Adding color to tales of the past
Young creators use traditional and modern techniques to breathe life into ancient legends
Chinese culture and folktales have provided a rich seam of inspiration for generations. To strengthen their appeal, seven picture book creators, aged 25 on average, are giving ancient tales a modern makeover.
With their mentor Mou Aili, associate professor at the School of Animation with Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, they created a collection of seven picture books about ancient Chinese legends.
The collection — Interesting Chinese Mythology — was published by China Citic Press in May, and has been hailed as “something original and fresh”. More than 6,000 copies have been sold, so far.
Having won much acclaim, the collection will have a monthlong exhibition dedicated to it in August, courtesy of Chongqing Library.
The collection “is presented in seven individual visual languages”, said Mou, 39, who wrote the text for all seven books. “It’s interesting to see how these young illustrators combine the ancient with the modern, and Chinese aesthetics with internationalized expressions, and above all, how they view and make use of tradition.”
It is the first time for three of the seven mythical tales (one told in each book) to be recounted in this format. These include tales from two ethnic groups — The Yangque Bird Creating Sun and Moon from the Miao and White Feathered Flying Suit from the Dongxiang.
The collection’s editor, Yu Zhixiao said she is impressed by their creations. Art publisher, writer and head of Citic Art Museum Zeng Zirong said the collection may “get good results” if introduced to global publishers at book fairs in Frankfurt and London.
However, when the young creators first heard that picture-book creation would be the focus of their graduation work, some including Xiao Peirou, were initially perturbed at its seemingly “insignificant” and slightly childish nature.
But she grew happier the more she researched, learning that since good quality Chinese mythology picture books were rare, “there was still much room to improve and new trails to blaze”.
Xiao and the others, under Mou’s guidance, began exploring various approaches, mediums and techniques.
One novel approach the team took was transforming human characters into anthropomorphic animals, as Mou suggested.
In A Deer of Nine Colors, painted by Xiao, the ungrateful villain was made a red fox, while the queen who covets the deer’s fur is illustrated as a peacock.
To draw in young readers, Mou wrote this story “in rhymed stanzas” to resemble rapping when read aloud.
In the same book, the team made another bold choice — applying jinbi shanshui (“gold-bluish green landscape”), a classic ink painting style that uses gold, green and cyan as three major colors.
Xiao digitally introduced new elements to the paper-based ink painting, adding a stereoscopic touch of light via Photoshop. Images of fairylike deer galloping across green hills, bathed in sunlight, came to life.
“I took about three days to complete a double-page spread. If I felt gripped by inspiration, I saw sleep as a waste of time. I just wanted to keep on drawing without any distraction,” Xiao said.
Her artworks were shortlisted in the cartoon category for the 13th National Exhibition of Fine Arts, sponsored by the China Artists Association, and exhibited last year among more than 1,000 creations in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, an honor for a fresh graduate.
Xiao felt more delight upon meeting crowds of preschool and primary school students at her school’s exhibition of graduation works last year where her creations were displayed.
Hearing their passionate questions and comments gave her a great sense of fulfillment.
“At that time, I suddenly realized I was doing something great — that, with the good work I presented, I have planted a seed of art appreciation in the young hearts of our future generation,” she said.
She has collected over 100,000 digital artworks as sources of inspiration for future projects.
Another graduate, Qiu Fangxu, ruined many silver foils while ironing them with sulfur to get the ideal color mix for the picture book, The Magic Dragon and the Herbal Medicines.
“The speed, the pressure applied and even my breathing mattered a lot, because the foils are so light and thin. I spent seven whole days last year, repeatedly ‘ burning’ the silver,” said Qiu, who applied another technique, yancaihua (“rock color painting”), by “learning while experimenting and practicing” countless times.
This art form was lost for over 1,000 years. Using mineral pigments made from rock and earth, it colored the murals in the grottoes of Dunhuang, Gansu province. After its heyday during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) it lost its appeal during the Song and Yuan dynasties (960-1368) as Chinese artists adopted ink as their preferred medium, according to Wang Xiongfei, head of the Rock Painting Research Center at the China Academy of Art.
Only in recent decades have artists rediscovered its charm and revived the technique. The glittering particles, wild colors and layers of texture drew Qiu and his peers to it.
Some colors are actually powdered gemstones. “Dozens of grams of such colors would cost me hundreds of yuan, and only cover a small patch of the painting,” he said, who bought his own materials.
A student of ink painting, Qiu felt an “emotional bond” with these traditional colors, making it natural for him to apply them to his work, a tale about Shennong, one of three mythical emperors, said to be first to develop agriculture and herbal medicines.
As it is based on a well-known myth, Shennong Tastes a Hundred Herbs, Qiu feared that he would struggle to create something original. To solve the problem, he portrayed the human emperor Shennong as a magic dragon ( shenlong). The success of the transformation stems from the similar pronunciation of the two names in many southern dialects.
Mou offered the Magic Dragon a coming-of-age character arc, where the dragon overcomes setbacks to grow into glorious maturity and finally soar.
“The cool idea of the image transformation sparked my passion and desire, and I believe young readers will love it as much as I did,” Qiu said.
Mou draws inspiration from Chinese cultural traditions, believing “careful plans and smart thinking are the ways to help revive traditions and attract modern readers”.
A teacher for over a decade, Mou obtained a bachelor’s degree in drama literature and a PhD in theater and Chinese traditional opera from the Central Academy of Drama, and a master’s degree from Sydney University. She has noticed that more students have embraced guofeng or guochao, meaning Chinese-style trends, spurred on by both mainstream entertainment and social media. “As our society gets wealthier, it’s natural that Chinese youths have reclaimed greater pride and confidence in their own cultural roots,” Mou said.
Picture books have long been a personal interest, she added, and since her daughter’s birth last year, her interest in original picture books grew, “especially those that nurture Chinese aesthetics”.
Mou encourages students not to merely repeat ancient methods but to try and find something new.
Liang Yuan, creator of A Carp Leaping the Dragon Gate, had similar fear as Qiu did. Following Mou’s suggestion, she depicted ocean waves using “traditional patterns like cirrus clouds”, giving her a new outlet to demonstrate her skills.
In The Yangque Bird Creating Sun and Moon, Zhang Yuting married Art Deco patterns with images of a phoenix, while in White Feathered Flying Suit, Zhang Xinyu adapted gongbi paintings, a classic style employing meticulous brush strokes, to provide the elaborate backgrounds for her Tang-Dynasty-era characters. Blending classy and cute made her Dongxiang story “fun fodder” for young readers.
In another tale about a rabbit trying to scoop the moon’s reflection on water with lotus leaves, Wang Meiling drew the figures and backgrounds, cut them out and recorded their movements on film to achieve a 3D effect.
And, for the well- known tale, Yugong Moves the Mountain, Zhou Lan depicted the old man protagonist as a turtle.
All her figures and settings are fashioned from cloth and employ traditional Chinese dyeing and weaving skills. She said it took five months to finish the 20 cloth art paintings, adding: “I hope to show younger readers more dimensions to traditional Chinese arts, such as handicrafts.”