The best-loved pig in Hong Kong is called McDull. His mom makes a wish that he willlook like Chow Yun-fat or Tony Leung, two movie heartthrobs, but he is distinguishedonly by a birthmark around his right eye.
The cartoon piglet is not smart, either. Everything he tries, he fails. He wants to be anOlympic champion of qingbaoshan, but the sport of grabbing the most steamed bunsfrom a pile doesn't really exist, of course. He dreams of going to the Maldives, but endsup on a one-day tour of a Hong Kong landmark instead.
However, the slow, dumb pig has won over Hong Kong people, often stereotyped aseager to quick success. Since he first appeared in a magazine in 1988, McDull hasbeen honored with a bronze statue and wax figure. On July 10, the fourth McDull moviewill premiere in both the mainland and Hong Kong.
The popularity of McDull occasionally confounds his creator Alice Mak, a slim illustratorwith a tender voice, few words, and frequent smile.
"Maybe people see themselves and their friends in McDull," she says.
Mak had never seen a real pig before she drew McDull. She was born and spent mostof her life in Tai Kok Tsui, an ordinary Hong Kong community where she can still buycheap food. It is also where McDull grows up.
Like McDull, Mak moves and speaks slowly. She describes herself as a simple person,who does not try to draw too much meaning from the McDull stories. As a Christian, shehas some simple beliefs, such as God creates humans because he loves them andwants them to be happy.
In the late 1980s Mak worked at a press company as a summer intern. The companyboss, Brian Tse, later became her husband and scriptwriter of all McDull movies andbooks.
McDull was at first a supporting character in a story about his cousin McMug, a smartpiglet and "what parents expect of their children". But it turned out that thewoodenheaded McDull was more appealing.
When McMug promises his classmates that if he becomes the class president he willtreat everyone with strawberry cakes, McDull struggles to utter one sentence in hisspeech: "If you choose me, you will be ... painful."
He gives up his favorite chicken thigh to his mom and practices sports he dislikes tomake her happy. He has many dreams, most of which end up in disappointment. He isstill happy, however. When he gets an "H", he thinks it looks "only a bit different" froman "A". According to his headmaster, he isn't that stupid, he is just too kind.
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