All the people in this picture are actually one guy, Mr. Alex Huh (he2 li4 qiang2 何立强）.  He's a professional artist from Shenzhen--a very funny, full-of-interesting-things-to-say kind of person.  His OICQ name is "Durian Connoisseur" (durian is a fruit that's big and spiny, stinks like dirty socks, and tastes like sweetened cheese), but like lots of stinky foods, you can kinda get hooked on it.  He has a magnetic personality, but also an odd reek of cigarettes--he has something similar to the mysterious allure of durian.  

He has his own unique philosophy which is generally expressed through humor, and we often end up talking about Buddhism.  He sends me articles that are good for new acolytes like us (maybe if he really gets into it he'll quit smoking).  

With the 30,000 Chinese net police running around online, people are being careful about what they say.  I don't know why, but I'm not scared at all.  My impression is that the government cracks down on Fa lun Go*ng and Christian proselytizing (the two instances of repression that I've heard about among my friends were about these two) and more recently po-rn, in which case we have nothing to worry about.  Just to be safe he tends to put spa*ces where they should n't go, making text unrecog+nizable by cen=sorship soft ware.  The greatest stealth maneuver is when he whips out his digital pen and handwrites characters into an MSN chat window.  His handwriting is cartoony and wild. 

Click here to see his digital paintings featured exclusively on this website.

Click here to see the NYT article about his computer animation firm in Shenzhen.

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