Naked Body: the Chinese comic collection dedicated to nudity and defying censorship
- When Chinese artist Yan Cong was told he could not print any nudity in his books, he produced an anthology filled with nude characters
- Body hair, fetishes, Madonna, and a man’s head being eaten by shaving cream are all themes in the collection
Back in the early 2010s, Beijing comic artist Yan Cong (a pseudonym that translates to “chimney”) was told by printers that they wouldn’t publish any of his books with nudity in them. Both irritated and inspired, he decided to respond to the censorship with an anthology in which all the main characters were nude.
Naked Body, published in Chinese in 2014, highlighted the humour, loopiness, horniness and astonishing breadth of the Chinese alternative comics scene. It is finally due to be published in English this year.
Japanese and European comics have had a strong influence on US creators, but Chinese comics are less well known than Japanese or American; partly because of the censorship that inspired Naked Body that means the state keeps a tight hold on what’s released.
“It’s quite difficult to do independent publishing in China,” says Orion Martin, at English publisher Paradise Systems. “State-owned enterprise publishers have access to state-issued book numbers, and if you don’t have a book number, then you cannot distribute through state-run or regular online bookstores.”
Artists such as Cong, who want to distribute work that addresses sexual themes or nudity, generally have to set up their own online shops. But these are subject to censorship too. In the past, Cong has had his webpage removed by the Chinese authorities without explanation.