Malaysian designer illustrates Shanghai lockdown through NFTs

Record ID: 1671293

  • Title: Malaysian designer illustrates Shanghai lockdown through NFTs
  • Date: 4th May 2022
  • Summary: SHANGHAI, CHINA (RECENT - APRIL 29, 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MALAYSIAN FREELANCE DESIGNER, SIMON FONG, SAYING: "I'm not so sure about if there are any locals who bought my NFT. But as far as I know, most of them are 'laowais' (foreigners), who are also playing with (interested in) NFTs and own a lot of cryptos on hand. They are the one who bought most of the NFTs."
  • Embargoed: 18th May 2022 02:01
  • Keywords: COVID-19 China Malaysia NFT Shanghai art blockchain digital illustration infections investment lockdown non-fungible tokens virus
  • Location: SHANGHAI, CHINA
  • City: SHANGHAI, CHINA
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA008517002052022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Simon Fong, a 49-year-old freelance designer from Malaysia who has been living in Shanghai for the past nine years, sold his first ever non-fungible token (NFT) on April 17.
    It was a satirical illustration in the style of Mao-era propaganda posters, portraying what it was like to be living under the city’s weeks-long COVID-19 lockdown.
    The artwork, titled ‘Poking Time’, depicts a trio of workers clad in personal protective equipment conducting a routine nasal swab test at a cordoned-off housing compound, and is just one of 14 different lockdown-themed illustrations which Fong has created so far.
    Fong has managed to sell nine of the illustrations in the series, named 'POPaganda', in the form of NFTs for an average price of 0.1 ether ($284), the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency.
    His other pieces include scenes dramatising life in lockdown, such as a resident being told not to sing from a balcony.
    Explaining the thinking behind his works, Fong said, “I've heard people mentioning that it (a COVID-19 lockdown) kind of like, bring Shanghai backwards a bit. So it kind of like immediately leads me back to those old propaganda poster."
    Fong, who lives with his wife and dog, added that his works try to find humour in difficult situations.
    "Instead of making it through propaganda-style where the government is kind of like brainwashing people last time, I am using it more like in a fun way to convey my message.”
    Fong’s sudden success is just one example among many where Shanghai residents are turning to the blockchain to preserve memories of the city's month-long COVID-19 lockdown, minting videos, photos and artworks capturing their ordeal as non-fungible tokens to ensure they can be shared and avoid deletion.
    The height of Shanghai's lockdown minting moment is rooted in April 22, when netizens battled censors overnight to share a six-minute video entitled "The Voice of April", a montage of voices recorded over the course of the Shanghai outbreak.
    As of Monday (May 2), 786 different items related to the video were found on NFT marketplace OpenSea, alongside hundreds of other NFTs related to the lockdown in Shanghai.
    NFTs are a type of digital asset that exist on a blockchain, a record of transactions kept on networked computers. The blockchain serves as a public ledger, allowing anyone to verify the NFT's authenticity and who owns it. They have exploded in popularity recently, with some NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars.
    (Production: Xihao Jiang, Kokkai Ng, Masako Iijima )
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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