US-based young comic artist Bei Yi reflects on China's gaokao (university entrance exams), which took place in early June. Every year, Chinese students cross this narrow log bridge of national exams, hoping to find a clearing on the other side. Students from regions across China, rich and poor, see this as a possible ticket to a better life and maybe even a passport to the West. When the stakes are so high, studying becomes a moral obligation to one's family. Some make it out, but on that journey, many things are left behind.
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Ever since the Omicron variant started wreaking havoc in Shanghai, a city once hailed as the beacon of a modernised China has descended into a state of chaos. All sorts of horror stories have flooded international media and social media platforms. US-based young Chinese comic artist Bai Yi looks at Shanghai from afar, saddened and frustrated by the absurdity of the news being circulated.
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Poverty alleviation has been a hot topic in China in recent years. A documentary about the Daliang Mountains where some poor communities live made young Chinese comic artist Bai Yi reflect on the suffering and helplessness of poverty. While China’s poverty alleviation programme has helped ease the situation, how many children in the mountain areas fail to get adequate help for various reasons, and generations continue to suffer the same fate? A kite with a broken string is difficult to retrieve; one can only pray that some kind soul will pick it up.
