HONG KONG - What do the South China tiger
and the Loch Ness Monster have in common?
According to a rising chorus of jeers in mainland
China, neither one exists - photographs to the
contrary.
But, whereas there has been no
recent sighting of "Nessie" in the Scottish loch
from which the mythical monster takes its name, a
series of apparently fake photographs of the South
China tiger, allegedly taken last October by a
farmer in north-central Shaanxi province, has
sparked national outrage.
Interestingly,
it is China's ever-expanding hoi polloi of Internet
users who have led the
charge, followed by scientists, wildlife experts
and professional photographers. One Netizen,
mindful of past American scandals, has dubbed the
attempted ruse "Tigergate".
The
40 digital photographs of the rare animal were
allegedly snapped by Zhou Zhenglong of Zhenping
County in a forest near
his home. If authentic, these photos
would represent the first sighting of the South
China tiger since 1964. Experts say only 20 to 30
such tigers remain in the wild, while around 60
live in captivity. According to the World
Conservation Union, up to 4,000 tigers roamed the
forests of southern and central China in the
1950s, but as their habitat disappeared, so did
they, and the animal is now considered by many
conservationists functionally extinct in the wild.
The South China tiger, regarded as the
ancestor of all tigers, is one of six remaining
tiger subspecies. Three other subspecies - the
Bali, Java and Caspian tigers - were all wiped out
in the 1940s. Thus the alleged sighting in Shaanxi
is a big deal for provincial authorities. If local
officials can prove that tigers still stalk
Shaanxi, they stand to rake in a windfall in state
funding to protect the animal and to attract
tourism and related businesses. As for the
farmer-photographer, he, of course, would like to
sell his pictures to the highest bidder.
Here's the rub: Two months after the
photographs were taken, it seems patently clear to
everyone except Shaanxi's easily (willingly?)
duped forestry bureau that they are completely
fraudulent. Indeed, the fraud appears so
amateurish that it has prompted a mounting cyber
attack on the photographer for his unmitigated
gall, as well as jibes at Shaanxi and central
government officials for refusing to admit the
obvious.
This fierce criticism has been
bolstered by professional opinion. For example,
the Beijing News reported this week that the China
Photography Association dismissed the photographs
as fakes. A group of digital specialists,
biologists and animal experts enlisted by the
association found that two of the shots were
exactly the same and that others appeared to be
have been lifted from wildlife calendars. In
addition, the eyes of the tiger do not reflect
light in a normal way, animal experts pointed out.
But that testimony was not convincing
enough for Shaanxi forestry officials, who have
refused to concede that the photos are fake. Their
stubbornness has, in turn, led to an Internet
clamor for the central government to step in and
do something about this increasingly embarrassing
act of fraud. Further angering the Netizen hordes,
however, the State Forestry Administration
(SFA)has shied away from getting involved - which
is curious since provincial forestry bureaus come
under the supervision of the SFA.
At a
press conference this week, SFA spokesman Cao
Qingyao danced around the issue, suggesting that
it did not fall under the administration's
purview. "We cannot make a judgment which is
beyond our responsibility," Cao said, adding: "We
believe the provincial government and forestry
bureau will take the public's skepticism
scientifically and seriously."
Cao did
announce, however, that the SFA has dispatched a
team "of 10 experts in tigers and large feline
animals" to Zhenping to carry out a field
investigation. But, he said, the team is waiting
for the county's first snowfall to begin because
that will supposedly make the tawny coat of the
tigers easier to spot.
Notably absent from
the press conference was SFA director Jia Zhibang,
who is a native of Shaanxi and served as the
province's governor prior to assuming his present
position in 2005. Jia had a more important meeting
to attend, Cao said.
Jia's deputy, Zhu
Lieke, concluded the briefing by taking the debate
to another, more abstract level. He asked
reporters if they had visited the Loch Ness
Monster Museum in the Scottish highlands, saying:
"There are a lot of photographs of the Loch Ness
Monster in the museum. People care about the
existence of the monster rather than the
authenticity of the photos."
That may be
true in Scotland, but in China it is clear that a
rising army of Netizens wants to see Tigergate
exposed. More than 80% of those polled by a
popular Chinese Internet portal Netease.com voted
for an investigation into the scandal to prevent
their tax money from being misused to prop up
dishonest local officials. And thus Tigergate has
tapped into the national outrage over rampant
corruption and shameless mendacity at the local
level. It has also demonstrated, once again, the
insuppressible power of the Internet in a country
of 1.3 billion people whose leaders are paranoid
about free expression and, despite their
pre-Olympic pledges, determined to muzzle the
media.
According to another popular
Chinese Internet portal Sohu.com, Internet users
in China now number between 150 million and 200
million. If this estimate is correct, then China
probably has more people logging on every day than
the United States, where Nielsen Netratings show
154 million users. Moreover, Sohu.com research
shows that Chinese users stay online a lot longer
(1.765 billion hours a week) than their US
counterparts (129 million hours a week).
Add to that a China Internet Network
Information Center report showing the nation's
Internet user rate growing 18% annually, a figure
that is undoubtedly low because the center's
survey was conducted by calling fixed-line phones
in a country whose younger generation has gone
mobile. Whether this rapidly growing army of users
is shopping online or flaming officialdom with
derision about Tigergate or something else, it is
clearly a force to be reckoned with, and Beijing
had better start paying attention.
Finally, there is some good news for the
South China tiger - but it comes from South
Africa. Last month, on the Laohu Valley Reserve in
central Free State province, a male tiger cub,
weighing a healthy 1.2kg, was born to a mother
named Cathay and a father called Tiger Woods. The
tiger's birth, the first outside China, is part of
a "rewilding" program aimed at teaching captive
tigers how to fend for themselves.
Tigers
are not native to Africa, but Cathay, Tiger Woods
and baby seem happy enough to have made the move.
Kent Ewing is a teacher and
writer at Hong Kong International School. He can
be reached at kewing@hkis.edu.hk.
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his home. If authentic, these photos
would represent the first sighting of the South
China tiger since 1964. Experts say only 20 to 30
such tigers remain in the wild, while around 60
live in captivity. According to the World
Conservation Union, up to 4,000 tigers roamed the
forests of southern and central China in the
1950s, but as their habitat disappeared, so did
they, and the animal is now considered by many
conservationists functionally extinct in the wild.
