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Europe---The Adventures of Tintin ( 1929 )

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Europe---The Adventures of Tintin ( 1929 )

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Official website: Discover the whole universe of the Adventures of Tintin, the world-famous comic book series created by Hergé.

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Europe---The Adventures of Tintin ( 1929 )

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Europe---The Adventures of Tintin ( 1929 )

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The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century

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The Dark Secret Behind the Creator of Tintin

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Europe---The Adventures of Tintin ( 1929 )

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Europe---The Adventures of Tintin ( 1929 )

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Europe---The Adventures of Tintin ( 1929 )

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Europe---The Adventures of Tintin ( 1929 )

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I'm French, so I basically grew up reading The Adventures of Tintin, Asterix & Obelix, Lucky Luke and other famous comics of that type. In fact, my grandmother used to offer me a new one every year for my birthday and for Christmas. I just re-read those comics so much. Well, I know that there are not as well known outside of my country as I thought they were. So, here is a small guide to enter Hergé's world.

What are The Adventures of Tintin?

Created by Belgian cartoonist Hergé in 1929, The Adventures of Tintin follow the intrepid globetrotter reporter and adventurer named Tintin as he travels all over the world to investigate mysteries. Aided by his faithful dog Snowy and his friends, the brash and cynical Captain Haddock and the intelligent but hearing-impaired Professor Calculus, Tintin evolves in realistic environment as well as in pure science fiction and fantasy.

Disclaimer: It's an old comics, so there are some ideas and representations that are quite offensive today. It's sometime racist. Just saying. You know, like in the old issues of The Spirit.

The Adventures of Tintin Reading Order:

The way The Adventures of Tintin were written is really formulaic. There's a bit of continuity, but almost all the stories can be read independently from one another. There are a few exceptions with some 2-part stories.

The first books

This three books were the first published, but you can skip them and came back later. It's not a great entry point.

1. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets - It's the last one I read, but it's the first one. It's the only one in B&W. Sent on assignment to the Soviet Union, Tintin boards a train but after an explosion, Tintin is blamed for the bombing. He must then make his way to the Soviet Union where he uncovers some shocking secrets.

2. Tintin in the Congo - Talking about racism... this one is quite problematic on that front. Still fun if you can overlook some pretty outrageous things. Tintin travel to the Belgian Congo where he hires a native boy named Coco to assist him. After that, he becomes the standard white savior, stop a war and some diamond smuggling gang before returning home...

3. Tintin in America - Tintin goes to America, to Chicago to the Wild West. This time, he fights crime and prejudices.

My recommended entry point

1. Cigars of the Pharaoh - Part 1 of 2. Tintin tries to take a vacation, but while on his cruise ship a mystery unfolds! He meets Dr. Sarcophagus who leads him to the undiscovered tomb of the Pharaoh Kih-Oskh. First appearance of Rastapopoulos, Thomson and Thompson.

2. The Blue Lotus - Part 2 of 2. The story starts where Cigars of the Pharaoh ends with Tintin who are invited to China in the midst of the 1931 Japanese invasion. There he reveals the machinations of Japanese spies and uncovers a drug-smuggling ring.

3. The Broken Ear - A sacred tribal statue has been stolen from the museum. Tintin and Snowy are on the case and follow clues that lead them straight into the heart of the jungle.

4. The Black Island - Investigating a mysterious plane crash, Tintin discovers he's onto something big! The case leads Tintin to Scotland, where he learns of a monster that stalks a lonely island.

1. King Ottokar's Sceptre - Tintin meets Professor Alembick, an expert with a very rare royal seal in his collection-the seal of King Ottokar the IV of Syldavia. Tintin joins the professor on his trip to this foreign land. First appearance of Bianca Castafiore.

2. The Crab with the Golden Claws - The introduction of Captain Haddock. A can of crab meat turns out to be a small clue to a big mystery when Tintin meets Captain Haddock in his escape and his plan to track down the crooks takes him to an exotic desert city.

3. The Shooting Star - A meteorite collides with Earth and Tintin is part of the expedition to the Arctic Ocean to locate the fallen star. But they aren't the only ones hungry to make the new discovery-someone is trying to sabotage Tintin and his team.

1. The Secret of the Unicorn - Part 1 of 2. Tintin stumbles across a model ship at the Old Street Market. Only it isn't just any model ship-it's the Unicorn, carved by one of Haddock's ancestors, and it holds a clue to find the pirate's treasure. First appearance of Nestor.

2. Red Rackham's Treasure - Part 2 of 2. Tintin and Captain Haddock set sail aboard the Sirius to find the sunken remains of the Unicorn ship and notorious pirate Red Rackham's treasure. First appearance of Professor Calculus.

3. The Seven Crystal Balls - Part 1 of 2. Seven explorers return from an expedition in the Andes, where they unearthed the tomb of an Incan priest. One by one, they fall into a coma. Can Tintin figure out what is causing the mysterious illness?

4. Prisoners of the Sun - Part 2 of 2. Tintin discovers that one of the last Incan descendants has kidnapped his missing friend, Professor Calculus. Tintin and Captain Haddock follow the kidnapper to Peru to save Calculus?

1. Land of Black Gold - Car engines have started spontaneously exploding all over the country ... someone's been tampering with the oil! Tintin, with Thompson and Thompson at his side, sails on an oil tanker to the Middle East to track down the source of the faulty oil.

2. Destination Moon - Part 1 of 2. Professor Calculus is building a rocket, but Tintin quickly realizes that there are spies around every corner trying to steal the professor's design! When Professor Calculus' rocket finally takes off for the moon, Tintin and his dog Snowy are on board.

3. Explorers on the Moon - Part 2 of 2. Picking up where Destination Moon left off, Professor Calculus and Tintin discover a secret agent has managed to sneak on board the rocket with plans to hijack it and abandon everyone on the moon!

1. The Calculus Affair - Tintin and Captain Haddock peek in Professor Calculus' laboratory to find a sonic device and a very mysterious-and violent!-stranger. Realizing that Calculus' life is in danger, Tintin and the Captain rush to warn him before it's too late. First appearance of Jolyon Wagg.

2. The Red Sea Sharks - When his old friend Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab is overthrown by Sheikh Bab El Ehr, Tintin goes to his aid. But before Tintin can help return his friend to power, he will have to survive shipwrecks, fires, and worst of all, Abdullah, the emir's rotten son.

3. Tintin in Tibet - One day Tintin reads about a plane crash in the Himalayas. When he discovers that his friend, Chang, was on board, Tintin travels to the crash site in hopes of a rescue. Chang Chong-Chen was introduced in The Blue Lotus.

4. The Castafiore Emerald - When Tintin and Captain Haddock happen across a community of gypsies they invite them home just as Bianca Castafiore, the famous opera singer, decides to visit Tintin. It's chaos at Marlinspike Hall, and then a precious emerald goes missing!

1. Flight 714 to Sydney - On their way to Sydney, Tintin and Captain Haddock run into an old friend, a pilot who offers them a ride on a private jet. But when the plane gets hijacked, Tintin and the Captain find themselves prisoners on a deserted volcanic island.

2. Tintin and the Picaros - Bianca Castafiore, Thomson and Thompson are being imprisoned for allegedly attempting to overthrow General Tapioca's dictatorship. Tintin, Professor Calculus, and Captain Haddock set out to clear their friends' names.

3. Tintin and Alph-Art - Unfinished book, published posthumously and mostly for the completist. Opera singer Bianca Castafiore has a guru: Endaddine Akass is handing his advice out to everyone, but Tintin doesn't buy it-especially when he realizes that Akass might be connected to the death of the owner of an art gallery, who had been on his way to see Tintin when he died.

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Tintin Reading Order: How to read The Adventures of Tintin?

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I'm French, so I basically grew up reading The Adventures of Tintin, Asterix & Obelix, Lucky Luke and other famous comics of that type. In fact, my grandmother used to offer me a new one every year for my birthday and for Christmas. I just re-read those comics so much.

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Europe---The Adventures of Tintin ( 1929 )

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Europe---The Adventures of Tintin ( 1929 )

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Miffy at the playground • Miffy Classics

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Dick Bruna, the 80-year-old creator of miffy, the £150 million rabbit, leads a life of almost zen-like simplicity - or at least he would if it weren't for the Japanese groupies. By Horatia Harrod

Dick Bruna has already made tea and brought over biscuits, and now he leans forward from a chair in his airy, top-floor Utrecht studio. Spectacular white walrus whiskers twitch expectantly and behind a pair of oval spectacles, his eyes twinkle. This man - Geppetto made flesh - does not look or behave like the head of a global empire worth about £150 million annually. But Bruna is not your typical multi-millionaire mogul. No, he's the creator of Miffy, the world's most popular rabbit (and think for a moment of the competition for that title: Br'er, Peter, Roger...), whose modest adventures have sold more than 85 million storybooks, been translated into 40 languages, and whose clean, simple little face (two dots for eyes, a cross for a mouth) is recognised throughout the world. Hers is the first gaze I meet when I walk into the arrivals hall at Amsterdam airport, staring blankly from a shiny helium balloon. Later, I see her on pencils and building blocks, fridge magnets and school satchels, stitched together in plush and, most spectacularly, cast as a gold-plated statue.

None of this was Bruna's intent when he first sat down 53 years ago, during a wet and windy seaside holiday, to draw a story about a little white rabbit to amuse his young son. The Miffy brand did not develop out of the machinations of a cynical or greedy mind. In fact, in appropriate storybook fashion, it was a little bear who was responsible for everything that happened. This particular little bear was a Bruna drawing that caught the eye of the flamboyant Conservative politician Lord Alexander Hesketh, who put its image on the side of one of his racing cars. But then Bruna began to worry: 'I thought, what if the car is crashing? That's not very nice. I've made it for children and not for that.' He told a friend, who encouraged him to set up a company to protect the rights to his images. Thus Mercis - which employs ferocious teams of lawyers to protect the Miffy name - and the Bruna brand, were born.

Perhaps it's because he comes from a family of businesspeople that Bruna takes such a markedly unworldly approach to the company he created. 'Sometimes people ask me, how much do you earn? No idea at all. Of course it's funny to say something like that, but I'm just very happy as we are.' He was born into a great Dutch publishing house - the Bruna name is as familiar in Holland as W.H. Smith is in Britain. 'My father and my grandfather were real businesspeople,' he explains, with a touch of hostility. 'They were not very much interested in art.'

