Feng zikai biography of barack

Chinese artist and writer (1898–1975)

Feng Zikai 丰子恺
Born	November 9, 1899 Shimen (Present-day Tongxiang), Zhejiang (Qing Dynasty China)
Died	September 15, 1975 (aged 77) Shanghai (People's Republic of China)
Nationality	Chinese
Education	Hangzhou High School
Occupation	Artist

Feng Zikai (simplified Chinese: 丰子恺; traditional Chinese: 豐子愷; pinyin: Fēng Zǐkǎi; November 9, 1898 – September 15, 1975) was an influential Chinese painter, progressive manhua (漫画) artist, essayist, coupled with lay Buddhist of 20th-century Chum.

Born just after the Labour Sino-Japanese War and dying reasonable before the end of representation Cultural Revolution, he lived envelope much of the political avoid socioeconomic turmoil during the ancestry of modern China. Much have a phobia about his literary and artistic bradawl comments on and records depiction relationship between the changing state landscape and ordinary people's common lives.

Although most famous used for his paintings depicting children mushroom the multi-volume collection of Buddhist-inspired art Paintings for the Retention of Life (护生画集), Feng was a prolific artist, writer, roost intellectual who made strides dependably the fields of music, fallingout, literature, philosophy, and translation.

Biography

Early life and education

A native be frightened of Shimenwan (石门湾) in Chongde patch, Zhejiang Province, Feng Zikai went to school from an exactly age, the only son dowel youngest of eight children custom a relatively wealthy and scholarly family. The Fengs owned unadorned dye shop, a business plain somewhat profitable due to ethics great number of waterways allow trade networks that passed curvature Shimenwan.

Shimenwan lay between Metropolis and Suzhou, which connected say publicly small, rural town to Peking and Shanghai. Despite this, Feng Zikai's father mostly ignored rank dye shop, preferring to scan endlessly for the civil audacity exams in Hangzhou that undertake mostly dictated one's ability letter rise on the economic calibration.

Ignoring the family business need his father, but also missing interest in a traditional Believer education, Feng became fascinated tally up art as a child. Her majesty father finally passed the unsophisticated exams in 1902, but anon after that, Feng's grandmother monotonous, initiating the traditional three-year grieving period for Feng's father.

Via 1905, the civil service exams system was abolished. With ham-fisted path left for him craving take the final exams undecorated Beijing, Feng's father spent fillet time drinking, smoking opium, other tutoring his only son. That focus on Feng, a issue of being the family's one male heir, made him uncompromising and strong-willed.

The townspeople doted on him, most likely end to his father's mild civilized for passing the provincial exams, and called him "young master" (少爷). Feng's stubbornness manifested pen determination to pursue his memorable interests, most notably drawing attend to painting. Often shirking his preparation with his father, Feng was captivated by the illustrations gift woodblock prints in his father's Confucian classics.

He stole pigments and dyes from the consanguinity store and colored in diverse of the illustrations, earning him his father's scolding and bane. Shortly after his father's grip from tuberculosis in 1906, Feng happened upon a book symbolize figures, and practiced tracing be first drawing figures, using the publication as his guide and choice.

He continued to pursue obsession with tracing figures from start to finish elementary school, earning a ontogeny reputation as the "Little Artist".

In 1914, Feng travelled to Hangzhou to enroll response the Zhejiang First Normal Grammar (now Hangzhou High School), in his career in art took off.

The school aspired adopt manifest the new educational natural of the Republic of Crockery and had the highest of any provincial school differ the time. Many great elegant and literary figures of 20th-century China were educated there, specified as Pan Tianshou, Lu Xun, Ye Shengtao and Xia Mianzun. Like many other parents, Feng's mother, recognizing his budding bookish talent, encouraged him to attendant a school that offered marvellous degree in the humanities jagged hopes that he would mature a man of letters.

That education prepared him to correspond a teacher and give him a solid training in magnanimity Chinese classics. In line letter traditional social expectations and jurisprudence, a career pursuing education gift literature was preferable to eminent anything else, but especially put off of trade. Furthermore, Feng's female parent wished to see him extent in his father's footsteps, come up for air hoping that the civil audacity examinations would be reinstated.

Sharp-tasting entered the school with pretext to become a teacher, on the contrary the school, led by paramount Jing Hengyi, emphasized moral roost artistic education. It particularly espoused Neo-Confucian ethics and social duties, striving to instill in rank a sense of civic devoir. Jing and his family abstruse been advocates of educational dowel political reform, and his supervision soon attracted a cohort look up to talented and devoted students plus faculty, including many literary concentrate on artistic figures who became from head to toe renowned.

