The Zealot and the Pretender — Dasheng’s Calligraphic Comments on Current Affairs (III)

The Other China

又双叒叕

Liu Chan 劉蟾, who also goes by the pen name Dasheng 大生, is a writer, scholar and calligrapher. Born in Shaanxi, he lives in Beijing where he edits The Chinese Study 中國書房. We have frequently featured Liu’s work in The Other China.

‘Dasheng’s Calligraphic Comments’ are an innovative use of an ancient art from. In them, Liu Chan uses quasi-poetic couplets, often parallel in structure, to encapsulate current new stories, often juxtaposing items that superficially have little in common. In the colophons that he composes — they run vertically along either side of the lines of the couplet — the calligrapher elaborates on stories that have been highlighted in poetic brevity.

Many of Liu’s couplets employ traditional semantic parallelism. For example:

神棍還还還不死
川皇又又又遇襲

(subject + repeated adverb + verb)

Although he is still relatively young, Liu Chan often affects the style of an ‘old fogey’, a personality type that is more than familiar to China Heritage. It is a persona that allows Liu considerable latitude in commenting on, and gently satirising, the welter of current affairs in a style that gestures towards late-dynastic prose. Indeed, Liu Chan’s lapidary couplets and drole commentaries are reminiscent of literati jottings 筆記, miscellanea 掌故 and historical marginalia 稗官野史 — various forms of informal records used by later generations to help gauge the realities and absurdities of authoritarian rule.

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China Heritage is grateful to Dasheng for sharing his recent work. Explanatory notes and other relevant material have been added. For previous chapters in this series, see:

The Chinese rubric of this chapter in The Other China is 又双叒叕 yòu shuāng ruò zhuó — ‘again and again and again and again’.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
1 May 2026

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Celebrating International Book Day 2026

See also: Don’t Let the Dogs Eat World Book Day.

Note to self: ‘Don’t let everything you’ve read end up in a dog’s stomach.’
(That is: don’t thoughtlessly discard what you have learned by reading.)

— Liu Chan, 23 April 2026

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend.
Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.

— Groucho Marx

The False Prophet and
The Would-be King

神棍還还還不死
川皇又又又遇襲

It has repeatedly been reported that Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the assassinated Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei, is dead. However, it would appear that he is only severely injured. The upshot is that decision-making power has devolved into the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Tragedy upon tragedy.

King Donald of the United States was the object of yet another assassination attempt, this time at a dinner organised by the White House Correspondents’ Association, held in Washington on 25 April 2026. There were no significant injuries. According to available information, this is the fifth attempt on the wannabe king’s life.

— Dasheng Liu Chan, 27 April 2026

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A Procuracy Quotes Fabricated Laws
A Minister Recites Bogus Scripture

檢察院引用假法律
赫部長禱頌偽經文

Since 2019, some thirty law courts in over ten provinces have been using invalid legal texts. This situation continued right up to 12 April 2026, when a court in Ganzi County, Sichuan province, discovered the anomaly. Then, as luck would have it:

On 15 April, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a man known for his performative Christianity, held a prayer meeting at the Pentagon during which he recited fictitious biblical verses taken from the film Pulp Fiction. Further proof, if any were needed, that rank stupidity is found in both the West and in the East.

— Dasheng Liu Chan, 15 April 2026

Notes:

See 新浪新聞，法院錯誤援引不實法律，2026年4月12日; and,

The following YouTube video:

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Forrest to Fields & Fields to Forest Flip Flops
University Students Recycled for a Makeover

還耕復林翻燒餅
回爐再造大學生

Recently, Banyuetan [半月談, a current affairs journal published under the aegis of the Communist Party] exposed a story about a village in the west of the country where, in response to the policy to protect agricultural land, an area that had only recently been reforested was dug up again and then, following instructions issued by the local forestry commission, was once more replanted with trees. The authorities criticised these zig-zags saying that consistency was an essential part of good policy. Local governments shouldn’t behave like they are flipping pancakes — actually, I’d suggest that policy voltes faces have long been a fact of life.

From the start of 2026, the authorities in Beijing, Zhejiang and Guangdong have been encouraging technical colleges to set up vocational classes for recent college graduates. Newly minted students are expected to go back to school to get a practical education. This is a sorry state of affairs as well as being a reflection of the absurdity of policy flip-flops.