The young Bruna, however, was constantly drawing. During the Second World War the family moved to a house in the Dutch countryside, and his passion for art deepened: 'I didn't go to school, I was just at home. And we had a book about Rembrandt and one about Van Gogh, and I read those two books I think five or six times.' After some time in London and Paris ('I really went from one gallery to another, all day. I was so much impressed by the work of Picasso and Léger, Matisse, Braque and all those people') he returned to Holland and began his career as a designer of book covers for the family company.

As with Miffy, his covers - for books in the Black Bear imprint by Ian Fleming, Leslie Charteris and others - were marvels of cool, clean graphic design. Bruna was delighted by a letter he got from one of the authors he collaborated with, Georges Simenon: 'I see that you are trying to make your covers still simpler and simpler,' he wrote. 'You are doing the same in designing as I try to do in writing.' Bruna is always in pursuit of simpler, more perfect forms. When he draws Miffy crying, he tells me, 'I very often start with three or four tears. I take away one, and the next day I take away another one, and at the end I have one tear, and that's very, very sad.' His work fits him comfortably into the canon of Dutch modernist graphic design, but if you ask him about his place within it, he bats away the question: 'I never went to art school, you know. I don't know if I'm an artist or this or that...' He eventually stopped doing covers when he was asked to design one for a science fiction book: 'I couldn't read it, I found it very difficult, very hard. I thought, "No, that's more for younger people now".'

It's hard not to be struck by Bruna's modesty and sweet nature. Even the details of his daily routine have a picturesque simplicity, and in his artless, unadorned English they take on an almost Zen-like purity. He rises every day at 5 or 5.30, squeezes a glass of orange juice for his wife, Irene, and draws her a picture. The pictures - all of which she has kept - are about things she has done, or reminders of things she is planning to do. He says that, on the morning of my visit, 'I did a little drawing about bridge, because she's going to bridge tonight'.

He then hops on his bicycle and goes to a cafe - always the same one - for a coffee, which is ready for him when he arrives. In the morning he works on drawing in his studio; he cycles home for lunch. In the afternoon, he returns to the studio and does whatever administrative work there is to do. Utrecht, a small city of canals and cobbled streets, suits him perfectly. 'The people are very nice here, they leave me to work and just say "Hello!" and that's it. And the children just say, "Hello, Dick! Are you going to make new books?" "Yes, I am trying to do that!".'

This is not to say that everything is straightforward for Bruna. Although he's been drawing Miffy for more than 50 years, every time he sits down to draw her he feels a jolt of nerves. In Bruna's immaculate studio - books neatly piled, paper tidied away, surfaces clean and dust-free - there are several little tubs packed with perfectly sharpened pencils. When I pick one up to inspect it, the end is all chewed up. I pick up another, and it too is nibbled away. The pencils are the proof of Bruna's doubt, anxiousness. 'It's funny,' he says. 'When I was younger I thought that when I got older I would be sure what was OK, and what was not OK. But it's just the other way round. You're getting more and more uncertain.'

Some years ago he met Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip. Schulz complained that as he'd got older, his hand had started to shake so that he couldn't draw smooth lines any more. But for Bruna, the sprightliest 80-year-old imaginable, the only trouble he has is with 'the trembling of my heart', the apprehensiveness of the perfectionist. It might take him a day to draw a single illustration of Miffy, anything up to 100 sketches before he is content.

Thoughts of work are ever-present, pigs, bears and rabbits all jostling for attention. His mind is constantly ticking over: 'I'm nearly always thinking about new stories on my bicycle. You can't stop it. Sometimes I think I'd like to, because I want to sleep or something!'

He was inspired to create Poppy Pig after meeting one of his three children's schoolteachers. 'First of all,' he says, 'she didn't like it. But now she's very happy with it.' On holiday in the South of France - where the Brunas have a home - he drives off to the shops but invariably ends up pulling over to write down an idea that's just popped into his head. On Sundays his wife ends up ordering him off to his studio because he gets so fidgety when he isn't working.

Bruna married Irene in 1953, when he was 25 and she was 19, and she has always been his first editor and critic. When he's finished a new book he places it on a long, sturdy wooden table in his studio and invites her round to see it. 'Then I make coffee or tea and I'm very nervous, really. I'm very nervous. And I look at her and I can see in her face if it is Yes or No.' Theirs seems an enviable marriage, although as we talk he turns a little regretful: 'I feel that sometimes it's a pity for Irene, because work has always been in the very first place for me. Really. Of course we went out to parties but I've never really been...' His sentence trails off sadly.

The only other time in our conversation when Bruna's brow clouds over is when we discuss Hello Kitty, the Japanese cartoon beloved of cute-obsessed schoolgirls and lovers of kitsch throughout the world. 'That,' he says darkly, 'is a copy [of Miffy], I think. I don't like that at all. I always think, "No, don't do that. Try to make something that you think of yourself".' After all, he adds - mood already lifting - 'there's so many nice things.'

It's not exactly surprising that Japan should have spawned a rival to Miffy, because it's home to her most ardent fans - and, crucially, her most lavish consumers. In Bruna's studio there are gifts from children all around the world, but most numerous are the cards artfully crafted from patterned paper, and flocks of origami birds which are sent for good luck. When Bruna goes for his morning coffee, he says, 'there are often Japanese people waiting there - they know'. And when he toured Britain on Miffy's 50th anniversary, he was followed from venue to venue by a middle-aged Japanese woman who sported a Miffy painted on each cheek. He finds the interest exciting, but bewildering.

It's odd, in a way, that the creator of such an internationally beloved character should be such a local, well-insulated person, tied so intimately to the city in which he was born and grew up: 'I think the size of Utrecht is very nice, and I like to cycle along the canals and see the boats and the reflections.' It's hard to draw him on politics, because he insists he knows nothing about it. Indeed, Bruna says he feels 'really like a child. I sometimes think there are quite a lot of things that I don't understand, anyway.' The more complex parts of life don't really make their way into the books, either, although he has written about the death of Miffy's grandmother, and the importance of including those who are different (like Flopear, the bunny with one floppy ear). His books aren't supposed to be didactic: 'I'm not doing teaching at all. I couldn't do that.'

We talk about religion: is that something that makes more sense to him than politics? 'I still have the feeling that there is something, that life is not nothing at all. Sometimes, when I did a drawing that I think, "Yes, that became a nice drawing", sometimes when I go home I say, "Thanks very much".'

As he says this he points to the sky. 'And sometimes, I think, "Oh, no, that was not very kind!".' And, smiling sweetly, he raises his fist and shakes it at the heavens.

MIFFY BY NUMBERS

118 Miffy books have been published to date.

10,000 products have been created by the 250 Miffy licensees throughout the world.

89 million Miffy picture books have been sold worldwide since her birth in 1955.

15.5cm is the length of each side of Bruna's Miffy books. They are designed to help small hands handle them.

2,000 The number of covers Dick Bruna designed for his father's publishing house.

5 The basic Bruna palette: red, blue, yellow, white and green.

£150 million Miffy's annual income.

1,200 works are currently on show at the dick bruna huis in Utrecht.

12 The number of pages in every Miffy book.

The Miffy stories are published by Egmont. Dick Bruna's limited-edition silkscreen prints are available from The Illustration Cupboard, 020 7976 1727, www.illustrationcupboard.com

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Dick Bruna creator of the Miffy books talks about his life and work

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Dick Bruna, the 80-year-old creator of miffy, the £150 million rabbit, leads a life of almost zen-like simplicity - or at least he would if it weren't for the Japanese groupies. By Horatia Harrod Dick Bruna has already made tea and brought over biscuits, and now he leans forward from a chair in his airy, top-floor Utrecht studio.

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The books are where Miffy began. Now you can start your own collection! Explore a charming range of Dick Bruna books. Buy online today...

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Tampere Hall Shop

The shop is open to museum guests and all visitors at Tampere Hall. The range includes exciting Moomin souvenirs, design and music, books written and illustrated by Tove Jansson, Tampere souvenirs, and classic Finnish design brands.

You will additionally find hand-made crafts by Finnish designers as well as music by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, which is also based at Tampere Hall. Here you can buy Moomin postcards and stamps and have your letters stamped with a special Moomin postmark.

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The shop is open to museum guests and all visitors at Tampere Hall. The range includes exciting Moomin souvenirs, design and music, books written and illustrated by Tove Jansson, Tampere souvenirs, and classic Finnish design brands. You will additionally find hand-made crafts by Finnish designers as well as music by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, which is also based at Tampere Hall.

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t is -15C and snowy outside but unusually relaxed and welcoming inside a grand building on the corner of Senate Square in Helsinki where a preview is taking place of the much-anticipated TV animation Moominvalley. The most expensive of its kind in the history of Finnish television, the series is the creation of Oscar-winning director Steve Box ( Wallace and Gromit) and executive producer Marika Makaroff, of the company behind (spoiler: it is much sunnier in Moominvalley).

That evening no one is left in any doubt as to the central place of Tove Jansson's Moomins in Finnish culture as the vice president, clutching two Moomin mugs, tells the audience they are Finland's "crown jewels". "Moomins is a religion," agrees scriptwriter Mark Huckerby when we meet - along with his longterm writing partner Nick Ostler - the following evening in a bar with the un-Moominish name of Liberty or Death. The award-winning duo have previously taken on Peter Rabbit, Thunderbirds and Danger Mouse, but nothing quite prepared them for the daunting task of bringing Jansson's much loved troll family to life. "Moomins is so head and shoulders above any of those others." says Ostler. "It's terrifying." It was easy to get actors such as Kate Winslet on board, he says, because of their shared passion for the philosophical hippo creatures. Rosamund Pike was cast against her icy Bond/Gone Girl type as the cosily droll matriarch and, in inspired casting, Will Self is the voice for the curmudgeonly philosopher Muskrat.

