The Other China

Liu Chan 劉蟾, who also goes by the literary sobriquet 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 form. 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.

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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This is a chapter in a series titled ‘Dasheng’s Calligraphic Comments on Current Affairs’. For a full list of Dasheng’s comments, see below. Tsar Vlad Fiddles while Hair Hitler Gags is also included in our Contra Trump series.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
30 September 2026

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Tsar Putin Hacks His Elections
& Hair Hitler Gags the Media

Dasheng Liu Chan 大生劉蟾

translated, with a note, by Geremie R. Barmé

On 18-20 September, legislative elections were held for the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of Russia. There was not even a scintilla of doubt that Emperor Vlad’s United Russia Party would notch up a resounding victory. The Duma is equivalent to the Commons in the British political system and it is of crucial importance. However, opposition parties have long been barred from participating in the elections. The emperor’s new clothes.

Also on 18 September 2026, US President Donald Trump announce that CNN, along with two other news services [MS NOW and Politico], were barred from reporting from the White House on the grounds that they consistently reported ‘fake news’. On 21 September, the White House launched Trump TV [a 24/7 online streaming service on YouTube]. This cove is one step closer to being like that fellow with the toothbrush moustache.

— Dasheng Liu Chan, 22 September 2026

[Note: Common translations of 川特勒 — ‘Trump’ 川 + ‘Hitler’ 希特勒 — are ‘Hair Hitler’ and ‘Adolph Twitter’.]

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A grand ceremony to welcome the Russian Tsar along with autocratic abuses of the constitution. This elicits a mocking question for China’s ‘Trumpistas’ [川粉]:

‘Is this also part of the grand strategy that you support?’

— a doggerel verse recorded by Dasheng Liu Chan on the 25th of September 2026

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