Kuang Biao
{{Short description|Political cartoonist}}
{{family name hatnote|Kuang|lang=Chinese}}
{{Infobox comics creator
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| image = File:Kuang Biao 2010 (cropped).jpg
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| caption = Kuang in 2010
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| nationality = Chinese
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| module = {{Infobox Chinese|child=yes|hide=no|headercolor=#99c2ff|order=st
| s = 邝飚
| t = 鄺飈
| p = Kuàng Biāo}}
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Kuang Biao (邝飚) is an influential Chinese political cartoonist and microblogger.{{cite news|last=Fisher |first=Max |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/01/03/the-political-cartoons-that-maybe-got-their-artist-shut-down-on-chinese-social-media/ |title=The political cartoons that maybe got their artist shut down on Chinese social media |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2013-01-03 |accessdate=2016-06-04}} He has worked at the Southern Metropolis Daily as its Cartoon Editor, and his work has been published in China Digital Times and the once-popular weekly Chinese newspaper Satire and Humor.{{cite web|last=Weinland |first=Don |url=http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/09/cartoonist-kuang-biao-punished-for-cartoon-about-chang-ping/ |title=Cartoonist Kuang Biao Punished for Cartoon About Chang Ping - China Digital Times (CDT) |publisher=China Digital Times |date= 16 September 2010|accessdate=2016-06-04}}{{cite web|last=Henochowicz |first=Anne |url=http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2016/02/drawing-the-news-ren-zhiqiangs-struggle/ |title=Kuang Biao (邝飚): Ren Zhiqiang's Struggle - China Digital Times (CDT) |publisher=China Digital Times |date= 29 February 2016|accessdate=2016-06-04}} Kuang says his cartoons mainly satirize official policy pronouncements and the misbehaviour of Communist party officials.{{cite news|last=Richburg |first=Keith B. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/chinas-weibo-accounts-shuttered-as-part-of-internet-crackdown/2013/01/03/f9fd92c4-559a-11e2-89de-76c1c54b1418_story.html |title=China's 'weibo' accounts shuttered as part of Internet crackdown |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2013-01-03 |accessdate=2016-06-04}}
Censorship
Image:Fury_Wave_by_Kuang_Biao_(邝飚).jpeg
He is one of several commentators who have had their online Weibo microblogging accounts shut down in an attempt at censorship by the Chinese Communist Party. He states that he has had his Weibo account shut down "dozens of times", but according to Xinhua, users of such accounts will subject to intensified online management, and would not be allowed to register again under another name. Previously, Kuang Biao had been including his ‘reincarnation count’ each time he re-registered for Weibo. For example, in May 2015, his username was ‘Uncle Biao Fountain Pen Drawings 47’, or Kuangshugangbihua47.{{cite book|author=China Digital Times|title=Decoding the Chinese Internet: A Glossary of Political Slang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B60yCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA64|date=16 July 2015|publisher=China Digital Times Inc|isbn=978-0-9898243-4-7|pages=64–}}
Activism
Kuang has created artworks in response to many subjects considered sensitive by authorities in China, such as the tainted milk scandal and the activities of dissidents such as Chen Guangcheng.{{cite web|url=http://www.pri.org/stories/2012-06-28/chinese-cartoonists-try-push-boundaries |title=Chinese Cartoonists Try to Push Boundaries |publisher=Public Radio International |date=2012-06-28 |accessdate=2016-06-04}}
He was demoted by Southern Metropolis daily after depicting a journalist, Chang Ping in a stranglehold, after Chang had been barred from writing for two newspapers due to controversy over his article Tibet: Nationalist Sentiment and the Truth.
In 2013, he created a cartoon condemning the execution of street vendor Xia Junfeng who had been charged with murder, after claiming self-defence during an attack by chengguan, or urban law enforcement officers.{{cite book|author1=Geremie R Barmé|author2=Linda Jaivin|author3=Jeremy Goldkorn|title=Shared Destiny: China Story Yearbook 2014|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_07gCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA280|date=5 November 2015|publisher=ANU Press|isbn=978-1-925022-94-0|pages=280–}} In 2015, Kuang was one of three Chinese cartoonists who created works expressing displeasure at the French comic magazine Fluide Glacial, for its portrayal of the Chinese people.{{cite web|url=http://m.chinadaily.com.cn/en/2015-01/25/content_19400580.htm |title=Cartoonists refute French satire |work=China Daily |date=2015-01-25 |accessdate=2016-06-04}} In February 2020, he portrayed Li Wenliang, the Wuhan physician who warned about and died in the COVID-19 outbreak.{{cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/02/06/this-doctor-was-chinas-coronavirus-whistleblower-his-death-has-become-a-symbol-of-a-countrys-outrage.html |title=In life, he was China's coronavirus hero. In death, he's a symbol of outrage |work=The Star |date=2020-02-06 |accessdate=2020-03-28}}
David Bandurski, a researcher with the University of Hong Kong, says the internet has dramatically changed the environment for Chinese political cartoonists, who now have a good platform to find an audience.{{cite web|author=Frank Langfitt Twitter Facebook Instagram |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/03/16/148695679/provocative-chinese-cartoonists-find-an-outlet-online |title=Provocative Chinese Cartoonists Find An Outlet Online |website=NPR.org |publisher=NPR |date= |accessdate=2016-06-04}}