Since Jansson's death in 2001 there has been a resurgence of interest in her work, including reissues of the Moomin books with their original artwork and publication of her lesser-known fiction for adults, culminating in exhibitions and a biography in 2014 to mark the centenary of her birth. Literary devotees include Ali Smith, Sheila Heti and Jeanette Winterson; Terry Pratchett called Jansson "one of the greatest children's writers there has ever been", and Philip Pullman believes that she should have been awarded the Nobel prize for literature. Children's author Frank Cottrell-Boyce sums it up: "I lived on this great big housing estate in suburban Liverpool, from a working-class background, and somehow this bohemian, upper-middle-class Finnish lesbian eccentric felt like she was speaking directly to me."

One in four people in Finland watched the first episode when it was broadcast earlier this year

But whether Jansson speaks to generation Peppa Pig (in some ways a much simplified porcine progeny) is another matter. Like so many popular characters - Paddington, Winnie the Pooh, Miffy - the Moomins are perhaps more often found on a mug or a tea towel than between the covers of a book. And, judging by last year's designer Moomin cashmere jumpers and the new spring collection from Uniqlo (the Moomins are huge in Japan), Jansson's characters show no sign of going out of fashion. It is hoped that the all-singing all‑dancing TV adaptation - featuring artists such as Alma, First Aid Kit and MØ on the soundtrack and 3D CGI - will attract a new audience when it launches this Easter. An astonishing one in four people in Finland watched the first episode, Little My Moves In, when it was broadcast earlier this year.

Like so many Brits who grew up in the 80s, Huckerby and Ostler were only familiar with the Moomins from the cult cartoon. "Then this massive box arrived from Finland," recalls Huckerby. "There were the novels, plus the comics, plus Tove's biography, plus short stories and other things she'd written." Their brief, Ostler explains, was "to create an authentic adaptation of the nine novels", although they were fairly relaxed about taking "bits and pieces from different stories" as well as the long-running cartoon-strip and mixing things up. "Jansson retold some of the stories in different forms over the years, which is quite useful if you are adapting something because it makes you feel better about the changes you have to make."

Night of the Groke, the episode we watched at that premiere, has all the elements of a classic Moomintale without being faithful to any one story. Moominpappa proposes going on one of his free-spirited camping trips, and Moominmamma cheerfully concurs: "Your father has decided to lead a life of wild abandon ... again! But don't worry, I'm sure we will be back by morning." She packs his favourite pillows, just in case. Moomintroll, "his usual brave little self", overcomes his anxieties at being left alone by confronting the infamous Groke, a mysterious grey shadow who freezes everything in her wake. It has become a representation of our own fears, "a kind of walking manifestation of Scandinavian gloom", according to American novelist and children's fiction expert Alison Lurie. "It's something that people do remember from their childhood," Huckerby says. "Friends always say: 'Are you doing the Groke? That one gave me nightmares when I was a kid.'" But even here empathy is extended: "I suppose she's just looking for a little warmth in her life," Moomintroll muses. And each 22-minute episode is bursting with Moomin wisdom such as: "The only thing you really need to fear is fear itself."

It is striking how much fear shadows the novels: for all the sunshine and picnics, menace lurks behind every bush: like a skater on ice, Jansson is always aware of the murky darkness just inches below. Of her success Jansson wrote: "Daydreams, monsters and all the horrible symbols of the subconscious that stimulate me ... I wonder if the nursery and the chamber of horrors are as far apart as people think." As Huckerby observes, the novels "go to some very dark places" and they have tried to reflect this in their adaptation. "It is being billed as prime time drama for all the family," Ostler says. "It's not a kids' show."

The Moomins and the Great Flood, the first in the novel series, begins with Moominmamma and Moomintroll looking for a place to live after they have been forced to leave their home behind the stove due to the advent of central heating (progress!). They are also searching for poor Moominpappa, feared drowned. The next, Comet in Moominland, tells how the family shelter from what threatens to be nothing less than the end of their world. In both books, we encounter boatloads of "small, pale creatures", the Hattifatteners, doomed to wander from place to place, and "crowds of fleeing creatures".

Moomin, with Thingumy and Bob, believed to represent Jansson and her lover Vivica Bandler. Photograph: © Moomin Characters ™

Originally published in 1945 and 46, but begun in 1939, those first two books were Jansson's attempt to escape the terror of the second world war: "My very first happy ending!" as she wrote in her introduction to The Moomins and the Great Flood. While these existential dangers can be interpreted in the context of the 1939-40 winter war - the Soviet bombers over Helsinki and threat of invasion - they resonate all too strongly with current conflicts, the plight of refugees and, with uncanny presentiment, today's ecological crisis. "'Oh, dear, oh dear, the beautiful sea quite gone ... No great storms, no transparent ice and no gleaming water reflecting the stars. Finished, lost, gone!'"

But it was Jansson's "universal themes" about growing up and domestic life that really drew the scriptwriters. "She made very funny books about the family. There are very recognisable types, that everyone can relate to easily," says Ostler. Identified only by those most gender-specific of accessories, a top hat and handbag, Moominpappa and Moominmamma might seem to conform to sexist stereotypes (there was a bit of a backlash in the 70s). However, as with so much else, Jansson is gleefully subversive: Mamma might be wearing the pinny, but she's very much in charge, benignly ruling Moominvalley from her handbag (more Mary Poppins than Margaret Thatcher), pulling out everything from dry socks to tummy powder - you never know when you might need an egg whisk - while Moominpappa is always off on one of his adventures or deep into his memoirs. (The bumbling, bumptious father and breezily competent mother will be recognisable to anyone familiar with Peppa's Daddy Pig and Mummy Pig, with their trademark specs and fluttering eyelashes.)

Mamma and Pappa were clearly based on Jansson's own parents, sculptor Viktor Jansson ("The Artist") and her beloved mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson ("Ham"), an illustrator; determinedly liberal bohemians, who seemed happy to conform to traditional gender roles - although it was her mother who actually put food on the table. As with the Moominhouse, their doors were always open to a succession of colourful visitors.

As the apocalypse looms Moominmamma is busy arranging shells around her flowerbeds, while cakes are baking in the oven

Originally conceived by her uncle as a menacing bogeyman to scare the children from stealing jam in the pantry, Moomin was sketched by Jansson on the toilet wall, "the ugliest creature imaginable", in an argument with her brother about the philosopher Kant (theirs was not a typical upbringing - they had a pet monkey, for a start). He seems to have made his first public appearances alongside Hitler (of all the unlikely pairings) in wartime cartoons for the satirical magazine Garm, for which Jansson worked for 24 years. "What I liked best was being beastly to Hitler and Stalin," she wrote. With longer noses and an angry glare, the original Moomins were altogether meaner creatures than the snouty smiley (a feat given they don't have mouths), fondant-icing figures, famous for their gentleness, generosity and good humour, into which they evolved.

Finn Family Moomintroll, the third breakout book and still the most popular, published in 1948, is a much brighter affair. It is here that we encounter the inseparable Thingumy and Bob, carrying around a suitcase containing a secret ruby, to them "the most beautiful thing in the world", believed to represent Jansson and her lover at the time, theatre director Vivica Bandler. (Homosexuality was illegal in Finland until 1971).

Life chapters ... Tove Jansson drew on her experiences of love and loss. Photograph: Per Olov Jansson

But it is not until the sixth book, Moominland Midwinter (1957), with which season one of the TV series ends, that we meet cheery Too-Ticky. With a talent for reading the weather and calming fears, she was inspired by Tuulikki Pietilä (Tooti), the love of Jansson's life. The couple would spend each summer on an island off the Finnish coast, without electricity and accessible only by rowing boat (there are glorious photos of Jansson swimming with a flower garland in her hair). Poor Moomintroll wakes too early from the annual Moomin hibernation, but can't rouse any of his family and winter has arrived: "It's dead. All the world has died while I slept. This world belongs to somebody else whom I don't know." For Jansson, it was her book about "what it is like when things get difficult". "It's a real coming-of-age story," says Huckerby. "It is really about him becoming independent of his family," Ostler continues. "She wrote it at the time when she was becoming more independent of her own family because she'd met Tuulikki."

The final two books turn more melancholy, reflecting Jansson's darkening state of mind. In Moominpappa at Sea (1965), Moominpappa has a midlife crisis and decides to relocate the family to a remote lighthouse. Huckerby believes it is "probably the greatest book written about depression that there has been", and, both writers agree, "her masterpiece". It was also the one that confounded them to begin with, and now, having read it some 15 or 16 times, they are still discovering new things about it. "The writing frustrates you," Huckerby says, "because you keep going back, he keeps making the same mistakes, and you realise that it is a kind of cycle of depression and you can't get out of it. It's a profound work."

"It's also very funny," Ostler adds. "It's like a terrible British holiday where it rains all the time: you are trying to be cheerful but it's dreadful." Few artists do rain like Jansson - she was influenced by Van Gogh, after all - and, as Ostler points out, there's a wonderful drawing of the family picnicking on a tiny beach: "It is sheeting down, on this bleak, bleak island. There's something very blackly comic."

The TV series takes us up to the final novel Moominvalley in November (1970), the saddest of them all, written just after the death of Jansson's mother. "It is a book about death, really," Huckerby says. "And about the loss of the Moomins. They aren't even in it as the main characters. It's a book in which everyone is waiting for them to return."

It is this strangely comforting combination of catastrophe and everyday cosiness that makes the Moomins so enchanting and enduring. The Moomin books are survival stories: no problem is so great it can't be made better by a cup of coffee and a cuddle. As the apocalypse looms Moominmamma is busy arranging shells around her flowerbeds, while cakes are baking in the oven: "She will know what to do," says Moomintroll. So much literature is about escape from the family, but here it is always the point of return, a place of safety: "You must go on a long journey before you can really find out how wonderful home is," Moomintroll reflects.

This loving, lavishly produced adaptation couldn't be more timely: never has there been a better moment to introduce the Moomins, with all their optimism, openness and hospitality, their deep connection with nature and anti-consumerist ethos (without ever being pompous - with the exception, perhaps, of Moominpappa), to a new audience, and hopefully readership. As Ostler says, "They go through everything - floods and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, comets. It all happens, but they kind of face it all with a smile."

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'It is a religion': how the world went mad for Moomins

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t is -15C and snowy outside but unusually relaxed and welcoming inside a grand building on the corner of Senate Square in Helsinki where a preview is taking place of the much-anticipated TV animation Moominvalley.

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This year Finland is celebrating the centenary of the birth of Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins, and one of the most successful children's writers ever. Her life included war and lesbian relationships - both reflected by the Moomins in surprising ways.

