For as long as most of Hong Kong’s protesters can remember, Li Ka-shing has been depicted in cartoons wearing blue tights and a red cape — the city’s soaring “Superman” of investment, business success and aspiration.
But in the past few days, a new depiction of Hong Kong’s richest man has emerged: an image posted on social media by a pro-Beijing politician of Mr Li’s face Photoshopped on to the body of a cockroach, with rough Cantonese slang branding him the “cockroach king”.
The cartoon was posted just weeks after Mr Li was criticised by the Chinese government body responsible for political and legal affairs. In an article posted by China’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission on its official WeChat account, the 91-year-old billionaire was accused of showing too much leniency towards the protesters and “condoning crime” after he called on authorities to offer an olive branch to the demonstrators. Mr Li said his comments had been “misinterpreted”.