Feng Feng, a professor at China’s Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, recently held a solo exhibition, “Duck Rabbit New Year’s Day,” whose series of works were allegedly copied from Miffy rabbits created by Dick Bruna, a well-known Dutch illustrator.
Feng Feng’s publicly exhibited paintings featuring the “Duck Rabbit” are all highly similar to Miffy’s, with the protagonist’s shape, characters and the layout of objects basically similar. While some believe that Feng Feng’s “Duck Rabbit” is a “deconstruction” favored by post-modern artists, many more question the plagiarism. Feng Feng has denied plagiarism.
Comprehensive media reports, born in 1955, Miffy Rabbit is a classic animated character created by Dutch painter Dick Brunner, and has a “national treasure” status in the Netherlands, while Feng Feng’s “Duck Rabbit” design appears to be the Miffy Rabbit’s “X” beak replaced by the duck beak of the little yellow duck. Netizens questioned: “Is this really something that Professor Guangmei did? This is the Miffy Rabbit ah! A household name and even a long time printed on stationery Miffy rabbit? The professor just added a duck beak as his work on display?” .
Many Chinese netizens reflected this matter to Miffy Rabbit officials, who also voiced out that they had recently received many inquiries from netizens about a certain exhibition and thanked everyone for their support and concern: “Every shape of Miffy is hand-painted by Mr. Dick Brunner, and the author’s attention to color and line is extremely demanding. Miffy’s world is simple and lovely, which is also the author’s original intention when creating Miffy.”
Feng Feng’s “duck rabbit” design appears to be the replacement of Miffy’s “X” beak (right) with a small yellow duck beak (left). (Photo taken from Weibo)
In the face of questions, Feng Feng denied plagiarism and said, “I have studied the duck rabbit for a long time, and art creation itself is a kind of social research, all social symbols are in the scope of your research, and all public symbols may be used in public discourse.” In Feng Feng’s opinion, Miffy, which can constitute a memory, is also one of the public symbols. As for whether infringement will be involved, he said, “If infringement will be sanctioned by law, people don’t have to worry.”
Chinese netizens commented on the matter on Weibo, blasting Feng Feng “can’t say it’s the same, it’s almost the same”, “shame on you”, “copied but also copied the crown, where is the face, the degree of similarity is 99%! , “Mi Fei don’t wimp out … hurry over to the lawyer’s letter … culture of stealing can not be stolen?” The “plagiarism” controversy is a major one, but it’s not a plagiarism, it’s a professor, it’s a sophistry.
For the “plagiarism” controversy, some art lovers said that this is like the “deconstruction” that post-modern artists like to use, and that this move is “deliberately controversial, using the duck rabbit to provoke society to discuss the issue of artistic originality”. For example, the French artist Duchamp’s famous work “Mona Lisa with a Beard” and Andy Warhol’s “Mona Lisa with a Beard”. The famous work by French artist Duchamp, “Mona Lisa with Beard” and Andy Warhol’s masterpiece “Marilyn Monroe” are both such works.
The paintings Feng Feng has publicly exhibited, featuring the “Duck Rabbit” (top), are highly similar to the Miffy Rabbit (bottom), with the main character’s shape and the layout of the figures and objects basically the same. (Photo taken from Weibo)
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