There is Moomintroll, Moominmamma and Moominpappa - little white trolls who live in Moominvalley, with other fantastical creatures such as the Hattifatteners, Mymbles and Whompers.

Tove Jansson's Moomin books have sold in their millions, and been translated into 44 languages.

Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials, has described her as a genius. Other devotees include Michael Morpurgo, writer of War Horse and dozens of other children's books, and Frank Cottrell Boyce, who scripted the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony.

"I was completely blown away and enchanted," says Boyce, who read Finn Family Moomintroll as a 10-year-old, after discovering the book in a Liverpool library.

"I didn't realise it was set in a real place. I thought she'd made Finland up. Finland was like Narnia, with these incredible characters that were so strange but instantly recognisable because you had met lots of them - noisy Hemulens or neurotic, skinny Fillijonks."

Tove Jansson grew up in an artistic household in Helsinki. Her father, a Swedish-speaking Finn, was a sculptor, her Swedish mother an illustrator.

While her mother worked, Tove would sit by her side drawing her own pictures. She soon added words to the images. Her first book- Sara and Pelle and the Octopuses of the Water Sprite - was published when she was just 13.

She later said that she had drawn the first Moomin after arguing with one of her brothers about the philosopher Immanuel Kant. She sketched "the ugliest creature imaginable" on the toilet wall and wrote under it "Kant". It was this ugly animal, or a plumper and friendlier version of it, that later brought her worldwide fame.

Jansson studied art in Stockholm and Helsinki, then in Paris and Rome, returning to Helsinki just before the start of World War Two.

"The war had a great effect on Tove and her family. One of her brothers, Per Olov, was in the war. They didn't know where he was, if he was safe, and if he was coming back," says Boel Westin, a friend of Jansson's for 20 years and a Professor of Literature at Stockholm University.

Jansson's first Moomin book - The Moomins and the Great Flood - was published in 1945, at the end of this difficult and nerve-wracking period, with Comet in Moominland following soon afterwards.

"Tove's anxiety and grief are embedded in the first two books. She was depressed during the war and this is mirrored in those books because they are about catastrophes," says Westin.

"Writing a children's book about a great flood is not so common. In the Comet book, Moomintroll and Sniff go on this journey to find out when the comet is coming and if it's coming to Moominvalley.

"There are descriptions of creatures leaving their homes. Just like here in Helsinki, people were leaving their homes for fear of the bombs. She captured that and put it in her books."

The two books went largely unnoticed. Jansson's breakthrough came in 1951, when her next book - Finn Family Moomintroll - was translated into English.

Two new characters - Thingumy and Bob - appear in the book. The pair represent Tove Jansson and a married woman, Vivicka Bandler, with whom she had a brief and passionate affair. Homosexuality was illegal in Finland at the time, so everything had to be kept secret.

"Thingumy and Bob are always together, walking hand in hand and they have a suitcase but they won't tell anyone what is in it. It is just referred to as 'the content'," says Westin.

Inside the suitcase is a very big and beautiful ruby, a symbol of Tove and Vivicka's love. The Groke - a large grey, ghost-like creature who freezes everything she touches - is a threat and chases the pair because she is also after love and wants the content.

"You could read this as being the lesbian love between Tove and Vivicka. They have their secret love in this suitcase, and when they open the suitcase and show it to the whole of Moominvalley it is also a picture of how they show their love to the world. It's a really beautiful story," says Westin.

Finn Family Moomintroll's success caught the attention of Charles Sutton, a London agent who offered Jansson a lucrative deal to produce a Moomin comic strip for London's Evening News newspaper. Jansson agreed to produce six strips a week for seven years, starting in 1954.

It was an instant hit and within two years 120 newspapers around the world were running it, reaching 12 million readers.

Moomin-mania was now in full swing. Requests for Moomin-related projects came flooding in. Walt Disney asked for exclusive rights to the word "Moomin", but Jansson refused.

Before long, though, the comic strip started to get her down. She constantly needed new ideas to sustain it, leaving her with little time for painting and writing. "Those damn Moomins," she wrote in her notes. "I don't want to hear about them any more. I could vomit on the Moomintrolls."

Tove Jansson's creation was taking over her world and, she felt, obscuring her true talents as an artist. To reflect her frustration, she began to draw the Moomintroll bigger and bigger until it dwarfed everything else around it.

In 1956, by the record player at a party, Jansson met a fellow artist, Tuulikki Pietila - or Tooti, as she was known. Jansson asked her to dance. Pietila refused, unwilling to break with social convention. But not long afterwards, Jansson went to Tuulikki's apartment on a winter's evening and the pair drank wine and listened to music. They became lifelong partners.

Tuulikki Pietila's influence on Jansson's next book, Moominland Midwinter, is not hard to detect.

"Tove introduces a new character into the Moominworld called Too-Ticky and that is Tuulikki Pietila," says Westin.

"Too-Ticky is the one who gives Moomintroll guidance through the winter and the hard times, so she was really important to Tove. It's Tooti's book. It's a book for her and it's a book about her."

The Moomins spend a lot of their time close to water, on boats, or on islands. This was true of the Jansson family too, who used to spend summers on Klovharu, a tiny uninhabited island in the Gulf of Finland.

"They go on excursions to the islands - the Jansson family did exactly that," says Sophia Jansson, Tove's niece.

"They went sailing and they went camping on the islands, and if you read the Moomin books there are many things that are, to me, completely normal and to other people are completely fantastical. But in Finland that's what you do when you are on the islands. That's what they did and it's what we've always done."

In 1964, Jansson and Tuulikki Pietila built a simple house on Klovharu, without running water or electricity, which they could escape to in the summer months, and work without interruption.

It was there in 1970 that Jansson began writing her final Moomin book, Moominvalley in November, a melancholy story reflecting the author's grief after the death of her mother. It features a new character, Toft, which Jansson based on herself. When Toft arrives at the usually busy Moominhouse, there's no-one there.

The loss of her mother deeply affected Jansson, and the following year she and Pietila embarked on a round-the-world trip. It was at this time that Tove Jansson began writing The Summer Book, her first move into adult fiction.

The book, which centres on the relationship between a six-year-old girl, and her elderly grandmother on an island in the Gulf of Finland, is a barely disguised recreation of the real-world relationship between Jansson's mother and her grand-daughter, Sophia - also the name of the girl in the book.

"It didn't feel so odd to read it because fiction and reality get a little bit muddled up when you're in the Jansson family," says Sophia Jansson.

"You're not quite sure what is true and what isn't true, and does it really matter? Now when I read the Summer Book I feel that it is, by far, the book that is closest to me because it is set on an island I know so well, and so many things in it are so familiar. It really feels like a part of me today."

Eventually, after spending 28 summers on Klovharu, Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietila - both in their 70s - were no longer fit enough to continue going there.

"Tove realised she had to leave the island when she became scared of the sea. And that was a turning point. She realised she was getting old and frail," says Sophia.

"Once they left, they didn't want to speak about it and they didn't want to go back. They just wanted to keep that period in their minds."

Tove Jansson died in the summer of 2001, aged 87. Tuulikki Pietila died eight years later.

Since the Moomins and the Great Flood in 1945, more than 15 million Moomin books have been sold, around the world.

Today, Moomin Characters, the company set up by Tove Jansson and her younger brother to deal with image rights, is one of the most profitable companies in Finland - its Helsinki office overlooking the Gulf of Finland populated by cuddly Moomintrolls from the 1950s to the present day.

Most Finnish homes contain some sort of Moomin memorabilia, such as a towel, a children's plate or an adult's coffee cup. Their position in national life is such that, over the years, the Finnish post office has issued numerous Moomin stamps. Two stamps bearing Tove Jansson's portrait were issued in January.

But events to mark Jansson's centenary are being held far beyond Finland - in the US, Japan and across Europe. The Moomins resonate with children and grown-ups in many countries.

"I lived on this great big housing estate in suburban Liverpool, from a working class background, and somehow this bohemian, upper middle-class, Finnish lesbian eccentric felt like she was speaking directly to me," says Frank Cottrell Boyce.

"They are just fantastically enriching books. One of the things I really took from them was the importance of small pleasures, that life is really worth living if we're just nice to each other and make really good coffee, and the pancakes are just right - then nothing else really matters in any substantial way.

"That's a fantastic message to take home, isn't it?"

Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

Comic strips from Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, Books 1- 5, published by Drawn and Quarterly, Montreal, Canada. Provided by Solo Syndication

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This year Finland is celebrating the centenary of the birth of Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins, and one of the most successful children's writers ever. Her life included war and lesbian relationships - both reflected by the Moomins in surprising ways.

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Learn about Dick Bruna's illustration methods for the Miffy series

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The Moomins (Original) - 100 Episodes - 8 Hours - Richard Murdoch - 1980s Fuzzy Felt Classic

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Welcome to Moominvalley - the official home of the Moomins

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Barbapapa was born in a garden, just like a flower.

He can take any form. He is very nice, everybody likes him.

Not far from the village where his friends Cindy and Frank live, he has built a house like him for his family.

With a few shape shifting and a brilliant imagination, he smoothly overcomes the most difficult situations!

He is always ready to help. His goodwill is inexhaustible.

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Barbapapa was born in a garden, just like a flower. He can take any form. He is very nice, everybody likes him. Not far from the village where his friends Cindy and Frank live, he has built a house like him for his family.

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Smurfs creator 'Peyo' takes centre stage in Paris exhibition

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The World of Barbapapa

I came across Barbapapa at World Kids Books in International Village just before I wrote my first post about Books for Bilingual Children. I went in looking to buy a book for my daughter in French, and Barbapapa by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor caught my interest.

That evening we read the book on our bus ride home, and although my daughter didn't understand all of the words in French, she really enjoyed the story and has since developed a love for all things Barbapapa.

The first book in the series, written in France in 1970, tells the story of Barbapapa, a giant, pink, pear-shaped character that grows out the ground and uses shape-changing abilities to do good deeds. The book was later turned into a series of 5 minute cartoons, here's one of my favourites that shows how Barbamama and their 7 children were born. The narrator says that the babies were born " à la manière des barbapapas, un peu comme les tortues en mettant les oeufs dans la terre " - the barbapapa way, a little bit like turtles, by putting the eggs in the ground. Interesting.

