Chinese / Hong Kong (People's Republic of China)
Tin Hong Gaau Jyu
(Tian kong jiao yu)
(Plastic, plastic, everywhere!)
Fung, Michelle Kuen Suet
(Feng, Juanxue)
(text/illus.)
Hong Kong: San lian shu dian (Xiang gang) you xian gong si (Joint Publishing [Hong Kong] Company Limited), 2017. – 176 p.
ISBN 978-962-04-4184-4
Dystopia | Environmental destruction | Graphic novel | Anthropocene | Plastic
Reading age: 12+
White Ravens issue: 2019
This multi-award-winning graphic novel tells the story of Ms Du, a hermit, who happens upon an injured sea turtle at the beach in 2200. She tells the animal her sad life story and, while she’s at it, also recounts the most important event of the past 200 years: Scientists discovered that plastic tastes delicious and can be used as food for sea animals and children. The ancient turtle is preoccupied with its own memories, memories about a time when jellyfish swam in the sea instead of plastic bags. When Ms Du takes the turtle to the vet in her hometown, she finds it empty and in ruins, unaware that it was abandoned many years before. The people have disappeared, the turtle survives. Does this give cause for hope? The Chinese-Cantonese text is embedded in somber illustrations rendered in the style of Chinese ink paintings on hand-made paper. Like most of the texts, illustrations, installations, performances, and short films created by this Hong Kong artist, the book discusses the destruction of nature during the Anthropocene.