Comic strip sparks Chinese success debate

Han Han's new 120-page literary magazine Party has finally hit the newsstands. Although there’s much for people to comment on, one thing that is drawing the most attention is a comic strip in the magazine that features a fly trapped in a glass bottle struggling to get out. After many failed attempts, the bruised and bleeding fly is still trying to escape. 

The fly character is based on work from Luo Yonghao (罗永浩), a contributor to the magazine and founder of the blog Bullogger, which offers social and media commentary. Luo has just published a book called “My Struggles” (我的奋斗), which, similar to his comic strip, tells people how to live their lives on their own terms, defining success by that measure, rather than in monetary terms. Han's new magazine, which Luo contributes to, and his book are two of the most talked-about Chinese reads in 2010. 

Han and Luo liken the fly’s struggle to their readers trying to follow their heart instead of going with China's societal flow. Their message according to the comic: "it’s a challenge to be a righteous person in China but you need to keep fighting," writes Luo.

It's hard for a truthful person to live a decent life in our society today. Although it should be a quality that everybody has, it's now very rare.

— Jiuzui de tange, Chinese netizen

An article posted on QQ.com about the comic argues that what makes Han and Luo special is not only their spirit of individuality (which they’re both known for), but also their insistence on being “good people, uncompromising to today's society.” 

No land for good men

Luo's best-selling book, “My Struggles” (我的奋斗), has been reviewed online as “a book about untraditional success,” and “China's most stimulating book of the recent 30 years.”

In an interview reported on QQ.com Luo defines success as being “an honest and good person, following your heart, and living a not bad life.”

He continues in the same interview to say that that it’s not that people are not inherently bad, but can be led astray. “Although people all know from a very young age that we should insist on truth, beauty and dreams, they don’t know this when they grow up. That's because they are poisoned by the society.”

Han, who has been called by famous Chinese novelist Zhang Yueran “the person who tells truth, like the little kid in the tale ‘The Emperor's New Clothes’,” claims that he's only being himself by publishing Party, hence the collaboration between the two authors.

Explaining his success, in an interview Han explains, “Today we have no heroes, thus someone like me can become famous.”

Right idea, wrong time

Although both Han and Luo have broad public appeal (Han Han being the most popular blogger in China accumulating 405,307,144 hits since its launch with 207,654 regular followers), even their fans question whether what they’re asking of people is really possible in China today. 

“In today's society, honest people cannot be successful, many of those honest people are starving,” says Chinese netizen Hehehe from Shiyan.

Another user from Guangzhou agrees, sarcastically commenting on the same post chain: “I'm so true that I don't even have food; I'm so true that I can't live; that is the real truth.”

“Honesty can even put you in danger in this society,” writes QQ user Zhencheng Yongheng from Tianjin.

Other responses agree that it is difficult to be a good person in China. “It's hard for a truthful person to live a decent life in our society today,” writes netizen Jiuzui de tange. “Although it should be a quality that everybody has, it's now very rare.”

Relating back to the comic strip in Han Han’s magazine, a netizen writes, “I think the fly might die after hitting its head on the glass so many times.”