Life and Leisure

A comic approach to school daze

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-27 13:51

Yu Jingsi's comic is inspired by woman postgraduate students like herself. Provided to China Daily

Yu Jingsi has become an Internet phenomenon over the past year for the popular comic strip series she posts on the Xici Hutong Web forum.

The Nanjing Agriculture University postgraduate student, who majors in urban planning and design, has touched a nerve - that is, one located in the funny bone - with her animations, which convey the laugh-out-loud realities of her peers.

Yu's online screen name is "A Catfish from Liaohe River" and the heroine of her series bears the semblance of said creature - as she believes she does in real life.

"Like a catfish, I have a flat head and big mouth," she says. "And the animal is also clingy, nocturnal and easily tempted by delicacies, just like me. Everything I draw is based on my own experiences or those of my classmates."

Her debut comic, which appeared last June, depicts the three types of women postgraduates she has encountered. The first obsessively writes papers day and night, while the second writes all day and spends nights hunting for boyfriends with at least equal zeal. The third cares little for papers but a great deal about boys.

In The Catfish Legend collection, Yu chronicles some embarrassing moments from her blind dates. These include struggling to appear graceful only to burst out laughing, gobbling food voraciously and proposing drinking contests with the romantic prospect across the table.

In That's What Happened, Yu documents women graduate students' experiences of picking up nice guys online, illustrating how single girls exchange strategies to "find Mr Right" late at night.

Yu's passion for comics began when she stumbled upon the Japanese animation Doraemon at age 7.

She began copying the cartoon characters and enrolled in sketching classes in junior high.

"The real encouragement for me to post these comics online has been my fabulous classmates, who are actually quite contrary to their stereotypes," Yu says.

"Most people in this fast-paced society won't listen to a rant so I depict these real-life characters in animations."

Chinese tend to think of women postgraduate students as stiff, bookish and boring. The slang barb konglong (means "dinosaur") suggests some should have gone extinct ages ago.

Yu says she held the same view of these women before she joined their ranks.

"I thought all they cared about were doing experiments, collecting data and writing essays," she says. "But that's not true. I've met many interesting friends and cute girls who provide the inspiration for my comics."

Just like their undergraduate counterparts, postgraduate women adore window-shopping and gossip, and devote much time to doing their makeup, she says.

"The only difference is that we might be more meticulous and responsible. We spend a lot of time on theses and experiments, but they aren't our whole lives."

She sketches most of her animations at night when she's tired of having her nose in the book. She has so far posted 70 strips online.

Her latest series, Shanghai Expo, features fictional characters edited into real photographs with Photoshop.

"I've been contacted by some publishers but don't believe my works are good enough to be published," she says.

"I need to continue improving my skills."

China Daily

"worrying about the thesis during the day,about finding Mr Rigth at night" Yu Jingsi/Provided to China Daily