Kung Hei Fat Choi! Woof Woof!

Sunday 29 January marks the start of the Year of the Dog on the Chinese calendar. SA Blog extends hearty New Year’s greetings to all Chinese. Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Rest assured, thousands of pooches in South Africa were dressed up in brightly colored smocks this weekend, and by Sunday evening their tummies were positively groaning with all manner of treats and meats. Your Correspondent personally witnessed one Chinese family’s self-conscious Jack Russel sporting a yellow and black bumble-bee outfit.

To join the celebration, we’ll post a new item on the small but hardy South African Chinese community each day this week.

Most Chinese in South Africa hail from Taiwan, rather than from the mainland People’s Republic of China – although the SA government only maintains full diplomatic relations with the latter (see the Chinese embassy). The Taiwanese government is represented by a small Taipei Liaison Office.

The two societies may be separated by a treachrous strait and vastly different political programs, but their approach to art is uncannily similar. SA Blog would like to know – Which of these pictures more deserves immortalization by being painted on velvet?

A) The P.R. of China’s homepage image:

or, B) The Taiwan liaison office’s homepage image:

Tough call, isn’t it? We hope and trust that such strong evidence of shared taste bodes well for a peaceful, negotiated reunion someday soon.