介绍:
Who is your favorite comic hero? The adventurous, boy-scout-like Tintin, or your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?
But in most of the works produced by the Chinese cartoonist Li Kunwu, the hero, or put it more accurately, the protagonist is always the 61-year-old himself.
"Since I was around five or six years old, I loved drawing comic diaries. Years later, I created series of books that introduce the landscape and customs of Yunnan Province, which are autobiographical as well. So gradually, I have taken this road of drawing stories about myself."
Growing up in Kunming, the provincial city of southwest China's Yunnan Province, Li was a born caricaturist, as pictures had always been his way of communication. As a boy, instead of talking out loud, he would always prefer leaving a brief note to his mother with cartoon images on it. However, like many people of his generation, Li Kunwu didn't pursue his passion by enrolling in university. Instead, this self-taught doodler joined the army. Discharged in 1987, he became an art editor for a local newspaper.
However, the restless young man was not content with sitting in the office and waiting for the Muse to knock at the door.
"In my younger days, I rode my bicycle alone to travel around Yunnan. I could say my footsteps were left in nearly every county of this province. Those trips not only helped me gather drawing materials, but also sharpened my skills. More importantly, they cultivated a tenacious spirit, which makes me a persistent person. "
Using "Li Xiaowu" as his alias in the comic strips, the budding artist started to transform what he had witnessed to palette and paper. Having a knack for putting personal experiences, funny gags and catchy rhymes together, this Yunnan native has tantalized his readers with the unparalleled culture and landscape of his hometown. One of his comic books, 18 Oddities to Savor My Homeland, or known as "Yun Nan Shi Ba Guai"(云南十八怪) in Chinese, reflects 18 peculiar customs he found in Yunnan and had been reprinted eight times in just two years.
But what really elevates Li Kunwu to international fame is his illustrated memoir, A Chinese Life, or in Chinese, "Cong Xiao Li Dao Lao Li – Yi Ge Zhong Guo Ren De Yi Sheng" (从小李到老李——一个中国人的一生), which is the result of collaboration between him and French writer, diplomat Philippe Ôtié.
"We met each other in May, 2005 and started to work together on a story about Italian traveller Marco Polo. Then in October, both of us were invited to a Sino-French comic exchange event held in Beijing. There, we gave our script to the editor-in-chief from the French media group Média-Participations. He said that the draft about Marco Polo is good but not outstanding enough, so why not produce a story about myself, since my life experience sounds quite interesting. At first, I felt a little bit challenged by this proposal. Then I thought I could handle it, since I love to draw myself since I was a kid. "
But the teamwork had a rough start, as the two creators hardly reached a consensus in terms of drawing style and storytelling technique.
"Ten years ago, my mind-set was all about the classic Chinese comic strip style, which means the detachment of image and text. But western cartoonists employ cinematic narratives to tell their stories. So I had to change, but the switch was really difficult for me, since by then I was already in my 50s. Fortunately, Ôtié helped me a lot in this regard. Moreover, he reminded me to pay extra attention to details and emotions, which helped me to create an appealing and authentic story."
Stumbling over this co-production for years, by the end of 2010, Li Kunwu and his co-author Philippe Ôtié finally published their three-volumed tome, A Chinese Life. In a course of almost 700 pages, the illustrator leads us to trace a compelling personal odyssey. From his bumpy childhood as a survivor of the Great Famine in the late 1950s, the collective paranoia during the Cultural Revolution, to the age of reform and opening up when money starts to talk, the story tries to explore how an average man was shaped against the backdrop of the ever-changing China. Simultaneously cunning, meticulous, emotional, yet hardheaded, this book is undoubtedly personal. While at the same time, it also provides something deeper, a graphic chronicle of how modern China came into being in the last six decades.
Since serialized, "A Chinese Life" has received overwhelming critical acclaim. Published in 13 languages, the comic book was shortlisted for the 2010 Angoulême International Comics Festival and also grants its creators many honorable titles. Some critics even praise that Li's comic memoir is reminiscent of Chinese film director Zhang Yimou's movie To Live, or George Orwell's 1984.
The mind-boggling popularity delivers a surprise for the men behind this masterpiece.
"It's kind of weird, or more accurately, it's pretty rare to see people from different cultures and backgrounds all accept this book. Then I realize that most of the publications about China in foreign countries are either extremely negative, which emphasize the problems of this country, or purely propaganda that boasts China's history and achievements. But there are few all-sided and detailed presentation of this country. So maybe my book fills the void. Telling the history from the perspective of a nobody, it provides a natural attitude and a sense of authenticity that everyone could identify with. "
The skyrocketing success of the saga "A Chinese Life" seemed to spur Li Kunwu's interest in heavy and critical subjects. In the next few years, the artist produced several history-bound comics, including Chunxiu (春秀), a life story of his nanny who witnessed all those cataclysmic years in the early 20th century, and "Railway Above the Clouds", an epic reflection of how a French engineer helped to build China's oldest meter-gauge railroad.
But among all his recent works, "The Scars" , also known as "Shang Hen" (伤痕) in Chinese, is probably the most remarkable one. Narrated in a documentary manner, the book showcases how Li accidentally sought out a gamut of rare old photos that were taken by Japanese reporters during the Second World War. As many untold aspects of the past were unveiled, he also discovers an old scar of his own family.
When being asked why his comics always adhere to the vicissitudes of times, Li Kunwu replies.
"Before, I drew for fun. I drew to keep track of my family life. But gradually, it has become a duty. It seems to me that no one else will document history like I do. Drawing has become something I have to do. "
However, in 2015, this prolific cartoonist took a shocking turn, by publishing a comic book about ghosts and the afterlife. Named as "Huan Jing San Ri You" (幻境三日游), or translated to "Three-day Tour in the Netherworld " in English, this humorous and quip-packed travelogue pokes fun at pop culture, famous literary characters, and social issues without losing a satirical touch. Following our good-natured, chatty main character, which means the artist himself, readers not only get a good laugh thanks to all the ridiculousness and resemblance between worldly life and hell, but could also get inspired.
"Most of the time-travel themed dramas provide audience an intense and twisted experience. I want to bring these elements to my work as well. But at the same time, I hope I could bring up something different, something that could make my readers ponder about."
Now, in his early 60s, Li Kunwu is still active in drawing comics. Borrowing cinematic narrative from his western counterparts and combining story boards with traditional Chinese wash painting, this multi-talented illustrator uses his blazing display of bravura to awe fans worldwide. But according to him, it will still take some time for his works to be well-received in homeland.
"Chinese people are not used to this kind of reading mode, since my style is a little bit westernized. The traditional Chinese comics used to be one picture that occupies a full page. Then Japanese manga got introduced to China and shifted people's perception about comics. For many Chinese people, especially the older generation, comic books are just for children. They don't understand there are comics for adults as well. They don't know comics could tell serious, in-depth stories. Maybe ten or twenty years later, when the younger generation grows up, they will start to appreciate comics as a form of art."
But the artist is by no means giving up.
"My next step is to finish a series called 'Our Generation'. Unlike 'A Chinese Life' that focuses on the fate of one individual, this one will feature our whole generation. When the whole population in China was around 650 million (at the end of 1950s), we only accounted for a small percent. But our fates are the epitomes of the whole nation. "
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