Barbe à Papa

While my family and I were on vacation in Montreal, we found a Barbapapa mini-library at Archambault. The gift set comes with a small stuffed toy, which my daughter became attached to, and we were reminded of how much she enjoys the stories.

One day we went to a fair and my wife saw the words barbe à papa written on the packaging of cotton candy and she turned to me and said, "hey, does that have anything to do with Barbapapa?" and that's when we figured it all out. Although at one point I had learned how to say cotton candy in French (litterally "dad's beard"), I had not made the connection.

According to Wikipedia in French, Tison and Taylor, the French-American couple who wrote and illustrated the books were walking through a park one day when Taylor, who didn't speak the language, overheard a child say something that sounded like "Baa baa baa baa", his wife then told him that the child was saying cotton candy. Later at a restaurant the couple began to draw a character based on the sweet treat on the tablecloth, and they named him Barbapapa, the rest is history!

Hupla hup Barba-truc! Clickety-click barba-trick! バーバトリック Resta di stucco, è un Barbatrucco!

Barbapapa theme song in Italian.

The books, the cartoons, the character's names and their token sayings have been translated into many different languages, a list of which can be found here. The Vancouver Public Library lists 29 titles - 15 in French, 9 in Japanese and 5 in Italian.

I couldn't find any clips in English, but here's an episode in Castilian Spanish that is based on the original book, where Barbapapa does two good deeds.

Use in Bilingual Education

I'm very excited to use my daughter's interest in Barbapapa to teach her more French, we still have many books to read and she hasn't even seen the TV show yet.

I can't believe that I had never heard of the series before this year. As a kid we had to watch TVOntario's series Téléfrançais ...I could probably write a whole blog about that show too!

I'll leave you with this awesome song from the 70's about these adorable creatures. Until next time!

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I came across Barbapapa at World Kids Books in International Village just before I wrote my first post about Books for Bilingual Children. I went in looking to buy a book for my daughter in French, and Barbapapa by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor caught my interest.

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Annette Tison is the co-creator of 'Barbapapa', the children's book series that became popular during the 1970s. She studied architecture in Paris, where she met her husband Talus Taylor, a biology and math teacher from San Francisco, USA. Together, they came up with the 'Barbapapa' book series that started in 1970. A series of comic books followed as did a television series that provided a whole generation with fond memories of the colorful Barbapapa family. Unconfirmed rumors state that Tison passed away in 2009. Talus Taylor died in 2015.

Official Barbapapa homepage

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Annette Tison is the co-creator of 'Barbapapa', the children's book series that became popular during the 1970s. She studied architecture in Paris, where she met her husband Talus Taylor, a biology and math teacher from San Francisco, USA. Together, they came up with the...

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Smurfs Comic Book| The Smurfs | Official Website

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Choose your favorite Smurfs Comic Book. Read and laugh!

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Introducing him exhibition

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【势象空间】辟新路者——张光宇文献展 The Pioneer: Zhang Guangyu

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China ---Journey to the West  by Zhang Guangyu  ( 1945 )

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China ---Journey to the West  by Zhang Guangyu  ( 1945 )

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online exhibition

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西游漫记封面_西游漫记_张光宇作品展_张光宇在线作品_张光宇纪念网站-雅昌艺术家网

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张光宇作品西游漫记封面在线作品展览,张光宇官网在线展厅为您查询张光宇资料及了解艺术作品提供最有价值的参考

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Zhang Guangyu

Details

individual; designer; Chinese; Male

Biography

Native of Wuxi, Jiangsu province. Twin brother of Zhang Zhenyu. Designer, illustrator, cartoonist. Designed borders for calendar poster borders at British American Tobacco (BAT); resigned in 1934. One of founders of Modern Book Publishing Company, designed covers for one of its magazines, Shanghai Sketch. Spent WWII in Western China. In 1945, designed anti-Guomindang cartoon series, Journey to the West. Later was chief designer for animated film, Journey to the West (also known as Monkey).

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Details individual; designer; Chinese; Male Biography Native of Wuxi, Jiangsu province. Twin brother of Zhang Zhenyu. Designer, illustrator, cartoonist. Designed borders for calendar poster borders at British American Tobacco (BAT); resigned in 1934. One of founders of Modern Book Publishing Company, designed covers for one of its magazines, Shanghai Sketch.

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him animation

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他曾創造出媲美迪士尼的動畫，卻被中國人遺忘 He Created an Animation on a Par with Walt Disney but Remains Unknown in China

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He Youzhi was a self-taught comic artist, and considered one of the grandmasters of Chinese comics

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He Youzhi was a self-taught comic artist, and considered one of the grandmasters of Chinese comics

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新闻周刊人物回顾 贺友直 白描人生

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self- portrait

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China---Shan xian ju bian by He Youzhi ( 1955 )

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China---Shan xian ju bian by He Youzhi ( 1955 )

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His comic adaptation of the novel Shan Xiang Ju Bian is a milestone of Chinese comic art style, in which he used the traditional line drawing of Chinese painting.

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连环画界泰斗贺友直代表作《山乡巨变》赏析--艺术收藏--人民网

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View He Youzhi's artworks on artnet. Learn about the artist and find an in-depth biography, exhibitions, original artworks, the latest news, and sold auction prices.

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China---Shan xian ju bian by He Youzhi ( 1955 )

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China---Shan xian ju bian by He Youzhi ( 1955 )

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He Youzhi was a self-taught comic artist, and considered one of the grandmasters of Chinese comics. Born in Shanghai, he started drawing in 1949 and created more than thirty comic books between 1952 and 1980. His early works generally defended the communist ideas of the time, and sold millions of copies. His best-known stories and plays are 'Chao Yang Gou', 'Li Shuangshuang', 'Lou Ah Shu' and 'Hua Tuo'. Some of his works were made in traditional Chinese painting style. Youzhi's comic book 'Shan Xiang Ju Bian' won the first prize in the National Comics Contest in the 1960s. Criticized during the Cultural Revolution, he was sent away as a worker in the countrysides.

In the 1980s, he became a professor in comic book artist at the School of Fine Arts in Beijing, while also making paintings and books for children. He made several autobiographical works during the 1990s and 2000s, and also worked for the press. He exhibited his work and oversaw a masterclass at the Angoulême Comics Festival in France. He Youzhi was still making new plans for upcoming expositions, when he passed away at age 94 in March 2016.

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He Youzhi was a self-taught comic artist, and considered one of the grandmasters of Chinese comics. Born in Shanghai, he started drawing in 1949 and created more than thirty comic books between 1952 and 1980. His early works generally defended the communist ideas of the time, and sold...

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Zhang Leping (left) and Wang Longji who played Sanmao in the movie Winter of Three Hairs in 1949. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

He is not as well-known as Walt Disney's favorite characters, but in China the love for him has endured almost since Donald Duck hit the screen
It was their hairstyles or headgear as much as anything that gave them instant recognition.

First, in 1928, the mouse with erect black ears and a semi-permanent grin made his grand entrance.

Then, the following year, came the youngster with the golden locks with a swished-back clump standing up in the middle of it all.

In 1934 the duck with a sailor's hat and shirt and a red bowtie said hello to the world.

Then, the following year, the lad with three solitary strands of hair on an otherwise bald head shuffled onto the stage, the hair and his two bare feet signaling that for him, unlike the other three characters, life was to be endured rather than enjoyed.

The wonder of all this is that more than 80 years after these characters - the Americans Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, the Belgian Tintin and the Chinese Sanmao - first appeared, they are still with us, ageing yet ageless, and the great amusement they gave us has left its mark on billions of people worldwide.

But beyond that fun, delivered through comic books, on the big screen and on television, these characters have at times had a serious underside. In fact in the book How to Read Donald Duck, first published in Spanish in 1971, and which became a bestseller in Latin America, Ariel Dorfman and Amand Mattelard depicted Disney comics as tools for spreading Western capitalism. As for the brave and adventurous Tintin, his first outing in the world was in a work titled Tintin in the Land of the Sovi-ets, which could not have been more political.

In Sanmao, a world away from the assertive, well-to-do, swaggering and happy-go lucky often present in Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, the seriousness lay in other directions.

His story is that of an orphan who moves to Shanghai to earn a living. He takes on numerous jobs such as selling newspapers, polishing shoes and performing kung fu. Despite his efforts, he cannot make ends meet, he sleeps on the streets and many treat him with distain.

Nevertheless, he is always keen to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate, to the point of giving whatever little food he has to beggars. He is also highly ethical, evidenced, in one case, by his refusal to join a gang of thieves who pledge that if he does he will be well fed and looked after forevermore.

Zhang Weijun hopes Sanmao can "walk out of the book" and promote charity efforts in the future. GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY

Sanmao, which means three hairs, was created by the late Zhang Leping, one of China's most acclaimed comic artists, and this year marks the 70th anniversary of the most successful Sanmao comic book, Winter of Three Hairs, which had a print-run of more than 10 million copies. It is also listed as one of the 100 must-read books by China's Ministry of Education.

Zhang was born in Haiyan, Zhejiang province in 1910, and his early life was marked by the kind of hardships Sanmao would go through. The earnings of his father, who worked as a primary school teacher, were barely enough to support a family of six, and life became even harder for the family on the death of Zhang's mother, when he was 9.

After completing primary school he was forced to work to support the family. He first worked as an apprentice in a wood factory before finding a job in a printing plant in the suburbs of Shanghai in 1923, and about this time he took on several short-term jobs. He said that many of the bosses he worked for were demanding and cruel, often beating up employees. These men are depicted in Winter of Three Hairs.

In those days beating up apprentices was regarded as essential in producing the best artisans, and Zhang would later tell of how he despised it. Over several years he taught himself to draw and paint, and after having several drawings published in newspapers he began to gain a reputation as an accomplished comic artist.

When he created his first cartoon of Sanmao in 1935 it depicted a boy living in a typical lane house in Shanghai. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), the story of Sanmao was based on Zhang's experience as a member of the resistance. After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, Sanmao's life would take a turn for the better as he went to school and studied science.

The newspaper Ta Kung Pao in Shanghai published its first comic strip from Winter of Three Hairs on June 15, 1947, comprising six pictures depicting Sanmao's sadness about not having parents. Over the course of the next two years the comic strip became well known throughout the country, and how much the public warmed to Sanmao was evident in the response his plight drew.

