Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

 

A bunch of online cartoons comparing Hong Kong and Taiwan made waves online in recent months. Drawn by a Taiwan artist working in Hong Kong, they offer a cheeky take on differences in behavior and attitudes between the two places.

For example, Taiwanese are shown not being fazed by strong typhoons while Hong Kongers scramble for emergency supplies when a small one appears. In Taiwanese restaurants, customers are put on a pedestal, but in Hong Kong, customers cower in fear from tyrannical servers. The cartoons are mostly hilarious and give good insight into both places, but it was only recently I realized what was great about them.

In comparing and making fun of Taiwan and Hong Kong, the artist Jiejie did something I think is really rare. Basically, Chinese, and many Asians, don't have a habit of openly joking about different nations, regions and people, be it in movies or standup comedy, or in personal exchanges.

This isn't because Asians are ultra-polite and don't make fun of others. They definitely do, but often with inside jokes that are more often malicious than jovial. If it's unusual for Asians to openly joke about others, it's rarer to openly make fun of one's own country or people, especially when comparing it to others.

This makes it even more remarkable that the artist made fun of his own Taiwan. Several of the cartoons poke fun at Hong Kong of course but in several instances, Taiwan comes out worse. One cartoon compares police - a nerdy Taiwanese policeman (their uniform which consists of a baseball cap and loose grey shirt suggests a boy scout leader rather than a law enforcer) and a muscular Hong Kong cop looking like he came straight out of boot camp; in another cartoon, a Hong Kong triad gangster poses bareback with a cutlass while a Taiwanese roughneck rides on his scooter wild-eyed with betelnut juice flowing out of his mouth.

To be honest, I have indeed heard Asians joke about themselves. But it's mostly not common in the public sphere, unlike how American or British comedians and filmmakers regularly lampoon their own nation and society.

Bantering over national and cultural differences seems to come easily to some Westerners. For instance, my British colleagues think nothing of joking about their own country or each other's hometowns. Just the other week, a female English coworker reacted with mock horror when I assumed she was from a certain northern city, famous for football, right in earshot of another colleague from said city. In my previous job in Taiwan, my American colleagues made fun of each other's home states and, in turn, joked with English and Australian coworkers over things like sports, English pronunciation, and behavior. I can't imagine Chinese coworkers doing this with each other.

I get that there are factors like ongoing and historical disputes, lack of a common language, and reserved and conservative mindsets built up over centuries. In reality, it's farfetched to imagine an Asia where people can banter with each other like the West. But Jiejie's cartoons show that there is a way for Asians, especially Chinese, to make fun of themselves and each other openly without vitriol.

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.