happy new year!!!

seeing red?

it’s the year of the golden pig…it comes around every 60 years.

there’s a great deal of confusion in china over the use of pig images as in the one pictured above issued in a order from cctv, a chinese staterun broadcaster. interesting is the sensitivity towards china’s 20 million muslims, 2 percent of the nation’s population.

“Both adults and children believe pigs are a lucky symbol, which bring fortune and wealth,” Tenlow’s Wu Ying said. “Their plumpness means prosperity.”

This cartoon pig used in Tenlow’s ads would hardly seem subversive. But CCTV has ordered major advertising agencies not to use pig images, cartoons or slogans “to avoid conflicts with ethnic minorities.” That’s a reference to China’s 20 million Muslims, about 2 percent of the country’s population.
At a popular mosque in Shanghai, there’s general approval of the ban. Given the Muslim taboo on pigs, these believers say that seeing pig images on TV would make them feel very uncomfortable.

“China’s building a harmonious society,” Hassan Bai Runsheng, the mosque’s imam, said. “We see a decision like this in the context of creating a harmonious society between Han Chinese and ethnic minority groups.”