Idiom Stories -- Ding Cong Comic Series

Author: Ding Conghui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: Xiao Ding is a natural optimist. Even during the difficult years of the Anti-Japanese War, and when he was exiled to the Northeast Inner Mongolia in 1957 due to unfair treatment, he remained cheerful and rarely appeared sorrowful. He was always willing to help others without considering himself. Newspapers and magazines would ask him to draw pictures, design covers, or create portraits, and he would almost always say yes. The headshots in the "Reading" magazine were all his work. Counting the years, he has been engaged in cartooning for over half a century, using his skillful pen to leave a record of this extraordinary era. I am very pleased to learn that the "Ding Conghui Cartoons Series" is about to be published, because from these drawings, one can not only see this era and society but also the artist's style and character. I am delighted to have such a person, delighted to have such paintings. I am writing these words to express a little of a friend's sentiment. Xiao Ding is Comrade Ding Conghui, a well-known figure in the cultural and news circles. Older people call him Xiao Ding, as do his peers and even those younger than him. He also signs his works as Xiao Ding. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Shanghai had many progressive painters, and at that time, he was indeed a young artist. Zhang Guangyu and Ye Qianyu were both older than him. He called Zhang Guangyu's wife "Aunt Zhang," which was something he himself established. This book compiles over seventy humorous and vivid illustrations of Chinese idioms created by Ding Conghui between 1988 and 1998. Each idiom is accompanied by phonetic annotations, definitions, and vernacular stories. The illustrations and text complement each other, allowing readers to learn Chinese idioms in a relaxed and enjoyable way while gaining insights into the past and understanding the present.