Welcome to Saturday Morning Cartoons, a segment where five artists take turns delighting you with their whimsy, facts and punchlines on Saturday mornings! Our esteemed cartoon critters are Cameron Glavin, Anna Bongiovanni, Yao Xiao, and co-creators Megan Praz and Moll Green. Today’s cartoon is by Yao!
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 134 articles for us.
So very, very true.
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Oh, that one struck home for me (and lots of others too, I’m sure), both from my mom and my sister. My mom pretty much always disliked me, and my sexuality just gave her another reason for her to keep using me as her punching bag. So, now, we seldom talk, and things are just better that way. And I don’t have to be controlled by what she or my sister think of me.
Solidarity friend.
Is this one is so true and it hits home. Hugs to you
The feels are real. I love my mom dearly… but I’m not out to her. I feel like she would turn it against me and be dramatic, like how could she ever deal with having a “gay child”. Its not supposed to be about her, its supposed to be about me and the life I live *shrug* It sucks that I feel like I cant share this with her.
<3
It's so odd how parents can be like that. I was talking to a straight acquaintance about our respective dramatic/self-centred mothers, and hers had formed a bizarre obsession with how cool or important it would be to be a parent to a gay child, and regularly berated her children for failing her in this regard.
This hits all the feels. Free hugs to anyone who wants one.
<3
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All. Of. This. Whenever people tell me to be patient, or to forgive my parents/sister for the crappy way they treated me when I came out I have to remember that I dont *have* to forgive anyone.
No you don’t.
Thank you, Yao. Your comics always strike home for me, also being an immigrant and a lesbian.
This one was especially on time, as this was a very hard week too.
Immigrant lesbian high five!
I’m in a similar situation, and this is beautiful and makes me feel so much less alone.
So much love for this. Thank you for sharing this with us.