Romeo and Juliet (Collector's Edition)

Author: Ru Bi Hua Hui, Ding Yun Sheng Wen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: "The Butterfly Lovers" and "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl," "Meng Jiangnu," and "The Legend of the White Snake" have long been known as the Four Great Folk Legends of China, holding a prominent position in folk culture and attracting the attention of folk culture and folklore scholars both at home and abroad. Regarding this "The Butterfly Lovers" comic book, the text on the illustrations attached to the drawings is entirely traditional Chinese characters, suggesting that the artwork was created before the 1949 liberation. The text descriptions attached outside the illustrations are in simplified Chinese, using terms like "classist drawbacks," and from the contextual analysis, they are likely added after the liberation. Compared to another comic book in this series, "The Three Laughs," "The Butterfly Lovers" comic book is slightly inferior in artistic level. Although both comic books excel in fine-line brushwork, they both draw on the excellent tradition of woodblock illustrations from ancient Chinese novels. Folk painting master Zhang Guangyu and Mr. Zhang Ting, who is still in good health today, have set a shining example for modern comic book art creation. In modern China, where Western painting and Japanese cartoon art are wildly popular, preserving the popular and folk connotations of traditional Chinese comic books is very meaningful. From this perspective, organizing and publishing these old comic books still holds certain value.