"Sanmao is living on the street," one furious reader wrote to the publisher. "Why can't you treat him better? I'm willing to put him up in my home."

In 1949, Soong Ching-ling, the wife of Sun Yat-sen, wrote: "Mr Zhang has done a great deed for homeless children, and we appreciate that. All Sanmaos in the country will never forget this."

The artist Dai Dunbang said the comic strips seemed to come alive because of the way Zhang drew the characters and how he introduced fine differences in various backgrounds.

A movie based on the comic book premiered in October 1949, the first public movie in the newly founded People's Republic of China, and it gained wide acclaim.

Zhang Weijun, 63, the youngest child of the artist, who died 25 years ago, says most of the comic series reflected his father's life.

Zhang Weijun promotes the comic, and countries in which he has helped organize exhibitions of Sanmao in recent years include Australia, Belgium, Mauritius and South Korea.

Zhang says his father came across three homeless children on a snowy night in Shanghai in 1947. The children, dressed in worn-out clothing, wrapped themselves in sacks to stay warm and gathered around a small iron can that held a fire, he said.

The next morning, he saw the frozen corpses of two of the children being loaded onto a vehicle.

"That incident shocked my father and led him to create Winter of Three Hairs."

From 1927 to 1949 China was in chaos because of civil conflict, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and natural disasters, and this resulted in millions of refugees pouring into bigger cities such as Shanghai.

To find out more about how homeless people lived, Zhang Leping went to Chen Jia Mu Qiao in Shanghai, where such individuals gathered, but nobody would talk to him, Zhang Weijun said.

"One of these people treated my father with contempt, and that upset him. My father later realized the problem was his suit. For the poor, anyone who wore nice clothes was rich - the very people who often bullied and humiliated them."

The artist then began wearing threadbare clothes and giving out pies to the homeless, and gradually, the children started warming up to him.

The episode about a beggar urging Sanmao to become a thief was, like other episodes, based on a story these homeless children told him. In those days, homeless children would often resort to helping gangsters steal in exchange for food.

While Sanmao was someone many loved, the artist himself had one or two detractors.

"My father once received a letter accompanied by a bullet," Zhang says. "He thought it might have been a threat from local ruffians because the way he depicted gangsters in the comic strip, as nasty and greedy, showed how much Sanmao despised them."

Because they loved children so much, Zhang Leping and his wife Feng Chuyin, who had seven children, helped raise several children of friends and relatives who could not afford to.

Zhang Weijun says his mother always used the family's biggest pot to prepare rice every day for friends and relatives. The family would often house homeless orphans as well.

The late artist was also passionate about drawing for children. In his last years, when he had Parkinson's disease, he wrote: "My only pain is that my shaking hands can't paint for young readers anymore."

He also expressed his regret at the imperfect drawings he had done for a series titled Sanmao Eats Watermelon, made public before Children's Day in 1989. Nevertheless, the artist received many letters from his young readers praising him for his dedication and expressing hope that he would recover soon.

When he died in Shanghai in 1992 he was 82.

With the help of the Xuhui district government last year, the Zhang family vacated their residence and turned it into a memorial gallery. In the days after its opening, thousands of Sanmao fans lined in the streets, waiting to view the original scripts, drawings and videos related to the comic series it features.

The artist's study, kept in its original condition, can also be viewed.

"I am a little surprised to see that Sanmao can still win the hearts of readers of various ages today," Zhang Weijun says. "Young parents are still buying Sanmao books for their children as their parents used to do for them."

"Poor children like Sanmao hardly exist in Shanghai now, but people can still identify with his optimism and his willingness to help others."

"Once when I was visiting my father's grave, an official told me a man from northern China had spent a long time there. He said that once, in his most difficult time, my father had helped him."
Contact the writer at xuxiaomin@chinadaily.com.cn

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Zhang Leping (left) and Wang Longji who played Sanmao in the movie Winter of Three Hairs in 1949. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY He is not as well-known as Walt Disney's favorite characters, but in China the love for him has endured almost since Donald Duck hit the screen It was their hairstyles or headgear as much as anything that gave them instant recognition.

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Sanmao comic strips between 1935 and 1962 by author Zhang Leping developed as a result of years of wars and dramatic political changes. Despite all the constant turmoil, Sanmao is still a recognizable visual icon in China today, and his lasting popularity makes him an interesting case-study for understanding the development of cartoon art and the political deployment of the image of the 'child' in China over the twentieth century.

The growing political and cultural significance of "childhood" in twentieth-century China has been greatly impacted through the comic strips of Zhang Leping and Sanmao. "The significance and role of children in the development of the Chinese nation now directly follow the transformation of fictional child-hero Sanmao from a commentator on contemporary China in the early 1930s into a sustainer of the Chinese Communist Party after 1949. While Zhang Leping's comic strips have often been considered as a product of political graphics production or as reading material for children, the content of Sanmao strips also employ childhood as an analytical category in order to understand the role of children in the political and social discourses which took place in China during war and revolution" ( Laura Pozzi). As mentioned before, the image of Sanmao has changed over time. It has ultimately been appropriated and reshaped by the Communist Party of China (CCP) in order to fit the party's official vision of history and educational aims today such as the Gaokao test.

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The Revolution of a little hero: The Sanmao comic strips and the politics of childhood in China, 1935-1962

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Sanmao comic strips between 1935 and 1962 by author Zhang Leping developed as a result of years of wars and dramatic political changes. Despite all the constant turmoil, Sanmao is still a recognizable visual icon in China today, and his lasting popularity makes him an interesting case-study for understanding the development of cartoon art and the political deployment of the image of the 'child' in China over the twentieth century.

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三毛流浪記（1949年）｜上海昆侖電影公司 ｜王龍基主演、漫画家张乐平先生创作 ｜30年代上海｜民國電影

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China---introducing the story of the Romance of the Western Chamber

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China---introducing the story of the Romance of the Western Chamber

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The Romance of the Western Chamber

The story in The Romance of the Western Chamber by Wang Shifu of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) directly came from the prose romance The Story of Yingying by Yuan Shen of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The Story of Yingying is a tragedy about the love, union and separation between Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying in the first year of the Zhenyuan reign in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Several episodes in the story have certain influence on The Romance of the Western Chamber in terms of subject matter, dramatis personae and plots as well.

The Romance of the Western Chamber tells that a young scholar Zhang Sheng went to the capital city to take the highest imperial examination. When he stayed in a temple, he met Cui Yingying, daughter of the then Prime Minister and fell in love with her. At that time, a group of robbers besieged them. Yingying's mother declared that she would marry her daughter to whomever could save them. Zhang Sheng managed to do that with his friend's help. But her mother refused to keep her words because he was poor. However, Yingying and Zhang Sheng loved each other very much. With the help of Hong Niang, Yingying's maid, they broke the traditional barrier.

Since the appearance of this play in the thirteenth century, it has enjoyed unparalleled popularity. The play has given rise to innumerable sequels, parodies, and rewritings; it has influenced countless later plays, short stories, and novels and has played a crucial role in the development of drama criticism.

The theme of the drama is an attack on feudal mores, supporting the longing of young people in those days for freedom of marriage, although it follows the timeworn pattern of a gifted scholar and a beautiful lady falling in love at first sight. According to the orthodox viewpoint of feudal society, love was not supposed to be a basis for marriage, as most marriages were arranged by the parents of the couples, but the happy ending of The Romance of the Western Chamber embodies the aspirations of people for more meaningful and happier lives.

Thus, the biggest difference between The Story of Yingying and The Romance of the Western Chamber lies in their endings -- the former has a sad ending while the latter has a happy ending. What's more, The Romance of the Western Chamber carries a more profound meaning in its clou, and directly suggests to may all lovers in the world be settled down in a family union, with a more sharp-cut theme of attacking feudal mores and feudal marriage system.

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Jan-Erik Nilsson, Gothenburg, copyright © Sweden 1998-2012

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GLOSSARY: The Romance of the Western Chamber

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The story in The Romance of the Western Chamber by Wang Shifu of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) directly came from the prose romance The Story of Yingying by Yuan Shen of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

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Sanmao is one of China’s most popular comic strips.

Born during the Japanese invasion of China Sanmao was orphaned when Japan attacked China, he wanders the streets of Shanghai as part of an army of skin-and-bones orphans. He is so malnourished, that he cannot grow much hair, thus the name, Sanmao, which means “three hairs.” At the time, street orphans were ubiquitous in China and Sanmao gave them an odd charm. He was kicked around by rich business elites while trying to find bread and a place to sleep.

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Zhang Leping's manhua The Wandering Life of Sanmao (三毛流浪记) follows Sanmao, a young boy continuously faced with personal and political hardship. This is a comic which reflects the time which preceded it, with veracity and tenderness. Prior to his comics career, Leping served as a captain of the Military Affairs Department comic propaganda team. The Sanmao books were created in 1935 shortly after what is referred to as the January 28 Incident - which left China in a state of economic and social turmoil.

The Wandering Life of Sanmao (second in the collection) reflects Leping's experience, particularly one of living among the orphans left behind by war. The Wandering Life of Sanmao offers a comic in which humor is analogous to tragedy, without any sense of irony, a hard punch to the gut. While political comics often can be snide about the way they disseminate their ideology, despite Leping's fierce nationalist alignment and debilitating alcoholism, he chose to instead use empathy and not intellect to tell his story. The comic is rich in historical content, as the reader can experience China fighting a westernization, through its backgrounds, the passing civilians in visual description and demeanor. Leping writes a wonderful child hero, whose heroism is in his endurance. Sanmao, named for the three hairs on his head, begins as an ordinary child, who has his life essentially taken from him as a result of the war.

The drawing of the original black and white comic is superb, and though never published in the US is completely readable through images alone. Except for signage and a handful of panels, the bulk of the comic is pantomime. Even the dialogue expressed between characters is drawn and not written! Although the relationship between words and pictures in comics should never be debased (as it may be in the show-don't-tell school of comics) the silence experienced in this comic is unbreakable, and this is a comic that keeps you within its timing, only refraining for pauses of humor, a softness. Leping's work is noble, leaving his reader in awe of how a man who has experienced so much can describe innocence as he does. This particular collection of comics has been adapted into color comics, animation, film and even live theater productions over the span of 80 years.