— Dasheng Liu Chan, 16 April 2026

Notes:

See: 新華社新聞，剛退林還耕，又勒令復綠？別讓基層淪為部門政策“打架”的角力場，2026年4月16日; and,

多地出台政策，鼓勵技校招收大學畢業生，新浪網，2026年4月21。

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Xu Jiayin & Pan Shiyi: Winners and Losers
In China’s Real Estate Ponzi Scheme

許家印受審
潘石屹反思

On 13-14 April, the Xu Jianyin real estate case was heard for initial consideration by a court. The indictment listed eight charges including massive fraud. Xu admitted his guilt on the spot.

The following day, the mogul Pan Shiyi published a confessional essay related to his involvement in the real estate boom. It turns out that, as suspected, it was all a massive Ponzi scheme. Daresay in an attempt avoid any personal responsibility, Pan’s confession avoided the crucial issue that lies at the heart of the matter. Even so, the essay was scrubbed from the Chinese Internet before twenty-four hours had passed.

— Dasheng Liu Chan, 18 April 2026

Notes:

In a brief trial … in Shenzhen, Xu Jiayin (Hui Ka Yan, in Cantonese), the founder of collapsed real-estate conglomerate China Evergrande Group, pleaded guilty to eight charges including the misuse of funds, fraudulent fundraising, and illegally taking public deposits. Xu, whose verdict and sentencing will take place at a later date, could face life imprisonment.

Evergrande has defaulted since 2021 on most of its $300 billion in liabilities, in troubles emblematic of China’s property sector woes that have long dragged on economic growth.

Founder Hui Ka Yan “pleaded ​guilty and expressed remorse” in trial proceedings on Monday and Tuesday against him and Evergrande, the court said in a posting on its official ​WeChat account.

— China Digital Times

For Pan Shiyi’s reflections, see 潘石屹, 《我的反思》，2026年4月16日。

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Farmers in Jiangnan Rise in Protest
In Chengdu a Person is Hit by a Car

江門農民反抗
成都汽車撞人

For two years, villagers in Daqiaopu Village, Longshanggang, Hubei province, have protested against the plans of their local Party Secretary to open a mine in the area. On 14 April 2026, during another new clash [between protesters and the authorities], the Party Secretary knocked a village to the ground.

Also in April, protesters in Da’ao Village, Jiangmen, Guangdong province demonstrated against local Party officials selling off public land on the side [for personal gain].

On 20 April, two people died when they were hit by a car in Wenliang District, Chengdu. It was reportedly an act of protest.

In the last six months, despite the fact that reports of similar acts of social harm have evidently decreased in the media, one notes stories about the disappearance and kidnapping of children and adolescents on a daily basis.

— Dasheng Liu Chan, 20 April 2026

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Red Artesian Water Flows Free
A Monk’s Reputation Blackened

用紅色地下水
造黑謠受戒僧

Recently an environmental blogger revealed that in Li County, Hebei province, red-coloured artesian water was being used for irrigation. It appears that industrial waste water has repeatedly been used in agriculture. Can you imagine eating rice grown with that water?! The shocking truth is that the locals don’t consume their own crops.

Then there was that blogger who reported that an ordination ceremony held for 300 monks at Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou was actually part of some espionage plot. This was, of course, a malicious act. It is hardly surprising that the harsh approach to religion generates popular contempt for believers. This is true for Buddhists as much as it is for Taoists, Christians and Muslims. It really is a wretched state of affairs!

— Dasheng Liu Chan, 22 April 2026

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Reducing the Ability of Business to Move Funds
Yet Increasing the ‘Anti-corruption Allowance’

降低農民挪款線
提高官府養廉銀

Interesting to note two new regulations:

  • Henceforth, public servants will only be subject to criminal penalties if they fail to explain three million yuan in ill-gotten gains, a threshold that has been increased from the previous amount of 300,000;
  • Meanwhile, business owners in the private sector can be penalised if they are found guilty of the illegal movement of 30,000 yuan in funds, whereas previously the bar was set at 60,000 yuan.

And so it is that I have penned a record of these facts.

— Dasheng Liu Chan, 28 April 2026

Note:

養廉銀 yǎnglián yín, literally ‘a stipend to nurture rectitude’, is a term for a bonus payment for officials introduced during the Yongzheng reign of the Qing dynasty. It was aimed at reducing official corruption.

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Liu Chan in The Other China:

Liu Chan’s work also features in:

See also:

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Liu Chan’s 劉蟾 signature