He stresses that his main aim "is to give my opinion, and if I can change society to a more liberal society, that would be great". The Chinese Communist Party quickly grasped the value of this medium; many officials in charge of arts matters in China are former cartoonists.China's tradition of political cartoons is not one of belly laughs. It was killed off after a possibly prophetic strip about killings of cartoonists.China has long recognised that cartoons are a valuable political weapon, although political cartoons started to emerge in China only about 60 years ago, during the Sino-Japanese war. Larry Feign, an American who has been drawing cartoons in Hong Kong for more than a decade, says he is demoralised. He claims newspapers will only publish cartoons which "take no sides and express no opinions".This is not Feign's style.

Only a handful of artists produce political cartoons and few publications will carry their work. The dark shadow of China's rule, which begins next year, hangs over cartoonists as it does over many others who are likely to be regarded as dissidents. Last year he was fired by the South China Morning Post newspaper, where he had a big following, on account of his "Lily Wong" cartoon strip. After all, inside the exhibition hall there is nothing more than a series of cartoons. However, outspoken cartoonists are an endangered species in Hong Kong. He then hijacked an event that drew 1,600 local Republicans with a string of amendments to write support for same-sex marriage and the repeal of sodomy laws into the party platform, chronicling the ensuing mayhem in his column. "It's how the Christian Right took over the Republican Party," he said "All they did was just go.". "If you're scared, don't come in," says the sign at the entrance to an exhibition of cartoons by Zunzi, Hong Kong's best known and most controversial cartoonist The sign seems exaggerated.

He has a Sunday night radio show, is in demand as a speaker at local universities, and recently signed on with a publisher for a two-book deal on sex and politics.In New York, the 31-year-old Mr Savage might be lost in the wash In Seattle, he stands out. The son of a Chicago policeman, from an Irish Catholic family, he once studied for the priesthood and worked for two years in Britain waiting tables.This spring, Mr Savage joined the local Republican Party. By standing unopposed for the office of Precinct Committee Officer, he found himself a delegate at the county convention on the Pat Buchanan slate. The event has been sold out every evening since he started calling the numbers three years ago.Seattle's deputy mayor recently presented him with a sequinned T-shirt as thanks for his campaign for a local park.

His term for straight people - "breeders" - has entered the local lexicon.Once a month Mr Savage hosts gay bingo, in drag, for about 500 people, to raise funds for Aids victims. "They take the car out and smash it into a wall."His column, while mostly unprintable in a family newspaper, and often offensive, is also moralistic. In five years, he boasts, "I have raised a whole generation of young women to insist on their right to orgasm, first."In a recent Seattle poll he was easily voted the city's favourite columnist. Sex education is taught as biology, all fallopian tubes and urethras, instead of as a pleasurable pursuit. "It's like teaching people how to drive by teaching them the workings of the internal combustion engine," he said.