Drawn along cultural lines
From his observations of life in the Yangtze River Delta region, illustrations of classic poems to his famous interpretation of the Monkey King, Zhang Guangyu's artworks are finally collected in a new series of books, Fang Aiqing reports.
When designing the cartoon images for Uproar in Heaven, Zhang borrowed styles from traditional Chinese sculpture, painted murals, woodcuts, paper-cuts and shadow puppetry. He also highlighted different personal traits of the characters, such as the Monkey King's innocence, integrity, courage and wisdom and the fatuity of the Jade Emperor, according to Li Keruo, one of the film's screenwriters.
Moreover, Zhang's characters act vividly, showing the impact of posture, movement, costume and atmosphere derived from Peking Opera. The settings in the cartoon, such as the palace, lake, peach garden in heaven and the famous Huaguo Mountain and Shuilian Cave belonging to the monkeys, were inspired by Buddhist and Taoist architecture.
Zhang became interested in watching Peking Opera performers paint their faces backstage in his childhood. The makeup serves as an indicator of the characters' personalities.
He later painted stage settings for the troupe, before providing his skills to art journals and commercial advertisements in the 1920s.
