Everyone has a story of how a kid’s creativity has gotten them in trouble – whether it’s “redesigning” the curtains or adding extra colour to the wallpaper. That’s probably why this story of the kid who scribbled in his Dad’s passport resonates with us.
A four-year old, some pens, and an unhappy dad…
The story goes that this Dad was in South Korea on business, when his creative four-year old got ahold of his passport. Now he’s stranded, and can’t get home as the officials won’t let him on the plane with this as a form of identification. That cheeky whippersnapper! Kids really do the darndest things, don’t they? Unfortunately, seeing as someone’s got to stick up for truth and justice on the Internet, I’m here to ruin the fun.
Why the Chinese passport story is a hoax
1. MS Paint versus kid-with-pen
As Brian Ashcraft points out: this is a seriously talented four-year old. Think of how big a passport is; now look at that tiny flower-cat hybrid towards the bottom-right of the picture. Do you know any four-year old with that kind of coordination? Also, whenever I’ve seen a kid drawing with a fineliner – the pen loses that battle, doing a “paintbrush” impression within a few seconds. You know, because kids play hard. It’s uncanny how all of the lines are exactly the same width. It’s almost as if they’re the result of a computer algorithm or something.
2. Shiny passport
Chinese passports, like our South African ones, have laminated identification pages. Even if this kid was using a fineliner with the dexterity of a surgeon, it should wipe off / become a smudgy mess.
3. The kid can draw on air
The final straw: if you look carefully, the drawing actually goes over the edge of the passport in the top right corner. Also, wasn’t it super-smart of the kid to draw specifically over the areas on the passport that contain his Dad’s name? Smart kid. Very smart kid. It’s almost like he’s not a kid at all.
Photo from Brian Ashcraft
Feeling let down? Truth hurts, buddy. But if you prefer whimsy to cold hard facts, let’s fight in the comments. Otherwise, you could watch this awesome travel video of martial arts, Chinese street-food, and parkour on the Great Wall of China. We’re 96% sure that actually happened.
