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Xia Da – Confucius Didn't Say I'm A Schoolgirl

A young Chinese comics artist has become very popular in Japan – and oh dear me, I know I'm barging right into cultural stereotypes here, but here we go – because she's a schoolgirl.

Xia Da (夏达), creator of Confucius Didn't Say (pictured) has become a massive success, but mostly it seems based on pictures of her in her schoolgirl costime. Because that's what she was when the photos were taken and she posted them on her blog.

She's taken them off now, but this is the internet and they continue to circulate. They were initially pirated and used to promote an online game and when she started to gain success as an artist in Japan, suddenly they started to circulate.

Xia's first work was published when she was in high school in the Beijing Cartoon anthology, leading her to move to the capital to join the comic book studio Summerzoo, before it moved to Hangzhous, and for her strip Silent Falling Snow to be adapted for television. Her award-winning new series Confucius Didn't Say, about a young girl moving to the mountains with her family told from her perspective, broke the Japanese market – and that's where the trouble started.

Xia has been quoted as saying ;

I have always dreamed of producing good work as an artist, and I have been paid a lot for that end. I have devoted over 10 hours a day to drawing and you can't imagine how many times my comics were refused by publishing houses and how many setbacks I have suffered. But now I've become famous not because of my work, but because of my appearance. I really felt embarrassed.

She later blogged;

Those photos were just something done for fun, not promotional shots. I beg all of you to stop spreading those photos and don't call me a 'Beautiful young girl' or a 'Lolita', which only makes me feel ashamed.

No one has done this deliberately. But it has really caused me a lot of trouble. I thank those who have praised that I am pretty. But I hope people pay more attention to my work, show me more respect and give me a quiet space to do my job.

Xia's new project, Godzilla Doesn't Talk is an autobiographical comic about Xia's young teenage life, and is published next month. The reaction will probably be rather predictable.

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