Who doesn’t love the arrival of spring? Students at Fenghuang Primary take some time to appreciate the new burst of life at this time of year and record their observations with vibrant drawings and notes. Inspired by Next to Bugs, they give Zhu Yingchun’s book a run for its money!
A Bug's Life
Last year’s caterpillars have yet to emerge as butterflies from their chrysalises, but children are already crawling their way through nooks and crannies at the newly opened Bug’s Space. Added to that is plenty of bug poetry composition and drawings to add to the display wall.
Grade 3s get the poetry bug!
Grade 3s at Fenghuang Huayuan Primary are the first to have a go at translating some of the mysterious poems in Zhu’s latest book Bug’s Poetry. Each student seems to have a different interpretation – one takes the shapes of the corn weevil’s ‘writing’ and interprets it as Chinese characters, while another skips Chinese and translates straight into English.
A morning with the Grade 4s at Beijing West Road Primary
A rather different Chinese class from normal for the Grade 4s at Beijing West Road Primary as Zhu Yingchun tells them about different ways to tell stories. There’s time too to get hands on with a bit of drawing. Thanks to all the teachers at Beijing West Road Primary!
Primary students visit the 24 Hour Museum
Zhu Yingchun takes students from Nanjing Foreign Languages School to see some of the Cacaform birds and bug’s poetry on display at the 24 Hour Museum.
232,000 Viewers!
A mere couple of hundred thousand viewers logged in for Zhu Yingchun’s talk “Why Always Me?” held at Imaginist in Beijing, publishers of the latest book Bug’s Poetry. To make things a bit more fun, Zhu Yingchun invited some friends including actor Yu Entai and singer Dai Qingta to read out their own translations of the poems in the book.
It’s no wonder Bug’s Poetry has already gone into reprint…
Talking to students at Nanjing Normal University of Special Education
This week made for a very special visit to speak to students hard of hearing at Nanjing Normal University of Special Education - you are an inspiration! Many thanks also to the sign language interpreter and the teachers who made the event possible!
The Arts Bridge, Shanghai
For the fourth consecutive year, The Arts Bridge has announced winner of the Annal Series for 2021, alongside a day of talks and discussions across cultures and disciplines within arts and design.
Congratulations to this year’s winners who include the principle architect of Zaha Hadid Architects Patrik Schumacher, renowned author of Blossoms Jin Yuchen, painter and printmaker Leng Bingchuan, digital architecture pioneer Xu Weiguo and fourth generation Japanese bamboo artist Tanabe Chikuunsai.
As the recipient of the Artist of the Year award in 2018, Zhu Yingchun engaged in conversation with one of this year’s winners Tanabe Chikuunsai, whose lifelong exploration of bamboo presents many parallels with Zhu’s work, particularly in its sensitivity to the ever changing and intriguing qualities of nature.
They discussed the development of bamboo arts and book design in recent years and the challenges each artist faces within their respective field. While Chinkuusai continues to practise traditional bamboo weaving techniques passed down through his family, his search for significance in the modern age has led him to innovative through his spectacular large-scale bamboo installations. Similarly, Chikuunsai remarked on the strong artistic qualities of Zhu Yingchun’s books which demonstrate a drive away from the functionality of books and a move towards books as a medium for artistic expression.
The Arts Bridge, as the name implies, endeavours to create links between artists, designers and innovators in China and further afield through publishing art books internationally in Chinese and English. A link to the website can be found below:
Read, Read, Read - An online lecture with Zhu Yingchun
With several years of book designing experience, Zhu Yingchun offers advice to those pursuing a career in the field in an online lecture organised by Artron.
“Young people interested in book design are used to looking online for resources and inspiration, it’s become a new norm. I want to remind young designers that as well as looking at the exceptional work of others, it’s equally important to accumulate experiences in daily life and take time to think about them.
Reading is also essential for any book designer, as you need to develop an all-rounded understanding of the medium. Reading outside of work allows you to enrich your own cultural understanding and background, putting you in a better place to design books successfully in the future. Presenting a book’s content in an effective way will communicate the comprehensive abilities of a good book designer.”
Talking Bugs at the Bugs Bookshop
To coincide with World Book Day on 23rd April it was possible to organise a small event for twenty people at the Bugs Bookshop in Nanjing where Zhu Yingchun spoke to an audience of all ages. In his talk he reminisced about his fascination with the natural world as a young boy – be it following an ant as it moved a single seed, only to find a whole army of ants, or spying on a praying mantis, poised for battle. This sense of curiosity, which is sadly lost upon many of us as we grow older, remains a key source of inspiration for Zhu Yingchun’s work and the numerous books he has made that explore the obvious, yet all too often ignored, intricacies of the insect world.
Letters from children under lockdown
With the whole country in some kind of lockdown, Zhu Yingchun’s regular visits to schools to interact with students will sadly not be possible for some time. As children across China grapple with a strange new normal, AC Lab (艺文力研究所) has invited Zhu Yingchun to respond to letters sent in from children, offering them encouragement, advice and inspiration in these unusual times. Here is a glimpse of some of the letters and responses…
Yu Qian 羽芊 is a grade 1 student from Wuhan, a dancer, sports enthusiast and avid painter. Since lockdown began in Wuhan she’s been staying at home while her parents help to build two new hospitals to treat patients with the coronavirus. In her letter to Zhu Yingchun she told him how much she likes his illustrations and designs and asked him:
“How do you have so many fantastic ideas?”