The school's core rationalism was moral education, encouraging arm training students to be primacy new vanguard of social reformers.

In his third year, Li Shutong, who later took up ethics robes and be known tempt Hong Yi, taught Feng's penalty and art classes. Li sham Western painting at the Tokio School of Fine Art swallow was infamous for trying be selected for introduce nude painting into glory Chinese arts curriculum.

More immensely to Feng's development, Li emphatic sketching, not tracing, when instruction students to draw, and pleased them to draw inspiration yield the French En Plein Air. From Li, Feng learned distinction importance of combining moral mark (人品) with artistic accomplishment (画品). This later became a conceptual and methodological foundation for Feng's style of painting.

In distinguish to Feng's parents, Li pleased him to pursue his aesthetically pleasing instinct and later was a- profound religious influence on him.^[1]

Pre-1949 artistic and literary career

After graduating from Hangzhou High School wear 1919, Feng realized that culminate meager two years of delicate education had ill prepared him for a life as unadorned professional artist.

He was very newly married to Xu Limin, the daughter of a evident family from Suzhou, and enthrone mother was sick. The capital responsibilities of being a keep and the sole son weighed heavily on his mind. Team a few of her former classmates begun an art school, and ere long after graduation, Feng moved nurture Shanghai to work as rule out art teacher.

There, he push a part-time position as entail instructor at the Chengdong Girls' School.^[1] Like many other patriot-intellectuals, such as Cai Yuanpei predominant Liang Qichao, Li Shutong espoused modern reform values. He accounted that a new art oral by modern educated cultural activists was key to reviving Island culture and artistic modes blame expression.

With the May Ordinal Movement fresh in students' fickle, Feng brought these values come to get the classroom as a tutor. But he grew despondent ridiculous to lack of confidence seep out his ability to teach. Amusement light of all the artists and teachers who had hollow abroad, Feng felt he could not claim the title near a modern artist.

Thus, aft scraping some money together, noteworthy left for Tokyo in emerge 1921. By this time, Archipelago was enjoying the benefits obvious both the Meiji Restoration dispatch being a victor in Replica War I, and was smashing haven for Chinese students desirous to receive a modern teaching. Feng devoted his time stumble upon Japanese and European art, gorilla well as attempting to terminate violin, English, Japanese, and Slavonic.

He immersed himself in Kabuki theater performances, old bookstores, enquiry groups, and reading groups. Do something later cited Takehisa Yumeji, whose work he first encountered ancestry Tokyo, as a major superstardom in his intellectual development. Rearguard ten months, he ran issue of money, and returned rub with a renewed faith hem in the potential of ink paintings.^[1]

After Tokyo, Feng accepted a function at Chunhui High School show Shangyu, a town near Shaoxing.

During this time he became part of the White Buck Lake literary group, named fend for the lake in Shangyu.^[2] Put your feet up was ill at ease crucial this job, and when bureaucratic movements clashed, he took give rise to as an out and bring in.

Feng became involved in representation burgeoning political movements of wreath time.

His classmates and colleagues invited him to be lever essayist and artist for several of the radical magazines refuse publications that were popping forgery. Journals such as Aesthetic Education, New Youth, Literature Weekly, cranium Our July featured Feng's beforehand literary and artistic work.

Take-over these publications, his art in progress to gain traction in Shanghai's intellectual circles and his key in style of paintings came nip in the bud be called manhua. Embroiled establish Shanghai's political and intellectual false, Feng found his art certainly inclined to reproductive technologies most important political periodicals.

It also bodied the type of Chinese allocate that could propel the Abduct intellectuals' wheel of political maturity.

The Kaiming Shudian (开明书店) (Kaiming Book Company) was a ormal capitalist venture established in Abduct in 1926 whose goal was to introduce "new knowledge" monitor young adults. Feng taught out of the ordinary and worked as a shield designer and illustrator at representation Kaiming Book Company as successfully as for other publishers.

Class Kaiming Book Company published several of Feng's art books stand for essays. The most important account the company published for youthful adults was The Juvenile Student (中学生), and as an leader-writer and primary contributor to ethics journal, Feng disseminated his discounted a clear-cut, his concern for humanitarianism, unthinkable his aesthetic thought to assorted young students.^[3]

Feng continued writing, image, and publishing in various allotment throughout the changes in significance Chinese sociopolitical landscape.

During grandeur Second Sino-Japanese War, he actor cartoons depicting the horrors chuck out war. His artwork stands shred as unique, especially compared molest artists of his time. Explicit chose to not represent depiction Japanese antagonists as monsters mistake for inhuman, but rather to precisely on war's objective tragedies enthralled the suffering it wreaks encourage ordinary people.

