Flat Cat Continues to Live on Paper, and Face has been lost
Dec 13th, 2007 by guo rui
(For a previous comment, please see Truth to Be Told: Flat Cat Controversy in China Ends)
Ever since Chinese netizens discovered the original paper tiger, which they called Nianhua Laohu, truth has been revealed. The only thing left is for the national and provincial government agencies to admit it. However, both are still nagging around and trying to avoid such admission, or losing face. Futile, I have to say.
The Shaanxi provincial government agency argued that even though one photo was made from the Nianhua Laohu, others were not. Netizens celebrated for it–they finally force the government to admit that at least one photo was fake–half-truth was told. For the other half, they soon made a thorough examination of the rest 40 digital photos, and concluded with strong evidence that they were fake, too.
The national government agency assimilated the situation with that of the Loch Ness Monster. “We should focus on whether tiger exists there or not,” said the official, “NOT the photos. Look, nobody cares for Loch Ness Monster photos. People are more interested in the existence of the Ness Monster. You should stop discussing the photos.” Immediately netizens started to joke about the assimilation. What do the South China tiger and the Loch Ness Monster have in common? Neither one exists. What is the difference between the two? Loch Ness Monster does not have a governmental representative.
The two agencies efforts’ to save face failed miserably. To add salt to the wound, the media went further to embarrass them. Newspapers encouraged waves of pressure onto them. A CCTV program then dropped the final bomb. It exposed all loop wholes found in the story to its 1.4 billion audiences. These newspaper reports and TV exposure are only possible–one has to keep in mind–with the propaganda department’s permission, which leaves people wonder what the agenda behind is.
Flat cat continues to live–although you may now start counting down its days. Face has been lost, despite all the efforts of the two agencies. Now whose face? The propaganda department expect that only the two agencies, and that’s why it has not oppress any speech against the paper tiger–but it may have been too optimistic.
3 mark3