Currently, many Chinese white collar workers are crazy about
Zhang Xiaohe. This new online cartoon idol is a simple junior clerk
with a cubic head. He often works unpaid overtime; pretty girls
embarrass him; and he's always afraid of his boss, just like
everybody else.
"Every time I read the cartoon strip I find that it relates to
me," said Liu, a great fan of Zhang Xiaohe.
Four young people created Zhang Xiaohe. Each of the four covers
a different creative responsibility: one updates Zhang Xiaohe's
blogs, one designs new comics, one offers new ideas, and one plans
Zhang's future episodes.
"Every white collar worker will find something they can relate
to in Zhang. He is every office worker's persona," explained Lin,
Zhang's representative. “Zhang embodies their happiness, their
sadness and even some of their petty maliciousness.”
Everyday Zhang has to cope with his totally undependable alarm
clock, traffic jams and over-crowded elevators. He has to work very
hard to atone for his consistently late arrivals to work. If he
doesn't have to work a weekend shift, he might even feel a little
bit lost. But when he works extra shifts, he might watch a TV
series that he downloaded instead of doing any real work. And every
night Zhang dreams of "firing" his boss. His story reflects the
lives of most Chinese office workers.
(China News Service July 30, 2007)