Reading and making comics keeps you in a state of constant self-edification. At times we can get caught up in learning about the future direction of our art worlds, and we forget to pull from both sides - the vanguard of the present and the bottom of the past. Though the story of Sanmao is well ingrained in Chinese popular culture, it may fly under the radar of the contemporary comics readers. The reason to discuss this topic is to resurface an older history that belongs to many - not just the comics audience, not only the art-book community - and show the potential comics can have.

The Wandering Life of Sanmao is available in Chinese and French. The French edition won a Heritage Award at the 42nd Angoulême International Comics Festival (in 2015, 23 years after Leping's passing). The classic black and white comic is harder to come by, but for those within driving distance, UC San Diego (California) has in its faculties a full collection of reprints.

Following is an excerpt from the 1981 published collection of 155 pages of the story of Sanmao (I wish I could inform you about which publisher, but I can't read Chinese - if anyone reads this and knows, feel free to let me know.)

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Zhang Leping's manhua The Wandering Life of Sanmao (三毛流浪记) follows Sanmao, a young boy continuously faced with personal and political hardship. This is a comic which reflects the time which preceded it, with veracity and tenderness. Prior to his comics career, Leping served as a captain of the Military Affairs Department comic propaganda team.

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Before she catches sight of a waistcoated, watch-wearing rabbit popping down a hole, a drowsy Alice famously questions, "What is the use of a book...without pictures or conversations?" Mr. Lloyd E. Cotsen apparently agreed with Alice's wisdom. Cotsen, a 1950 Princeton alumnus whose family library for his own kids seeded the Cotsen Children's Library, made illustrated works the focus of this special collection of international and historical children's materials.
"Linked Pictures" for All Ages
Among Chinese materials, which make up the largest non-English language collection at Cotsen, are more than 1400 heavily illustrated story books. The Chinese term for such books, particularly those with images on nearly every page, is lian huan hua (LHH, 连环画), literarily meaning "linked pictures." LHH books were not born as children's literature, but were intended to entertain all ages when the format took shape in Shanghai in the 1920s. China's population was poorly educated during much of the twentieth century. Semi-literate adults relied upon visuals to comprehend stories and avidly consumed LHH, just as children did. When Italian journalist Gino Nebiolo travelled on a night train in China during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), he noticed that every passenger received a copy of LHH along with hot tea from the stewardess, and that workers, petty officials, and peasants were "all completely absorbed in their reading" (Nebiolo viii). (The modern urge to seek entertainment and distraction from handheld touch screens during any idle moment is not an invention by Apple, after all.) It wasn't until the mid-1980s that the "one-format-fits-all" model of print-entertainment began to disintegrate, owing to the steadily rising Chinese literacy rate, access to broadcast media, and the influence of Western- and Japanese-style "linked pictures" such as comic books and picture books.

Dated between the 1920s and 1940s, The World Turned Upside Down is one of the earliest LHH works held at the Cotsen Children's Library. It is an illustrated story based on a Chinese creation myth. The publisher cleverly uses the cover to advertise its other LHH titles, which include Chinese mythology and folktales, kung fu stories, romance, and historical fiction, typical for early LHH works. Pre-1950 LHH copies are rare today, partly due to the ephemeral nature of flimsy paperbacks produced for the mass market, and partly due to recurring censorship campaigns launched by the Communist regime after 1950.

One panel from LHH Little Passengers offers a close illustration of Nebiolo's report. Dressed in then-fashionable military uniform, a fifth-grader reads an LHH story about the soldier Lei Feng to a little boy he meets on the train. LHH was arguably the most popular and accessible reading format for Chinese children until the mid-1980s and was frequently referenced in the text and images of children's books.
Layout and Art Styles
The Cotsen collection offers plenty of examples to help us appreciate the diverse visual styles, text-image relationships, subject matter, and intended audiences of Chinese "linked-picture" books. The prevailing layout of LHH includes one image on every page, horizontally oriented, accompanied by a short text along one side of the panel. Because most LHH art comprises black line drawings, it is tempting to equate Chinese LHH with comic books. Unlike in Western comics and Japanese manga, though, conversation balloons are not a persistent component of Chinese LHH. In fact, the 1970s saw a tendency to do away with speech balloons, which were thought to ruin the integrity of the pictures (Fei 474). Compared with comic books familiar to the West and Japan, most Chinese LHH from the twentieth century rely more on text than on sequential art for storytelling. This particular style of "linked pictures" would eventually give way to comic books, characterized by a tighter complementary relation between the text and visuals, and color picture books, which are better suited for beginning readers.

Although the page size of LHH books varies widely, those produced during the heyday of the format are typically palm-sized, measuring in the neighborhood of four by five inches. Miniature-size LHH works, defined as under 10 centimeters tall, were clearly designed with young readers' small hands in mind. As shown in another post " Fresh from China," some miniature books were thoughtfully constructed accordion style on thick paper to accommodate children's limited motor skills.

Although LHH is most often associated with black line drawings printed on horizontal booklets, the umbrella term is inclusive of a wide array of visual and storytelling styles. Let's showcase some examples.

Part of a "Children's Linked-Picture Story"(儿童连环图画故事) series, this title from early People's Republic of China very much resembles beginning reader books found in today's market. The brief text is thoughtfully printed in large font and with generous line spacing. Set in Tiên Lãng, Vietnam in the midst of the Indochina War, A Little Iron Boy is presented as a true biographical story of a ten-year-old Vietnamese boy who would rather endure torture than reveal the hiding place of three Viet Minh cadres to the French military.

One subgroup of LHH is movie spin-offs akin to what would be called "photonovels" in English. The format consists of film stills with captions, making it a most satisfactory proxy for moviegoing long before video tape players entered Chinese homes in the 1990s.

The booklet is based on a black-and-white 1963 movie by the same title. Lei Feng is the soldier hero whom the two boys are reading about during their train ride in the aforementioned Little Passengers. He has been featured in numerous LHH editions as a self-sacrificial role model.

After School is a spin-off of a 1972 anime movie directed by Yan Dingxian (严定宪). In this bright-colored anime story, children battle against an old candy man's evil attempt to corrupt the politically upbeat message of their jump-rope rhymes. Numerous children's stories from the 1950s to the end of the Cultural Revolution pit politically precocious children against regressive adults. Quick to embrace new and revolutionary ideas, children in fiction and nonfiction accounts accomplish feats beyond their tender age: a breakthrough in agricultural experiments that have been dismissed by older peasants; detecting a former land-owner's sabotage of the collective property of the commune; or facilitating the arrest of an anti-revolutionist who might even be an authority figure in the child's own family.

The Old Bean's Birthday Party is a picture book that introduces the versatile industrial uses of soybeans. An elderly soybean is celebrating his birthday. His "offspring" (i.e., various soybean products) show up in all shapes, colors, and states of matter. From the left to right are: soybean oil, the elderly bean, a baby soybean, a soybean-based tire, soy sauce, soy milk, soy paint, and a bar of soap-an adorable and playful one at that. Imaginative and endearing anthropomorphic color images, text with pinyin phonetic guide, and relatively large page size make this book a friendlier offering for beginning readers than most LHH works.

Regretfully, many exquisitely illustrated picture books seem to have eluded critical attention and are little known today. Here are two examples.

A folktale that explains how the Chinese custom of preparing a ceremonial congee dish on the eighth day of the twelfth moon originated.

An adaptation of an aboriginal Taiwanese folktale that explains the origin of the famous Sun Moon Lake in Central Taiwan.

Where is My Inkstone is a humorous wordless picture book that portrays a sloppy boy's frantic search for his inkstone, without which he cannot do his homework. By relying solely on visuals to narrate the plot, wordless picture books are the quintessential manifestation of "linked pictures" or "sequential art."

Western-style comic books and strips make up a small portion of domestic LHH works.

Tibet Back to the Big Family of the Homeland (回到祖国大家庭的西藏) / illustrated by Rui Guangting. 北京: 北京书店, 1952. 4th ed. 28 pages; 19 cm. (Cotsen)

A cross between Chinese-style LHH and Western comics, this edition of Tibet Back to the Big Family of the Homeland is dated about one year after the People's Liberation Army entered Lhasa on October 26, 1951. This informational book covers the geography, history, social life and customs, religion, politics, and current affairs of Tibet. It presents a warm and collaborative relationship between the new People's Republic of China and religious leaders of Tibet. The 1959 Tibetan Uprising, which led to the fourteenth Dalai Lama's exile to India, was still years away. Unlike the treacherous dissident he would later be portrayed as in Chinese official media, this Dalai Lama (upper-right panel) is simply introduced as Tibet's religious and political leader, at an impressively young age of eighteen sui (meaning seventeen years old).

The Adventure of the King of Grossness (邋遢大王奇遇记) / text by Ling Shu (凌纾); illustrated by Yan Shanchun (阎善春), etc. 上海: 上海人民美术出版社, 1986. 102 pages; 19 cm. ( Cotsen 154540)

Notice how dirty-looking the book cover of our copy appears? Well, the protagonist of this comic book is a boy nicknamed "the King of Grossness" for his shameless neglect of personal hygiene. We shudder to think what type of young readers this copy has attracted! The book is the basis of an immensely popular thirteen-episode anime show by the same title released in 1987.
For Instruction and Entertainment
In his classic Understanding Comics Scott McCloud (20) points out that comics have been recognized as an excellent communication tool. The following examples show how the format of "linked pictures" has been utilized for literacy education, political socialization, and information dissemination among the general Chinese population and among specialized audiences.

The Radio is part of a Become Educated LHH series, which, according to an advertisement page at the end, uses simple language to help illiterate and semi-literate readers learn Chinese characters and advance literacy skills.

The General Line for Socialist Construction: An Illustrated Libretto (总路线图画唱本). 上海: 上海人民美术出版社, 1958. 31 pages; 10 x 13 cm. ( Cotsen 72229)

A preoccupation with the literacy and education of the Chinese population is reflected in another title, also dated 1958. General Line paints a utopian picture of a prosperous China in the near future, promised by the "General Line for Socialist Construction" adopted by the Chinese Communist Party in May 1958. One page shows each member of a three-generation family being engaged in reading, music, art, and science. Notably, the grandma, who is dressed no differently than an elderly peasant woman, is playing the piano. In reality, the General Line policy heralded the reckless Great Leap Forward campaign and the massive famine of 1959-1961. To what degree should rosy pictures like these be held accountable for fanning people's frenzy over what turned out to be a disastrous campaign?

