Xiong Liang. China famous original picture book master. He has created works such as Cat in Peking Opera and Pumpkin Monk Pumpkin Temple, which won the Best Children's Book Award in Taiwan Province Province, and are deeply loved by children.

20 17 165438+1October16 His painting Walking with the Wind won the annual book (picture book) award of Chen Bochuan International Children's Literature Award in 2017. Shortlisted for 20 18 international Andersen prize illustration.

Chinese name: Xiong Liang.

Nationality: China.

Ethnic group: Han nationality

Occupation: well-known master of original picture books

Main achievements: Best Children's Book Award in Taiwan Province Province.

Representative works: Beijing Opera Cat, Pumpkin Monk Pumpkin Temple.

Personal profile

Xiong Liang. China famous original picture book master. He has created Beijing Opera Cat, Pumpkin Monk Pumpkin Temple, Little Lion, Male Prostitute and other works. His works won the Best Children's Book Award in Taiwan Province Province, which was very popular among children.

Personal experience

Xiong Liang is a typical self-taught, with no professional or university education. However, in the field of China's original picture books, he is a person who is called "teacher" and wants to ask for experience. Cats, wild children, pumpkins and monk pumpkin temples in Beijing opera. If you browse the Xiong Liang children's picture books available on the Internet, you will find that they are Chinese, Zen and even a little weird. Xiong Liang himself said that his style is weird and out of line, but the children really like these picture books.

Xiong Liang was an adult picture book at first, and it was a gloomy picture book, such as Kafka. The direct reason why he started making picture books for children is that he has a daughter and wants to make picture books for children. It has been 9 years since his daughter was born to 20 17. However, Xiong Liang never felt that he was a children's picture book artist. He did not give up the creation of other picture books. He said that children's picture books are not always the focus of his creation.

Many people asked him how he did it, from adult picture books to children's picture books. He used an example to illustrate the problem. He said that everyone who goes to school should learn what teachers are good at, not what teachers are not good at. Therefore, picture books should convey the artist's inner views, show the best things that artists are good at to children, and then show them in a simple and vivid way. Therefore, he didn't make up some simple content to adapt to the children just to show them, and insisted on expressing his inner thoughts as a picture book.

His picture book has a strange style. He said: "I am also surprised. I am actually very gentle in my daily life. " A person who takes care of social rules in his life will have a normal personality, but he is completely independent in his creation, and will do more things and do some unique things according to his own nature. Creation is also direct, and being a man is also direct. Making ghosts is not equal to being ghosts.

What is the secret of your success if you are not from a formal background? He feels that personal experience is not suitable for all children, but he specifically mentioned that it must be given to a pure studio. His parents are more relaxed and help him borrow any books he wants from the library, so that he can have his own independent studio. He didn't ask his parents to have a studio. When they saw that he always liked painting, he always painted on the dining table at home, so they said that there happened to be an attic. Go and draw. Since then, the door of the studio has been closed, and parents do not spy on what he is painting, nor do they show off to relatives and friends. He believes that it is this independent studio that gives him a completely independent space to talk with himself for more than ten years, which may be a waste of time but also enriches his imagination and gives him the greatest help.

Xiong Liang said that his parents didn't deliberately guide his interest in painting, but he liked painting since he was a child. The kindergarten teacher thought he painted well, so he found him some books for painting. At that time, he thought "I can draw" was too simple. Drawing on the desk, I am also happy to show it to others, but no one has ever instructed me. I can create pictures completely according to my own meaning.

Children's painting will be influenced by the outside world, and they will often hear invitations such as "Show me a picture", and of course they will be praised. Some children need long-term professional training to have a good painter, but Xiong Liang's own experience of becoming a talent is free play. Talking about this matter, he smiled and said, "I am too conscious. I totally like it." So, even on 20 15, he saw his friend send his children to learn art, but he didn't teach his daughter to learn painting, didn't deliberately cultivate her interest in painting, and didn't force her to learn whether she liked it or not.

People in the new century forget the feelings of childhood and grow into children's books because they remember the feelings of childhood. Xiong Liang clearly remembers the state of his childhood. He said that mature picture book writers have never thought about not being themselves. It is natural that they are innocent. People who are not pure in themselves can't make good content by squatting down to communicate with their children and understand their mentality. The gloomy things he painted can't be published, but he still finds them interesting. Everyone observes from a different angle, or the angle he involves is gloomy, but it doesn't mean that he is gloomy, but the content of observation is different. He said, "Young people who like film noir or music actually have a simple or relatively simple life."

