Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Child pointing at a mural of Nijntje
Child pointing at a mural of Nijntje - Credit: DONOSTIA KULTURA / Wikimedia Commons - License: CC-BY-SA
Culture
Art
nijntje
Mercis
China
plagiarism
Marja Kerkhof
Feng Feng
Guangzhou
Thursday, 21 January 2021 - 12:50
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Chinese artist accused of plagiarizing Nijntje for exhibition

An artist in the Chinese city of Guangzhou is facing plagiarism accusations on social media over an exhibition featuring a "rabbit-duck" character, which looks suspiciously like Dutch character Nijntje with a beak instead of a cross for a mouth.

Artist Feng Feng, a professor at the art academy in Guangzhou, claims to be unaware of any harm. A statement attributed to him on Chinese social media platform Weibo states that "commercial symbols belong to public knowledge and information". He said he's been working with the "rabbit-duck" concept for 30 years, based on the optical illusion that could be a duck or a rabbit depending on how you rotate the image. Beaked Nijntje, known as Miffy abroad, grew from that work, he said.

Nijntje publisher Mercis is aware of the images, spokesperson Marja Kerkhof told NL Times. They were easy to find on social media, she said. "It is very unlikely that these drawings are not plagiarized. Nijntje is very well known in China and the drawings are exactly the same."

Kerkhof could not say how the publisher planned to proceed in this issue.

Feng feng, a professor from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts is accused of plagiarism - ppl noted how much the works at his solo exhibition resemble Dick Bruna’s Miffy. But he has denied it, saying all public symbols, esp commercial ones, are artists’ creative “vocabulary”. pic.twitter.com/g5Y0cYN8G4

— Rachel Cheung (@rachel_cheung1) January 18, 2021

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Bus and taxi collide in Friesland, injuring 14 adults & children; 4 critically hurt
  • Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers announces retirement
  • Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert film will also be screened for 4 weeks in Dutch cinemas
  • Dutch Senate rejects Work from Home bill by a single vote
  • Court declares Big Bazar bankrupt as workers go unpaid; 1,300 lose their jobs
  • Five explosions in Rotterdam takes year’s total to 136; Boy finds hand grenade in park

Top stories

  • Bus and taxi collide in Friesland, injuring 14 adults & children; 4 critically hurt
  • Dutch Senate rejects Work from Home bill by a single vote
  • Young generation experience stress over climate crisis: survey
  • Amsterdam Mayor wants extra security measures for Ajax games following Sunday riots
  • DSW to raise monthly health insurance premium by record €11.50 per month
  • Woman on trial for murdering boyfriend with poison in 2020 found dead in Tilburg

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content