Mao E’Gao

January 25, 2007

Apparently there’s an “artistic” (expect a lot of bunny-eared quotes in this post) revolution taking over the Chinese Internet – and I’ve indirectly been a) promoting it, and b) adding to it. Crap.

TaiTai over at Sinocidal pointed me to a horribly written piece of “journalism” from Xinhua (big surprise) that explains the “new art form” sweeping the net – E’Gao. The ‘E’ allegedly stands for “evil” and Gao means “to make fun of” (fully, should be “搞笑“). Really, it’s just parody, satire, taking the piss .. or whatever you’d like to call it. Leave it to the official state media to try and claim it as a Chinese invention. What’s next, democracy? Sarcasm?

With this new Internet thingy really taking off, and these kids today having a much better clue to it all than dem old fecks, leave it to the media to try and label it as anything other than the fun and funny it is meant as. Still not sure what E’Gao is? Remember the Back-Dorm Boys – a couple college kids who video-tape themselves performing bad KTV to pop songs? Yup… this is “new art”. Fuck off, it’s boredom meets narcissism and a webcam.

Anyway… as I seem to have stumbled my way into being a NiuArtist (yeah, that’s how we spell it), here are a few Mao Ze Dong E’Gao portraits I’ve either created myself or featured here on Adventures of the Humanaught (or just ones I stumbled across on other sites).

maolastsupper.jpg

Please add links to others in the comments if you know of any.

5 Responses

  1. I think the very first Back-Dorm Boys was funny. But after that it was just ridiculous imitation, which isn’t funny. At all.

    The same thing happened when “Lazy Sunday” came out (on SNL). Then, all of a sudden, everybody and his dog had to jump on the bandwagon. There was a West Coast response, a Midwest version. There was even one from a couple of guys from England who, for some reason, added profuse use of the word “mother-f**ker”. They were just bad things spawned from something that was good.

    And I think that’s what’s happened here. It’s sad.

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  2. I like how it’s being treated like some sort of ‘phenomenon’ and although it is large-scale, I think ‘trend’ may be a bit more apt.

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  3. @Stu: not sure what “Lazy Sunday” is… but I’ll YouTube it (speaking of trends, I love how websites have become verbs).

    @Jason: Very definitely a trend, and one to be expected as the net and high-powered computers become the norm in many households. “Art” is driven by media, if the mass of media increases the production of creative endeavors is also sure to increase in response.

    What I think is particularly hilarious is how they’ve taken something that has been happening since the first Neanderthal drew a picture of his violating a mammoth – relabeled it and speak about it as if it’s new. The method and medium perhaps, but mockery? C’mon…

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  4. Yeah, the Chinese invented satire, ’cause they’re sooo good at taking a self-deprecating joke. Add it to the list with Tequila.

    Whatever you call it, there is something just fucking hilarious about that video. I think it’s the facial contortions. I hate the song, so maybe I just love anything that makes such wicked fun of it. Two things, though, it is not: art and new.

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  5. I use to have a character in Everquest that was a troll shadowknight named Mowse Tsetung. I had made up some very funny pictures that were a mix of mao propaganda and this troll. I am not sure if I have them anymore… I will have to look on my computer at home.

    Reply

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