For many people, beautiful and fun comic strips are unforgettable memories of childhood. When I was a child, the comic book works we called "villain books" told vivid stories with beautiful pictures and concise words, which greatly enriched our childhood life. In fact, the origin of comic strips can be traced back to the portrait stones of the Han Dynasty and the Dunhuang murals of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which is an ancient traditional Chinese art.
In order to promote the culture of Handan idioms, the series of comic books such as "Hufu Riding and Shooting" jointly created by Zhu Zhenfang, a painter in our city, and Zhu Yan are currently published by the People's Fine Arts Publishing House, and will also participate in the recent Handan Library Idiom Allusion Painting Exhibition. The traditional art form of comic strips is used to show Handan's idiom culture, so that the audience can experience the artistic beauty of not being out of the ordinary.
To this end, the reporter made a special trip to Mr. Zhu Zhenfang's home for an interview, let us follow Mr. Zhu Zhenfang's introduction, and feel the unique idiom culture from the comic strip.
Zhu Zhenfang showed reporters the idiom allusion comic strip he created.
Handan painters "paint" idioms
Walking into Zhu Zhenfang's workshop, a strong smell of books came to my face. Easels, workbenches, and bookshelves stacked with books form a space for Zhu Zhenfang to be inspired.
"I started art creation in 1972, and I have drawn more than 80 sets of comic books, of which 28 are comic books with the theme of Handan idiom allusions." Zhu Zhenfang recalled. Speaking of idioms, Zhu Zhenfang told reporters with a smile that he is 78 years old this year, but he is still not satisfied with the existing works, and wants to create more excellent works and continue to make a contribution to the promotion of Handan idiom culture.
Zhu Zhenfang told reporters that there are three sets of Handan idiom series of comic books published this time, namely "Obeying the Law" published in the 6th issue of "Comic Strip" in 2020, "Stealing Talismans to Save Zhao" published in the 11th issue of 2020 and "Hufu Riding and Shooting" published in the 2nd issue of 2021.
In addition to these three sets of comic books, Zhu Zhenfang also created many works related to idiom culture. For example, in 2021, Zhu Zhenfang created seven single paintings of Handan idiom allusions, namely "Guilty of Petition", "Hufu Riding and Shooting", "Huangliang Dream", "Returning to Zhao", "Handan Toddler", "Nuwa Mending the Sky", "Lu Wine is Thin and Handan Wai". Compared with the three sets of comic strips created in the previous article, these seven single paintings were created by Zhu Zhenfang's original cardboard pastel engraving. "The traditional methods of line drawing and gongbi heavy color are all made with a brush and rice paper, and the drawings are drafted first and then made on rice paper. My original cardboard engraving, on the other hand, is created with a particularly thick cardboard, which is first coated with a layer of coating and depicted in a woodcut-like manner. When creating, it is necessary to first draft a drawing, make cardboard with special materials, then color it in multiple layers, and then put the sketch on the colored cardboard and use a woodcutter to depict it. Zhu Zhenfang introduced.
It is reported that the three sets of comic books and seven single paintings introduced above will also participate in the Handan Library Idiom Allusion Painting Exhibition in October.
Do your part to promote the culture of idioms
"Recently, Handan's idiom culture atmosphere has become stronger and stronger, and more and more attention has been paid to the publicity and protection of idiom culture, which I very much recognize." Zhu Zhenfang said.
Talking about idiom culture, Zhu Zhenfang proudly said: "Handan is the 'capital of Chinese idioms and allusions', with more than 30,000 Chinese idioms, of which there are 1,584 idioms related to Handan. As a native of Handan, I have been particularly interested in idioms since I was a child, and I am also very proud. I believe that such a national treasure should not only be learned by itself, but also widely disseminated. Zhu Zhenfang said that idioms and allusions are not only surprising in number and wide in content, but also have a high usage rate, which is often used in communication and writing. When I posted on WeChat yesterday, I found that I used three idioms in one sentence. Zhu Zhenfang said with a smile.
Idioms and allusions are a unique linguistic phenomenon in Chinese language and literature, with distinctive national cultural characteristics, and their content is mostly extracted from history, and the themes are quite rich, including historical facts reflecting military battles, folk legends reflecting anecdotes of emperors and generals, and fables that spur bad social trends and reveal the philosophy of life. "It can be vividly said that idiom allusions are condensed history, and learning idioms can become a window for people to understand history and culture. Therefore, I use comic books to tell the story of idioms, but also hope that people will learn more about idioms and the cultural connotations behind idioms. Zhu Zhenfang told reporters.
"As a member of the 'Capital of Chinese Idioms and Allusions', I have the responsibility to raise the flag for idiom culture and carry it forward. I started to create idiom-related paintings in 1995 and have been doing it for nearly 30 years, just to promote idiom culture in different forms. Although I have made some achievements now, I feel more gratified, but I am not satisfied, and I still want to work hard to make more and better works and continue to promote Handan