I’m delighted to hear that you like my books and, in response to your question, I’m certain that you have fantastic ideas too. Perhaps you are usually under a lot of pressure with your studies, so you have fewer opportunities to be inquisitive. Now that you’ve got such a long holiday and, if you’ve finished all your schoolwork, you have the chance to let your curiosity flourish. I’m a curious person and I like to make jokes (the nice kind of course), I also like to observe and do silly things that make others happy, that way I am also happier. Why don’t you give it a try?
In another letter from three-and-a-half-year-old Han Ge 涵哥, he tells Zhu Yingchun about how unusual life is under lockdown in Shenzhen. He’s been painting, doing exercise and helping with the housework, but it seems like he’s done everything there is to do. Han Ge imagines the coronavirus has two long trumpet-shaped tentacles that can infect people from far away. With every day spent at home, he asks Zhu Yingchun:
“How can I find more fun things to do?”
Your drawing of the coronavirus is very good, with its long tentacles that can infect people from far away. After looking at it, I will take extra care, be sure to wear my mask properly and avoid busy places.
You asked me how to find more fun things to do at home. I think there’s a side to everything that’s worth observing. Recently I’ve been trying to look carefully at things around the house that I usually ignore. I’ve been watching an onion as it grows. In the past I’d buy an onion, take it home and chop it up to cook with, but this time I put it in a pot under the sun by the windowsill. It’s so interesting to watch it everyday as it grows green leaves. I took a photo of it and drew some bugs over it.
I also heard garlic is good at killing bacteria, so I made a picture of some bulbs of garlic like canons that shoot at the virus. With just a little observation, aren’t there plenty of fun things to find at home?
From Books of Nature to Books of Paper
Zhu Yingchun gave his first lecture of 2020 at Ningbo Library as part of the Tianyi Lecture Series. In a world where paper books are rapidly being replaced by digital ones, he discussed the books written by nature, which provide an infinite resource and deserve our closer attention. Zhu Yingchu shared experiences of his studio at Sui Yi Fang where he grows all sorts of plants, does minimal gardening and allows nature to take over. As a result, his workplace has become a haven for wildlife and a treasure trove of stories that inspire his creative practice. With a little more patience and curiosity one can find endless stories in these books of nature that in turn can be made into paper ones.
Yungu School, Hangzhou
Thanks to the teachers at Yungu School in Hangzhou for organising an event with grade 2s and 3s where Zhu Yingchun talked with students about all the chirps and squeaks made by insects and Cacaform Birds and how they can inspire book making.
Lustr 2019, Prague
On a visit to the Czech Republic to publish The Snowpoke Snail there’s time for a workshop in Chinese painting as part of Lustr 2019. Local residents young and old try their hand at pandas and bamboo.
Lustr is an annual illustration festival and the largest of its kind in the Czech Republic. Zhu Yingchun was invited as a participating artist in 2019. A link to the website can be found below.
Storydrive, Beijing
Zhu Yingchun returns to Storydrive in Beijing this year, organised by the Frankfurt Book Fair, to introduce his latest work Bugs’ Notebook. He explains how the idea for the book was born from childhood memories of imagining bugs crawling through his dull school notebooks. A link to the website can be found below.
Bugs Bookshop, Nanjing
The newly opened Bugs Bookshop is a special branch of the Nanjing’s Librairie Avant-Garde, set within the picturesque landscape of Xuanwu Lake and open to the public daily. To celebrate its opening Zhu Yingchun tells stories about bugs to inquisitive ears followed by games outside.
Shuyifang, Nanjing
For the second time, over a hundred guests arrive at Shuyifang from every corner of the world to listen to Zhu Yingchun talk about his work as part of the Third International Youth Forum on Creativity and Heritage Along the Silk Roads. The talk was followed by questions and a lively discussion about the role of art globally and its abilities to cross borders and cultures through the shared languages of creativity and the languages of bugs. The studio log book was once again filled up with great comments and messages like this one:
“I really appreciate that you are working with children, giving them the opportunity to explore nature and see it differently. You are really creative and impressive. Loved it!”
——Jana from Latvia
Fenghuang Huayuan Cheng Primary School, Nanjing
Zhu Yingchun makes regular visits to local schools in Nanjing to try out his latest creations on the students and gage their response. Here Grade 2 students get a sneak peak of the latest book Bug’s Notebook and use the empty white space in the book to make their own creative additions.
Lixue Primary School, Nanjing
The story of Cacaform Birds follows that they come from a distant planet and find themselves quite lonely and out of place on Earth. After sharing the origin story of Cacaform Birds with Grade 5 students, Zhu Yingchun invites them to design their own theme parks for the birds to keep them entertained.
Qilu University of Technology, Jinan
Cacaform Birds are not just for children, but adults too can take delight in their bizarre and fantastical forms. Working together with Professor Liu Fang and students at Qilu University of Technology, a selection of Cacaform Birds are brought to life to make 3D felt models. The birds were then photographed and arranged into an exhibition on the university campus.
