This is a spin-off of the original GFX Art Battle, but with some updated rules and changes. Please make sure to read the rules before entering, since they have been modified. Good luck, we look forward to seeing some creative artistic entries!
Competition Rules 1. Must be hand drawn, either on paper or in a program. It can then be manipulated in an graphics program. But unoriginal artwork cannot be used as the main focus. Copyrighted images cannot be used. All pieces containing copyrighted images will be disqualified. 2. Submissions must follow the current theme that has been chosen by a moderator for that week. If you submit more than one piece, please clarify which one you would like to be judged. 3. If your image is larger than 600 pixels wide, please provide a link to the image instead of posting it in the forum. Otherwise, the image will be cut off. 4. Artists cannot win in subsequent weeks. You can still submit, but if you won the week before, you cannot get first place again the next week. 5. After the deadline, a moderator will pick the winner, and they will be awarded a 25 AP award.
lol that's a good one KR. Okay, finally, here's mine.
The reason I felt compelled to enter this despite not really having the time to do so is because the theme aptly fell upon the occasion of Chinese New Year (which began 26th January this year, though the festivities go for 15 days).
I happen to know that this wouldn't be relevant to most of you (with the exception of Parsat). Well, in Australia and Malaysia (where I spent the last 3 weeks), CNY is a big deal, especially in the latter country, so you're fairly inundated with it. I used to feel that CNY was the amalgamation of blatantly materialistic sentiment and was therefore the bastion of misguided ideology but I got over that and instead started embracing the overly gaudy proliferation of red and gold lanterns, fire crackers and, of course, the notorious ang pao. Traditional CNY folk songs ran through my head until I wanted to smash my head through a brick wall (not such a good thing). I developed a curious desire to dress in traditional Chinese dress until I realised it'd be a one-time-only wear as I couldn't possibly wear such in Australia except maybe to the annual "Dag Nite" med student ball @ Monash or something.
In short, this all led to me wanting to share a part of my own cultural heritage, despite the fact that I was born and raised in a country, even a world apart from it.
As for the picture, well, to anybody who knows a smidgen about CNY the joke should be self-explanatory, but I'll explain it anyway- according to the Chinese Zodiac, 2009 marks the Year of the Ox. Hence Strop's impersonation (the Year of the Horse was in 2002, and there are 12 animals in the cycle). Note that I was not born in either the year of the horse, nor the ox, haha.
Unless you mean "Klaatu barada nikto" I have no idea what you just said.
I'll explain more in detail after I've thought about it for a while. Explanation as follows. Yeah it looks good. It's not entirely correct. To not care, is to be dismissive, take it as is like a TV show (and hardly are the portrayals true), but I know, so should I care? Not really. Unless Strop did it for entertainment value. You don't put your own culture up for entertainment value. But there is another dimension to this highlighted in the next paragraph.
So Strop "exposed" me as a flagrant deconstructivist in another thread, so I will... put some meaning behind my own words since only those who know know and its hard enough to explain if you don't. I will add that hidden dimension to Strop's picture that makes it, to me at least, not what he "intends" it to be. It, and his explanation, shows his disconnect, as do most overseas Chinese from their parents', grandparents', go-back-as-far-as-is-necessary's culture. Culture. There wrapped up in a different wrapper.
Those who know know, know what I'm talking about. The pinyin is not entirely correct. It is, but for a different phrase. The explanation uses the Hokkien Ang Pao instead of the pinyin Hong Bao. I'm not sure what that means. Is there a Hokkien community in Australia? Maybe. On a tangent, certainly Malaysia would celebrate the Lunar New Year with one of the largest overseas Chinese communities after Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. There's a sizable population in Australia and New Zealand, but by no means large.
So what is it that I see? A blend of cultures of an overseas Chinese almost entirely immersed in another culture.
Traditional CNY folk songs ran through my head until I wanted to smash my head through a brick wall (not such a good thing).
Gong xi gong xi gong xi ni ah Gong xi gong xi gong xi ni
so Gantic does that make you a Chinese grammar Nazi or something.Also King Ryan while a lot of others seem to have gotten the joke behind yours.I can't seem to make heads or tails of it.It looks like a bowl of rice with some worms in it that were put next to a microwave or something.Seriously I just don't understand it at all.What am I missing here?
*throws himself down at Gantic's feet* heeeeelp! Could you at least provide a translation that actually fits? I agonised over the possibility that I was incorrect but ultimately it became a case of the blind leading the blind. As I have said before, I...am a banana.
(If you get both aspects of that joke I will applaud you.)
This doesn't make Gantic a Chinese grammar Nazi as I've used both the wrong characters and the wrong language. It's a bit like saying "Top o' the morning to ye" when I mean to say "How are you this afternoon?"
From my personal understanding, the various elements of Chinese culture has trickled down and been appropriated throughout the South East Asian community and, to a lesser extent, the Australia community. There are in fact significant demographic differences within those Australian communities also- one can expect to find a lot of mainland Chinese within Sydney whereas one would find a lot more Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese within Melbourne. This makes for significant differences in cultural idiosyncrasies. And since these migrant ethnic groups tend to collect in certain metropolitian areas (particularly students), we literally make up a majority in some places.
Now since Gantic has picked up on the ang pao, I'll reveal that my mother does come from Penang (a small island off the Malaysian peninsula) and thus speaks Hokkien. I've never been to China and never really gotten a feel for the various other veins of Chinese culture as it seems too vast and complicated a world for me to actually fathom. And as I've said before, thanks to a Western background, I'm continually feeling the disconnect, as with many other depatriated peoples, we can never quite figure out which our home country is.
In short: Gantic, if you could provide me with the correct pinyin, that would be much appreciated. Writing the wrong phrase is highly embarrassing.
Also, crimson, kingryan drew a microbial culture growing in a petridish. It's a biology joke.
I love those cartoons. Hilarious. Mah spoon... is tooooo big.
Ohhhh I get KR's entry now. Haha. I was just asking Zoph is she got it, not too long ago. And your entry is sweet Strop, sweet like Trix. I love the body and facial expression. xD