The Silly Art of Manhole Covers

One of the weirder things I have seen on Chinese college and university campuses is the desire to turn weird things into cartoon characters. Today, I was a walking to class and noticed that somebody had taken to painting over manhole covers. I have seen this before at my prior employer with concrete blocks meant to keep cars from driving into certain areas. I asked my students about this, and I got the cryptic answer of, "Volunteers are doing it!" I don't know if it's my student's English ability levels or what. All I can take from that is "The university is not actively paying to put Baymax and Pikachu on manhole covers." Here is sampling of what's showing up around campus