Saturday Morning Cartoons: Amplified Voice

Welcome to Saturday Morning Cartoons, a segment where four artists take turns delighting you with their whimsy, facts and punchlines on Saturday mornings! Our esteemed cartoon critters are Cameron Glavin, Anna Bongiovanni, Megan Praz and Yao Xiao. Today’s cartoon is by Yao!

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Yao Xiao

Yao Xiao is a China-born illustrator based in New York City. Yao Xiao creates artwork depicting a poetic visual world where complex concepts and human emotions are examined, amplified, and given physical form. Her work has helped people all over the globe connect at unique moments, from the celebration of the 20 Year Anniversary of the SXSW Interactive Festival, to the grand release of pop singer Katy Perry's single 'Dark Horse.' She has created deeply emotional and beautiful graphics for editorial print publications, pop music record covers, concert posters and book covers. Yao Xiao's serialized comic Baopu currently runs monthly on Autostraddle. It is an original comic exploring the nuances in searching for identities, connections and friendships through the fictional life of a young, queer emigrant. Baopu stands for 'holding simplicity,' a Taoist ideal of wishing to return to a simpler state. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Etsy or her website.

Yao has written 132 articles for us.

17 Comments

    • We are all immigrants should be said, but it should be said to the anti-immigrant folks. I don’t fully believe that anyone who says it is saying it to immigrants. But if you say it loud enough for the people who need to hear it to hear it, other people will hear it too. They shouldn’t automatically assume the message is intended for them.

      • But we’re not all immigrants. Saying that we are leaves out indigenous people and people whose ancestors were brought to the US in chains. It also erases the differences in experiences between recent immigrants and people whose ancestors were immigrants.

        • That’s a really good point. I’m not American, and so had always thought it was helpful for people there to be reminded that they’re all immigrants. But your comment has made me realise it’s more complex than that, so thank you. I still think there’s many people in the US who would benefit and maybe gain some perspective from realising that their grandparents or great grandparents were immigrants. But you’ve made me realise that the “we are all” thing isn’t helpful, so thank you again. And of course thank you Yao Xiao, your work blows my mind, and gets people talking and thinking!

      • But we aren’t all immigrants. Saying we are earases indigenous people and people whose ancestors were brought to the US in chains. It also erases the difference in experiences between recent/1st or 2nd generation immigrants and someone whose distant ancestors were immigrants.

  9. It’s amazing how much you can communicate visually. It would take so many words to state the same messages half as well and with much less impact on the viewer.

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