Author: Jason Li

Jason Li is an independent designer, artist and educator. Once upon a time, he studied engineering and ran a news site about fan translations of video games.
Chinese Comics Review

Night Bus: journey through the fantastical Chinese countryside

Posted on by Jason Li

Cover image of Night Bus

A young woman with big, circular glasses is nudged out onto the platform by the rivers of the passengers going in and out of the train. She finds herself at an unfamiliar stop, but close to home, and she is forced to take the night bus to complete her journey. The bus, and its inhabitants, have other ideas, taking her on a…

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Chinese Comics Review

Ping Pong 4: cataloguing explorations through illustration

Posted on by Jason Li
Table display of candy, caricatures and collected trash objects
Objects and drawings from the Ping Ping Vol. 4 exhibition opening

Ping Pong Vol. 4 marks the Hong Kong publication’s continuing shift away from comics to the world of illustration. Titled Field Guide Collection, this latest volume finds its artists cataloguing various objects, behaviors and techniques through their drawings. As with the previous issue, the collective…

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Chinese Comics Review

City of Darkness: A macho Hong Kong comic exemplar set in the Kowloon Walled City

Posted on by Jason Li

city of darkness squad illustration

City of Darkness (九龍城寨) chronicles the fall and rise of prominent gangster and martial artist 陳洛軍 (“Lok”) as he goes into hiding in the Kowloon Walled City after a bitter fight with his former boss. Set in a picturesque rendition of 1980s Hong Kong, City of Darkness pays homage to what co-creator Andy Seto calls the most beautiful…

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Typography Design

Julius Hui’s eclectic Chinese typography Instagram stream

Posted on by Jason Li

Hong Kong-based typographer Julius Hui has recently started an Instagram account dedicated to Chinese type design with insightful and incisive bilingual commentary. Below we’ve captured our some of our favorites:

1.

Inspiration_Calligraphers in Qing dynasty are usually not recommended by scholars, they are always being criticised as ‘too rigid’ and ‘too robotic’.…

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Chinese Comics Review

WeChat Cats, Romantic Blunders & Lightning Dogs: Paradise Systems Year 1

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“Paradise Systems publishes exemplary comics from the United States and China.” This is the story of their first year, broken up into three acts.

I.

Our story begins in Brooklyn, where long-time translator and former China resident Orion Martin sets out on his publishing adventure. Wanting to foment a a cultural exchange of comics, he tests the waters…

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Chinese Comics Review

China King of Fighting: An action graphic memoir that ended too soon

Posted on by Jason Li

Chinese King Of Boxing Covers

China King of Fighting was created by a pro boxer-turned-cartoonist, who tells the life story of boxing living legend Zou Shiming after they befriend one another in the ring. Zou, commonly hailed as China’s most successful boxer, is famous for having won Olympic gold twice in a row, as well as winning and defending the WBO flyweight title for a…

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Design Society Shenzhen: conservative curatorial at a cutting-edge institution

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After much fanfare, I had a chance to visit the two opening exhibitions at the new Design Society 设计互联 in Shenzhen – “China’s first design museum.” Freshly unveiled last December, Design Society is located at the newly-constructed Sea World Culture and Arts Center in Shekou, one of the most historically-progressive areas in Shenzhen. That it is…

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