Again, picture books should start from their own hearts. One thing to pay attention to is to do what you think is valuable and interesting, but the language must not be too abstract. Experience the innocence in life and live naturally. I didn't start writing until I was 28. I used to make money from foreign trade handicrafts, so I can understand what people in life think later, and I won't create them at first. Creation is purely for creation, but the work has no vitality.

He admitted that he was not the most popular person with children. My story is out of line, and I'm not out of line. So stories attract children, but people in life are not very interesting. But I get along well with my daughter. There is no pressure at all. There is no pressure at all. My daughter feels good. My wife thinks it is too loose. Occasionally she says you should teach your daughter something, such as drawing. Xiong Liang thinks it's good for her daughter to see her paintings, but it doesn't matter if she is subtle.

Xiong Liang's daughter is over 9 years old, and she is also a child who grew up with books. Reading will have an impact on her children, so there is no need to ask for any changes at once. Optimism will make children different, but they can't see it at ordinary times. Grow up in optimistic things. When she can choose, she sometimes doesn't choose Xiong Liang's picture books. Xiong Liang also feels normal and admits that some books are more attractive than her own. Xiong Liang founded a small stone theater with his daughter, and took her daughter to the desert, the river beach or anywhere to pick up some small stones and draw a face or something. What is more interesting than Facebook is to cultivate such a habit, the habit of observing life and knowing things. When I was a child, I would naturally give my children some detailed things, such as pebbles, which are better than any toys and are good for aesthetics and thinking.

When a new picture book comes out, Xiong Liang will show it to her daughter first and read the story first. Her favorite story is Xiong Liang's latest story, which is written entirely for adults. Xiong Liang believes that when children reach the fourth grade or older, they will have no dyslexia and can see everything. No matter what the story is, there may be differences in pictures, languages and words, and different ways of telling it, but the core children of the story can understand it. Therefore, when a painter writes his own story, he may have deep thoughts, but he will definitely express them in a way that children can understand. The younger a child is, the less he pays attention and talks, so the language of children's picture books should be more concise.

Xiong Liang thinks that writing short stories and imaginative stories is his specialty, so it is not difficult for the initial inspiration to flash in an instant, and it will come out on its own, but it is still necessary to add his own experience and some imagination to enrich the story, and the process of completing the whole story is long. Xiong Liang's children's books were not inspired by his daughter. He thinks everyone pays attention to different things. Some authors pay attention to children and use their experiences as content. He will also consider children, but will focus on his own experience. To make children's books, first of all, the creation itself should be interesting. He didn't deliberately accumulate experience in contact with children, and basically used what he found interesting. Every day, children will feel bored if they think they are funny. If you are interesting, the children will like it.

Xiong Liang painted Chinese paintings when he was a child, so his children's picture books are visually beautiful and somewhat China in shape, but they are less influenced by tradition in thought, because he thinks there is no children's literature in China tradition. Everything children start from elementary school belongs to adults. For the purpose of exams, they think that being an official is not smooth when they meet beautiful places. These are all too adults. To be a children's picture book, we must return to innocence, get rid of tradition and express the interesting parts of culture in pure form. The essence of tradition is good and interesting, but we must get rid of the utilitarian part and not interpret it with the old story structure.

Children don't understand, don't understand? Xiong Liang is not worried about this. Picture books are characterized by active thinking, heavy analysis and understanding. They are not ordinary stories, but re-made. He thinks that no matter how complicated things are, they are understandable. If the child doesn't understand, it may be that he is not doing well. They should try their best to make interesting things in the story. He thinks that he doesn't particularly demand perfection, he will demand something else, something special, something that shows universal humanity, not traditional humanity.

The picture books made by Xiong Liang are a little out of tune with the real education system, but he didn't let it affect his daughter. He thinks that his daughter needs to learn social relations from the small society of school, but the knowledge she learns in class, such as Chinese, is still useless. He doesn't want his daughter to go the same way as her. Her daughter is well adapted to school and studies well. No one forced her to like school. Xiong Liang is very supportive. Although he will oppose this and that, he feels that his daughter can't be out of tune with this society in the future. As for the picture book industry in China, Xiong Liang said he was wrong. He did it fifteen years ago. Before 20 10, he thought that children's picture books had grown up in five years. However, he still has confidence. He believes that the awareness of picture books has increased, and the quality of young people in the new century has also improved, and they can accept picture books very well. When these young people start to have children in five years, it is foreseeable that picture books will flourish in China.

famous

20 17 165438+1October16 His painting Walking with the Wind won the annual book (picture book) award of Chen Bochuan International Children's Literature Award in 2017.

20 18 was shortlisted for the 20 18 international Andersen illustration award.