Comic strip by Feng Zikai.
Feng Zikai was a Chinese painter, music teacher, essayist and translator. He was one of the pioneers in Chinese comic art, along with his contemporaries Ye Qianyu and Zhang Leping. His best-known work is 'Hu Sheng Hua Ji' (''Paintings for the Preservation of Life", (护生画集, 1927-1973).
Early life
Feng Zikai was born in 1898 in Tongxiang in the Zhejiang province. His father owned a dye shop. Between 1914 and 1917, Feng studied Western painting and music at Zhejiang First Normal College. One of his teachers was Li Shutong (1880-1942), a painter and pioneering newspaper artist, who later became a Buddhist priest under the name Hong Yi. Between 1917 and 1919, Feng Zikai continued his studies at the Kawabata Painting School in Tokyo, Japan, where he discovered manga art in the tradition of the painters Hokusai and Takehisa Yumeji. Upon his return in China in 1922, he worked as an art teacher in the Chengdong Girls' School in Shanghai. He later fulfilled similar jobs at Chunhui High School in Shangyu and in towns like Zhejiang and Chongqing.
Zikai Manhua
In the 1920s, Feng Zikai also was an editor with the Kaiming Press. Around this time that he started to publish his woodcut illustrations with mordant social commentaries in newspapers and journals. Feng Zikai is widely considered as the founder of modern cartoons in China through the publication of his cartoon series 'ZiKai Manhua' ('The Manhua of Feng Zikai') in Zheng Zhenduo's magazine Wenxue Zhoubao (Literature Weekly) in 1925. The term "manhua" had existed since the 18th century and literally means "impromptu sketches". Feng's fame drew attention to the word, and because of the similarities between his work and Japanese manga, the phrase "Zikai Manhua" became common for cartoon art. From then on, the genre also became more and more regarded as a specialized art form.
'New Epoch'.
As an essayist, Zikai wrote about topics like literature, painting, music, translation and calligraphy. His interest in foreign graphic arts was also evident in his articles. He not only wrote about Japanese manga, but also about the caricatures of the French artist Honoré Daumier, the British humor magazine Punch and Soviet poster art. He described manhua as a "painting style that employs a simplified brushwork to express meaning." Zikai also defined the subgenres ganxiang (imaginary), fengci (satirical) and xuanchuan (propagandistic). Several collections of his essays were published during his life.
Hu Sheng Hua Ji
Feng Zikai's longest-running picture series 'Hu Sheng Hua Ji' (''Paintings for the Preservation of Life", (护生画集) was created between 1927 and 1973. The artwork was inspired by his Buddhist beliefs. Book compilations of these works are still reprinted today. The entire collection is kept in the archives of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum.
Later life and career
In November 1937, Feng Zikai's hometown was destroyed by the invading Japanese army, motivating him to create anti-Japanese propaganda cartoons. After World War II, China became a Communist Republic in 1949. Feng remained active as a teacher and publisher and was named chairman of the Shanghai Artists Association. While Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai liked his artwork, Feng became more critical of Mao's policies from the late 1950s on. Many of his patrons instantly distanced themselves from him. Diagnosed with lung cancer, Feng died in 1975.
Legacy and influence
Feng's essays and cartoons remain popular with the Chinese public. His drawings have been collected in books like 'Zikai Cartoons' and 'Children's Cartoons'. He was an influence on Chen Huiling. His former home in Shimenwan is a museum, titled Feng Zikai Memorial Center. His name lives on in the Feng Zikai Chinese Children's Picture Book Award, established in 2009.
'Drunken Old Farmer' (1947).