Cai Zhizhong held a sharing meeting in Hangzhou with his “new book”——Find the love of life in reading and thinking
Hangzhou Daily News On July 9th, Cai Zhizhong held a sharing meeting with his “Cai Zhizhong Juvenile Chinese Studies” series of books and other works in Hangzhou Boku Bookstore. Half an hour before the start, the venue was full of young readers and parents.
The content of this set of books is not “new” and has been published many times at home and abroad. However, it is a brand new work co-operated by Cai Zhizhong and Modern Publishing House. It has been optimized from format to arrangement, making it more convenient for teenagers to read.
For many readers, the name Cai Zhizhong is no stranger. He became a professional cartoonist at the age of 15. He has been working hard for more than 50 years and opened a precedent for classic cartoons in ancient Chinese books. More than 100 classic Chinese comics such as “Zhuangzi Shuo”, “Lao Zi Shuo”, “Confucius Shuo”, “Mencius Shuo” and “Cai Gen Tan” have been translated into more than 20 languages and published in 45 countries and regions. Over 40 million copies. In 1999, he was awarded the Prince Claus Award of the Netherlands for his “unprecedented re-creation of traditional Chinese philosophy and literature through cartoons”. In 2011, Cai Zhizhong won the “Golden Man Award” Lifetime Achievement Award.
He has lived in Hangzhou for many years and has always liked the cultural atmosphere and creative environment of this city. Although he is over seventy years old, his creative efficiency is very high. In the past two years, I specially drew Lu Yu’s “The Classic of Tea”, also drew comics for Hangbang cuisine, and even created a comic version of “Compendium of Materia Medica”…
During the interview, the reporter chatted with him about the many young people who study manga now, and asked him what advice he had? Without further ado, he drew a kitten on a book. It takes less than two minutes to draw lines, color, and add text, and it is lifelike. “Painting is actually not that difficult, but the first thing is to follow the heart.”
The characters in his works are also the projections of his heart: in “The Analects”, Confucius is an old man with a long white beard, a sword, and some age spots on his temples; Yan Hui’s clothes are patched and his hair is a bit messy; Zilu is taller than Yan Hui, with long hair Mustache, wearing clothes similar to generals. Lu Yu in “The Classic of Tea” is not sitting upright, but an ordinary person in a wide robe and wide sleeves, Tao Ran in the mountains and rivers of tea fields.
Cai Zhizhong narrows the distance between Chinese classics and readers with witty and witty comic language, making readers—especially children—readable and lovely.
At the event site, many children brought their own works to communicate with Cai Zhizhong. Facing children who are dozens of years younger than him, he always smiles and answers questions.
He said that you should read more books and think more. In reading and thinking, find the career you love in your life.
He likes cats very much, so he likes to use cats as metaphors – life has ups and downs, the important thing is to strengthen one’s beliefs and not give up, “We must learn from cats, no matter adversity or success, don’t complain, don’t be complacent, Be Miao Miao Miao!”
The “Cai Zhizhong Junior Chinese Studies” series allows children to understand and fall in love with the traditional Chinese culture that has been passed down for thousands of years through the form of comics, and grasp the essence of ancient sages’ thoughts.
On the basis of retaining the original content, this set of books has comprehensively upgraded the layout and binding, making it more suitable for primary and middle school students to read. The phonetic notation of rare characters is added to reduce reading barriers, so that young readers can enjoy the charm of Chinese classics more easily and happily in the process of reading comics and stories. The original text of ancient books with colored characters is arranged on one side of each page of comics, which is convenient for comparison and learning, and improves children’s ancient poetry and prose literacy.