Regulations of the People's Republic of China for Punishment of Counter-Revolutionaries: A Popular Illustrated Edition (中华人民共和国惩治反革命条例: 图解通俗本). 上海: 华东人民出版社, 1951. 56 pages; 11 x 13 cm. ( Cotsen 71295)

This title exemplifies perhaps the most sobering use of comic art. Published within three months of the enactment of "Regulations of the People's Republic of China for Punishment of Counter-Revolutionaries," it reprints all twenty-one articles of the ordinance, offers paraphrases in plain language and definitions of legal terms, and supplies visuals characteristic of political cartoons. The image above illustrates Article 3, which metes out death penalties or life imprisonment to those who "collaborate with imperialism and commit treason." The colophon page indicates a staggering print run of 1.5 million copies. An LHH rendition of the first marriage law passed by the PRC in 1950 was also available by the same publisher.

On a no less serious note, this LHH has been published by the Chinese People's Liberation Army to teach basic defense knowledge against atomic, chemical, and biological weaponry attacks. Its title page indicates the book as "training material for internal distribution," meaning it should not be made publicly available. It is always a question how widely such semi-classified "internal publications" actually circulated. Bibliographical records suggest that the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence, Ministry of National Defense in Taiwan managed to procure another LHH that trains militia on defending against the same types of attacks. In 1972, when the Chinese and Taiwanese governments remained in a state of war, the latter's intelligence office made a facsimile of that book but labelled a derogatory "Communist bandits'" to the beginning of the title (Guo fang bu).

This LHH is a collection of satirical cartoons that criticize One Hundred Thousand Whys, a wildly successful children's popular science series published by the Shanghai-based Juvenile and Children's Publishing House in the early 1960s. Mathematician Zhang Yitang, who was born in 1955 in Shanghai, mentions the series as his favorite reading from childhood in an interview ("Mei" 1). The best-selling series came under harsh condemnation and was banned during the Cultural Revolution for allegedly sending feudal, capitalist, and subversive messages to youth. The LHH allows us to witness how, even in the case of lively children's books on science (a seemingly neutral political zone), there was no escape from the snare of power struggles and ideological wars.
"Linked Pictures" for Speakers of Other Tongues
Chinese LHH have been released in multiple languages to reach an international audience and ethnic minority groups. During the Maoist era, the aim was not to maximize profit, but to spread Communist and revolutionary gospels to the non-Chinese world.

An English translation of a Chinese LHH story set during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).

A Spanish translation of a Chinese LHH story, which is also available in an English edition titled The Peasant and His Horse.

A Kazakh translation of a biographical story about the childhood and adolescence of the aforementioned hero Lei Feng. The Latin alphabet used in the book has become obsolete and been replaced by the Arabic script currently used by the Kazakhs in China.

A Uyghur edition of Anton Chekhov's short story "A Chameleon" in color LHH. The Uyghurs are among the top five largest Chinese ethnic minority groups. Likewise, the Latin alphabet used in the book is now obsolete. The Uyghurs in China have also adopted the Arabic script for their writing system.
Access and Reading of LHH

Travelling Children's Library / photographed by Sam Tata in Shanghai, 1949. (Image source: Virtualshanghai.net)

This photo shows an open-air rental stall for LHH, where readers could hire the booklets at a cheap price. The renting business model was highly successful in maximizing the accessibility of LHH for the poorest consumers. Upon close examination, the title "Travelling Children's Library" is a misnomer for the photo. Engrossed in their reading are a little girl, an adolescent boy, and an adult, plus a curious toddler who is likely tagging along with his big sister, getting a healthy dose of interest in reading for fun.

Adventures of Sanmao the Orphan (三毛流浪記. 1) / 張樂平作. 上海: 上海大公報館, 1949. 3rd edition. 18 x 19 cm. ( Cotsen)

In his nearly wordless comic strips Adventures of Sanmao the Orphan (三毛流浪记) first serialized in 1947, Zhang Leping depicted a LHH rental shop just like the one captured by Tata's keen lens. The comic version does afford more spacious shelfing so that the artist could show us (his made-up) titles of the booklets-they all send a sensational vibe of kung fu chivalries, murders, supernatural experiences, and even erotica. Here Zhang was echoing a widespread concern over child readers' exposure to age-inappropriate stories that flooded the LHH market. In the six panels titled "A Lesson Learned," Sanmao's friend decides to sit down at a LHH stall for a joyful read while Sanmao leaves to fetch allowance to pay for the rental fee. He promptly runs into a boy who has apparently been practicing flying from a tree. The source of his stupidity, Sanmao concludes after spotting the booklet that has fallen off the boy's hand, must be the seductive story, which is about a flying kung fu man. Sanmao immediately doubles back and snatches away the book his pal is reading (one about pursuing magic Taoist power), lest the boy, too, should fall to its bewitching influence.

The modern multiplication of publication formats, broadcast media, and digital communication tools means that the Chinese will not return to a time when linked-picture booklets served as the prevailing platform to inform and entertain the general populace. Given their immense popularity and wide influence, LHH open a vivid window into the literature and art, childhood, social life, and political dynamics of twentieth-century China. Cotsen's LHH collection has not been systematically reorganized, but the bibliographical records of most titles can be located by keyword searches for "comic books" or "lian huan hua," with a limit by language to Chinese.
References:
Fei, Shengfu费声福. "谈谈连环画的图文并茂." 中国连环画艺术文集. Eds. 林敏 & 赵素行. 太原: 山西人民出版社, 1982/1987. 470-475.

Guo fang bu Qing bao can mou ci chang shi國防部 情報參謀次長室. 共匪民兵 "三打" "三防"知識畫冊. 臺北市: 情報參謀次長室, 1972.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. 1st HarperPerennial ed. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994.

"Mei li xin ling美丽心灵: 访数学家张益唐." 小枇杷 3.3 (May 2015): 1.

Nebiolo, Gino. "Introduction." The People's Comic Book: Red Women's Detachment, Hot on the Trail and Other Chinese Comics. Tran. Frances Frenaye. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press, 1973. vii-xvi.
Further Reading:
A historical overview of Chinese "linked pictures" during the twentieth century can be found in-

(Edited by Miranda Marraccini)

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lian huan hua - Cotsen Children's Library

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Before she catches sight of a waistcoated, watch-wearing rabbit popping down a hole, a drowsy Alice famously questions, "What is the use of a book...without pictures or conversations?" Mr. Lloyd E. Cotsen apparently agreed with Alice's wisdom.

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Reference-----Painting In The People's Republic Of China

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Reference-----Painting In The People's Republic Of China

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The relationship between politics and art in any society should not be seen simply as one of cause and effect. Political and artistic issues are linked to one another through a complex network of interactions and associations. In the People's Republic of China, where all aspects of society are directly related to politics, and where the creation of art is in itself considered a political act, this relationship is more clearly defined than elsewhere, though no less complicated. In China, the government plays a direct and active role in overseeing the nation's artistic production, and in determining the criteria for critical judgment. This study is divided into three sections. Chapter 1 outlines the major statements of artistic policy and the theoretical structure upon which the. policies are based. Chapter 2 deals with the effect of the artistic policies upon artists, and the reactions of painters to the political demands placed upon them. The third chapter will focus on the experiences of three such artists, Kuan Shan-yueh, Li K'o-jan and Ch'ien Sung-yen. All three specialize in landscape, a genre that has been especially problematic, and all three incorporate both Western techniques and traditional Chinese methods of drawing.

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Painting In The People's Republic Of China

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The relationship between politics and art in any society should not be seen simply as one of cause and effect. Political and artistic issues are linked to one another through a complex network of interactions and associations.

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Reference-----The Decline and Revival of Chinese Picture Books

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Reference-----The Decline and Revival of Chinese Picture Books

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China---The Romance of the Western Chamber  by Wang S huhui( 1954 )

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China---The Romance of the Western Chamber  by Wang S huhui( 1954 )

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This is one of famous comic in China. Her comic adaptation of the Chinese traditional novel the Romance of the Western Chamber.

The Romance of the Western Chamber carries a more profound meaning in its clou, and directly suggests to may all lovers in the world be settled down in a family union, with a more sharp-cut theme of attacking feudal mores and feudal marriage system.

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西厢记-(汉语)-中国连环画

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 Photographed by Sam Tata in Shanghai, 1949

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 Photographed by Sam Tata in Shanghai, 1949

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Illustrations used for story-telling and mirth-making have enlivened Asian walls, scrolls, books, public and private places, and artifacts for millennia. Often playful and humorous, Asian pictorial stories lent conspicuous elements to contemporary comic art, particularly with their use of narrative nuance, humor, satire, and dialogue.

Illustrating Asia is a fascinating book on a subject that is of wide and topical interest. All of the articles consider cartoon and/or comic art in the historical and social setting of seven South, Southeast, and East Asian countries: India, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, China, and Japan. The contributors treat comic and narrative art-including comic books, comic strips, picture books, and humor and fan magazines-in both historical and socio-cultural perspectives, as well as portrayals of ancient Chinese philosophy, gender, and the enemy in cartoons and comics.

Contributors: Laine Berman, John A. Lent, Fusami Ogi, Rei Okamoto, Ronald Provencher, Aruna Rao, Kuiyi Shen, Shimizu Isao, Shu-chu Wei, Yingjin Zhang.

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Illustrations used for story-telling and mirth-making have enlivened Asian walls, scrolls, books, public and private places, and artifacts for millennia. Often playful and humorous, Asian pictorial stories lent conspicuous elements to contemporary comic art, particularly with their use of narrative nuance, humor, satire, and dialogue.

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 Photographed by Sam Tata in Shanghai, 1949

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 Photographed by Sam Tata in Shanghai, 1949

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European comics were originally inspired from American comic books but quickly evolved into their own

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International Convention of Asia Scholars 2019 Book Prize - Best Art PublicationIn the most comprehensive and authoritative source on this subject, Comics Art in China covers almost all comics art forms in mainland China, providing the history from the nineteenth century to the present as well as perspectives on both the industry and the art form.