Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Officials Need a Better Photoshopper
A clearly photoshopped picture of three Chinese officials inspecting a newly laid road is becoming an internet sensation. The picture posted on a local council's website, shows the men hovering a few inches off the ground with the edges of their bodies blurred. Government officials offer the following explanation: "...a professional photographer had been employed to photograph the three men inspecting the road surface. But after taking a set of real shots of the officials, the unnamed photographer decided that the pictures were just not good enough. With true artistic temperament he set about 'Photoshopping' the three men onto the empty road to create something better." Plenty of parody pictures have popped up already, and I look forward to seeing where the trio end up over the weekend.
where can I find the parody pictures?
The article has some.
http://patriciachan.com/2011/06/how-to-not-photoshop-official-government-photos-funny-chinese-bad-photoshop-sensation/#respond
Direct link to small paragraph on story and contains many of the parody photos for those interested.
ChinaSmack has much more detailed coverage on this story, including translated Chinese netizen reactions and ton of photoshops. There are only a few ways that the Chinese can criticize the "ZF" (Chinese Government), these sorts of harmless mockery is one of them.
http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/pictures/floating-chinese-government-officials-stun-netizens.html
...you'd never resort to such crassness, would you?
http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/category/photoshop-disaster/
What do you expect, it's tough for a web developer to keep up with these newfangled technologies like "links" and "checkboxes". I mean, this is only the 3rd time Slashdot has broken the site in the exact same fucking way.
they should get the Soviet Russia guys they did a better job with out photo shop or a pc.
Look on the bright side: no Rick-rolling.
News?
THIS. IS. IDLE!
This site provides them without having to click on thumbnails.
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
I know it, I've seen "Croucing Tiger, Hidden Dragon"!
So say we all
So ? This is no different than any fashion photo on the cover of a magazine.
I dunno. The Chinese Olympics broadcast featured digital fireworks and a little girl lip-syncing the national anthem because the little girl singing it wasn't pretty enough. At some point you move from "honest mistake" to "culture where appearances are deemed more important than reality" - to say nothing of material things, like their famously unreliable economic data.
Myself, I'm more of an "esse quam videre" kind of guy (to borrow the North Carolina state motto).
Thats a cultural bias that you are expressing.
It could just as easily be the other way around.
"His name was James Damore."
They're so used to lying to the people that they will lie even when they don't have to.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Disable Javascript's ability to change or disable context menus, and everything works again. Hurrah!
Look, I understand it's the Chinese, and we officially don't like them or their human rights record, but if this sort of picture rises to the level of "propaganda," then we need to call what used to be named "propaganda" (i.e.: Pictures that inflame nationalism, demonize a political enemy, or move people to high emotion over what is actually mundane, or at least literally mislead or lie about the nature of something important) something else.
This is a publicity shot, as is every ribbon cutting ever filmed in the States or Britain. Not everything the Chinese government does rises to the level of "propaganda."
The Photoshopping is just "incompetence." Again, I don't think it rises to the level of "propaganda." It's hilarious, but not nefarious.
Why do people think that China is some kind of giant Stalinist gulag? It's a fairly average, run-of-the-mill authoritarian regime these days. Yes, you will get kicked out of your job for that kind of thing, and will probably have troubles insofar as corrupt local authorities depicted can create them for you (I dunno, police regularly stopping to check papers?). No, they won't shoot or imprison you for the smallest mistake. For that matter, the law spells out what you have to do to get there, for the most part, and to get extralegal harassment, you need to be a persistent pain in the ass (well-publicized human rights protester or somesuch). Common folk don't live in daily fear that black vans will come and take them away.