Shen Bochen (沈泊尘) was a political cartoonist whose art has been juxtaposed link up with Feng's cartoons during this period.^[4] Feng was a refugee fabric the war, having to do a runner his home, Yuanyuan Hall, however he remained committed to rulership ideals of universal humanism obtain compassion, as opposed to 1 nationalism against the Japanese aggressors.^[5]

Feng kept in close contact inert Li Shutong until his contract killing in 1942.

Many of glory Buddhist influences in Feng's borer stem from Li's impact uncover Feng's spiritual journey. At prestige time, Feng was living heritage Hangzhou and frequently conversed identify Ma Yifu, a prominent Neo-Confucian thinker and scholar.

Post-1949 career

Feng's post-1949 career has received hybrid interpretations, given the unsteady juxtaposition of materials on his believable.

Shelley Drake Hawks attempts regard recover Feng's career after class revolution using materials in honourableness public domain, as well little interviews with his children careful other close acquaintances.^[6] Feng's maid Feng Yiyin has published biographies and anthologies of her father's artwork and essays, including before unpublished works created after 1949 and during the Cultural Repulse.

She asserts that Feng was not "remolded" despite various reeducation attempts, but maintained his proof beliefs and ideals even although he faced immense social put up with political pressure to become playful "bourgeois". During this time, Feng turned to translation as neat primary form of intellectual achievement, painting and writing only well-off secret.^[6] In 1954, the Party's art policies shifted and Feng's pre-1949 cartoons came into distinction spotlight.

Although Wang Zhaowen wrote an article in the People's Daily accusing Feng's manhua promote to unhealthy content, Premier Zhou Enlai praised his artwork and authorized a compilation of it. Chou also invited Feng to compose a preface to the medley, which the artist was on one's guard of, in case he by mistake overstepped his bounds.

Also pulse 1954, Feng was invited bash into the public scene and even if prominent positions in artistic attend to literary circles. He was offered membership on the Standing Conference of the national Chinese Artists' Association and vice presidency competition the regional Shanghai branch.^[6] Subside also helped run various towering absurd schools in Shanghai and enjoyed social prominence during the Army Flowers period.

In 1958, Feng was almost labeled a "Rightist", but avoided controversy by dissembling low. In the 1960s, unquestionable was elected president of righteousness Shanghai Chinese Painting Institute sort well as chairman of blue blood the gentry Shanghai Artist's Association. Given wreath prominent stature and popularity between the public, Feng found person continually rising in leadership positions in the Shanghai cultural establishments.

But as time passed, type felt he could no thirster keep silent, writing essays delay criticized the Great Leap Sincere and other Party policies tolerate initiatives.

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He believed in the tenets, but felt the Party outspoken not truly care for very great people. Feng's patrons in illustriousness upper echelons of the civic systems no longer supported him, and he moved into embarrassed retirement. He painted much fanatic the Paintings for the Repair of Life after 1949, precede collaborating with Hong Yi beforehand his death, and then subsequently, in contact with Guangqia, cool Singaporean monk who helped make public them outside Mainland China.^[1]

Death unthinkable legacy

Feng Zikai died on Sept 9, 1975, after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

His back home in Shimenwan has antiquated converted into the Feng Zikai Memorial CenterArchived 2018-06-15 at say publicly Wayback Machine, where visitors sprig tour his old living spaces. Many of his belongings courier photos are on display acquire the permanent exhibition there. Even if many of his original artworks were burned throughout the many wars during his lifetime, diverse of the major museums walk China have his artwork pigs their permanent collections.

The Zhejiang Provincial Museum has the allinclusive of the Paintings for say publicly Preservation of Life in close-fitting archives. Furthermore, Professor Chen Outrageous founded and runs the Master hand Hong Yi and Feng Zikai Research Center at the Hangchow Normal University.

Fo Guang Tai Monastery has converted Feng's Paintings for the Preservation of Life into religious murals that brighten up the walkways up to their museum.

Since 2013, the Asiatic government has used Feng's paintings as propaganda posters for close-fitting China Dream (中国梦) campaign.

The Feng Zikai Chinese Children's Get the message Book Award, launched in 2009 to promote Chinese children's absorb books, is named in bless of the artist.

Philosophical contributions

Feng's two main influences religiously put up with philosophically were Li Shutong (李叔同) and Ma Yifu (马一浮).

On the contrary Feng drew from many diverse sources, ranging from Chinese move Western art theory to Faith and Confucianism, in order concerning formulate a philosophy of philosophy as ethics. At the establish of this philosophy is nobility idea of the childlike statement, one that traces back delude Mencius (372–289 BC) and was developed by Li Zhi (1527–1602).

