Saturday, September 19, 2015

Game for a laugh outside a Yau Ma Tei mahjong parlour?!

An image pretty much guaranteed to get the attention
of those who pass by it (and put a smile on faces?)! :)

A few hours ago, the association football team I've supported since 1978 basically ended any real chance it had of winning the English Premier League this season in a game that it didn't just lose but also saw two members of the team sent off and a crucial player injured. After trying to destroy the Arsene Wenger bobble head my sister gave me -- but not being completely successfully in doing so because it turned out to be made of super strong stuff! -- I've decided to try another way to feel better: i.e., by thinking of and/or looking at something humorous.  

While looking through my photo archive, I found just the thing -- and reckon that the imaginative caricature I snapped while walking in Yau Ma Tei earlier this week is so cool that it's actually worth sharing on this blog (and yes, you can click on the photo to view an enlarged version of it)!  

Adorning an outer wall of a mahjong parlour is this large illustration which depicts Chinese president Xi Jinping, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Russian president Vladimir Putin and American president Barack Obama seated at a mahjong table.  And to judge by the chips on the table, Xi and Obama look to be doing well -- and this sense is given strength by Xi and Obama looking quite a bit happier than Abe and an especially disgruntled appearing, judo outfit-wearing Putin!

Just the image of this foursome playing mahjong together would bring smiles to the face of many.  But that wasn't enough for the ambitious artist, who also has North Korea's "dear leader" Kim Jong Un, popcorn in hand, being one of the game's spectators, German chancellor Angela Merkel at the party serving cupcakes, and the ghost of Saddam Hussein hanging on to the back of Barack Obama's chair!  

And while I can't identify the eighth personality in the picture, I'd easily imagine that he's a political heavyweight from the African continent.  If his hair were whiter, I'd say that it was supposed to be Nelson Mandela.  What do you think?! ;b

2 comments:

StephenC said...

Very creative!

YTSL said...

Hi StephenC --

That's what I thought (too)! :b