The state-owned news and propaganda agency Xinhua has been responsible for some of the funniest stuff on the Chinese Internet, from its laddish Skinhua phase of 2005 to its recent use of an image of Homer Simpson to illustrate a story about multiple sclerosis.
So when they reported last week that a peasant in Shaanxi had seen a South China Tiger, long since thought be extinct in the wild, and published a photo allegedly taken by the peasant, it was natural to assume that this photo was the work of Xinhua’s Photoshop department. It looks pretty fake, no?
But if there is trickery afoot, it seems to be the work of the peasant, or of the Shaanxi Forestry Department. The China Daily ran this English language Xinhua report yesterday:
A newly-released photo, which Chinese forestry authorities say proves the continuing existence of wild South China tigers which have been thought to be extinct, has sparked heated controversy from Internet citizens, questioning its authenticity.
The digital picture, purporting to be a wild South China tiger crouching in the midst of green bushes, was released by the Forestry Department of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province at a news conference on October 12.
Zhou Zhenglong, 52, a farmer and former hunter in Chengguan Township of Shaanxi’s Zhenping County, photographed the tiger with a digital camera and on film on the afternoon of October 3, a department spokesman said.
Experts had confirmed the 40 digital pictures and 31 film photographs are genuine, the spokesman told reporters.
But dozens of netizens expressed doubts about the authenticity of the digital picture — the only one of the 71 taken to be released at the news conference — after it had been posted on the Internet, especially in on-line forums discussing Photoshop (PS) technologies.
Thanks to Steven Schwankert for the links