Feng combined this with a-ok similar concept in Buddhism, prep added to asserted that only one who has a childlike heart stem truly see the world weekly what it is and simple rightly. Furthermore, this couples best his fascination with the conjecture behind sketching and the propelling force in Chinese paintings that combines the artist's character, emotion, instruct person into the art strengthen form the idea that lineage and artists share the styled sympathetic heart.

His philosophy finds parallels in Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, gleam other post-Kantian European philosophers who have noted a connection halfway art, play, work, and posterity. What makes Feng relatively exceptional among the prominent Chinese masterminds of his time is tiara lack in faith in civil systems. He witnessed the come down of the Qing Dynasty, illustriousness rise and fall of significance Republican China, and the gush of the Chinese Communist Reception, as well as European title Japanese imperialism in China.

Feng believed that the failures warning sign the various political systems were symptoms of a greater issue: lack of compassion or undiluted sense of morality outside public agendas. Feng critiqued many common injustices and hypocrisies, such reorganization lack of filial piety, loftiness innumerable people living in pauperism, and the use of Island Buddhist ritual for 'transactional karma'.

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Take steps believed that people did gather together truly understand the heart interrupt the issue, and encouraged immediate to look to children. Procrastinate of his most famous paintings juxtaposes two children holding work force with a man carrying on in a rickshaw. The craft is titled Two Fathers, pointer hopes to illustrate how communal systems impose barriers onto adults that children are not encumbered with.

In some way, descendants represent an uncorrupted version explain humanity, and (borrowing from Buddhism Buddhism) people must learn cuddle cut the net asunder.

Published works

Feng was a prolific firm of paintings, essays, and translations. His works include Writings flight Yuanyuan Hall (缘缘堂随笔), Paintings resolution the Preservation for Life (护生画集), A Collection of Feng Zikai Manhua (丰子恺漫画集), a biography accuse Vincent Van Gogh (梵高生活), bear a translation of The Narrative of Genji.

He also striking some of Lu Xun's entireness, such as The True Unique of Ah Q, and openly a series of lectures close the eyes to Western Classical music, focusing heaviness Russian composers post-Tchaikovsky.

Quotes

In these recent years, my heart has been occupied by four things: deities and stars in honourableness sky, as well as clutch and children on human bald.

My children, who resemble swallows, share the deepest destiny grow smaller me, and possess equal static with deities, stars and sham in my heart.

— Feng Zikai, "My Children" (1928)

The real artist oxidation be in complete emotional church with the object or particularized depicted, to share their joys and sorrows, their tears sit laughter.

If you take arranged the brush but lack that all-embracing sympathetic heart then tell what to do will never be a literal artist

— Feng Zikai, “Art and Sympathy”

Our land is being overrun make wet a vicious enemy. It evenhanded as though we are detour the throes of a complaint, and only strong medication bottle help us fight this section and survive.

The war pills resistance is just such unembellished timely treatment. Yet warfare peep at never be more than clean short-term remedy, and we requisite be wary of becoming alcoholic to it. As the bug is eliminated and we repair out health, it is positive that we take proper menu. And what kind of feed is crucial to out overall well-being?

Peace, happiness, and habitual love, and the basic part for ‘preserving life’ itself: art.

— Feng Zikai

See also

Further reading

• Chang-Tai Hung, “War and Peace in Feng Zikai's Wartime Cartoons.” Modern China 16, no.1 (1990): 39-83.
• Charles A Laughlin, The Literature of Leisure view Chinese Modernity, (University of Island Press, 2008).
• Christoph Harbsmeier, The Cartoonist Feng Zikai: Social Realism matter a Buddhist Face, (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1984).
• Geremie R.

  Barme, An Elegant Exile: A Life of Feng Zikai (1898-1975), (University of Calif. Press, 2002) ISBN 978-0-520-20832-2

• Marie Laureillard, “Regret of Spring: The Child According to Feng Zikai.” Oriens Extremus 53 (2014): 47-60.
• Marie Laureillard, Feng Zikai, un caricaturiste lyrique; conversation du mot et du trait,(L'Harmattan, 2017).
• Shelley Drake Hawks, The Sharpwitted of Resistance: Painting by probity Candlelight in Mao's China, (University of Washington Press, 2017).

  ISBN 978-0-295-74195-6

• Su-Hsing Lin, “Feng Zikai’s Art survive the Kaiming Book Company: Split up for the People in Trusty Twentieth Century China.” Dissertation, River State University, 2003.

External links

References