Six pupil Pang Chor-kin, who attended the mass protests on July 1 and 9 with his parents, spent half of his $70 budget on four political comics.

'The books are hilarious. I can relate these jokes to what I have read in newspapers,' he said.

But not all visitors to the fair were fans of the political satire that has emerged in the past few years.

Natasha To Ho-yan, a recent graduate of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said she would not waste her money on such books.

'They are not witty enough and lack insight,' she said. 'I have read some of the jokes elsewhere. The writers have just applied names of Tung's cabinet members to some cliched jokes.'

She said she was also concerned that the comics might have a bad influence on teenagers: 'They might not be able to distinguish satire from fact.'

In response,  Pang said: 'It's not a bad thing to see more and more young people showing they care about social issues.'



Teens queue to laugh at Tung's expense