Love duet

Author: Xiao Ya Hui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: I met Xiao Ya at a simple banquet in the Tongzhou Literature and Art Salon. Describing it as "simple" means this restaurant is called "Taishuizhong Cai," which is a home-style eatery where almost any dish can be cooked with a spoon. This salon provides a platform for literary and artistic individuals in Tongzhou to communicate and exchange ideas. There are thousands of such people living in Tongzhou. Xiao Ya is a comic book artist. Xiao Ya might be a paradox— (as an idealist), she traveled thousands of miles from Gansu to Beijing. She first settled in the Painters' Village of Songzhuang, then moved to Yanjiao along the canal. Yanjiao is adjacent to Tongzhou in Hebei Province, both being urban-rural areas that feel like fertile ground for growing art. Xiao Ya's paradox stems from the fact that as a self-deceptive idealist upon arriving in Beijing, driven by the need to survive, she created numerous urban life comics. She compiled these comics into a book titled Love's Duets. Xiao Ya's four-panel comics are essentially tales of love, filled with many humorous anecdotes about love and marriage, almost like a series of whimsical stories. Indeed, based on the four-panel comic format, the sharp twists and turns must be vividly portrayed. An idealist entering the urban life and deliberately embracing the mundane is a significant achievement. Now, Xiao Ya is in the state of having set off but not yet reached her destination—this is the norm for many "Beijing drifters." However, being able to publish a comic book collection and earn royalties is on the rise, much like a rising sun in the East. The darkness before dawn has passed, and a bright future lies ahead. Urban life comics owe their foundation to Zhu De from Taiwan, who has created countless urban romantic comics, most of which are reminiscent of sour plum tea—sour and commonplace. A sense of humor lies deep within, and the characters in her comics are full of performative elements, all part of the great urban small-town style—lovable yet not hateful, utterly mundane. Unlike grand narratives in comics, urban life comics deconstruct and dissolve many things. What exactly is deconstructed is like something that can be understood but not easily put into words—comics are an art that requires both viewing and savoring. Although Xiao Ya is new to the field, she has established herself in Beijing, and her future will offer much greater space for cultural and artistic expression. Therefore, no matter what, Xiao Ya has already entered the world of comics and will take it to the end—whether it's from the mainland climate to the coastal climate or the transitional zone between land and sea, her artistic breathing space is vast enough. Starting from the urban life style and deriving philosophical insights from humor, her comics gain a broad, people-centric quality. Vulgar is like a seed of a normal melon; it depends on who is eating it—whether one enjoys the vulgarity or the elegance determines the perspective of appreciation. Berlin, in Liberty, argued that "we always live on the surface." This is the philosopher's redefinition of human life after the rise of urbanization. Life is the surface; no one can smile deeply every day, and laughter rarely reaches the depths of thought. Yet, such superficiality, when elevated to a philosophical level, becomes profound. Just as Berlin's definition of "we always live on the surface" profoundly reveals the state and (laws) of life, I love this quote. It perfectly applies to Xiao Ya's urban life comics, which firmly cling to the urban without wavering, and art is based on such a superficiality. Those superficial pages carry the weight of human history's many life states, as perceived by the artist. Love's Duets is a prime example.