Child of the Enemy State: Life Drawn Across Boundaries
敵國鬼子
Overview
One of the most distinctive voices among contemporary Hong Kong–Taiwan comic artists—Lau Kwong Shing’s new semi-autobiographical work.
A coming-of-age story exploring the politics of identity and how geography and history shape the labels imposed on human relationships.
“Long” is a Chinese boy born in Japan. After his father’s sudden career change, his family relocates to northeastern China—where, in the 1990s, memories of Japan’s wartime invasion remain vivid. Unable to speak Mandarin, Long canonly piece together the nature of hostility through curses he barely understands. Yet when the family later moves to Hong Kong, the place of his birth, that same “from Japan” identity earns him a gaze of awe and curiosity instead.
How should one define oneself—and others?
Based on his own experiences growing up across shifting environments, Hong Kong comic artist Lau Kwong Shing depicts, through the eyes of a teenage protagonist, how a person’s sense of self is formed and reshaped amid changing labels, unfamiliar cultures, and the search for understanding in an ever-divided world.
Size: 14.8 x 21 cm
1 Volume (end)
Author(s)
A Hong Kong artist. Lau spent his childhood in Kyoto, Japan, and has been deeply influenced by manga culture. After returning to Hong Kong, he studied art at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has published dozens of serialized comics, even contributing to the Anti-Extradition Law Movement in Hong Kong through his comics. Relying on charcoal pencils as his main medium, Lau's drawings are bold and confident. Using the texture of pencil strokes to create a sense of aura, he attempts to deconstruct and recreate “comics” by exploring its possibilities as a mode of expression. His seemingly raw, simple style is in fact intensely emotional.
Lau's comic works include The Fallen City: Hong Kong, The News Lens, Episode 001: Foreign Students, Undocumented Workers, and The Incense Burner of Lust.
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