In later generations, when many people talk about cartoonists from the Republic of China period, they know Feng Zikai because he is famous enough.

But in China in the 1920s, there were still many talents engaged in comic creation, but they were not famous or their works were not passed down in later generations.

Chinese comics are slightly different from Japanese comics. They are mainly satirical, while Japanese comics tend to be narrative.

This has a lot to do with the attitude of the painting circles in the two countries towards comics.

In the Chinese painting world, ink painting was praised. Later, Western oil painting was introduced to China. Many people also praised oil paintings. Cartoons were considered as paths and were not valued. They could only be used in illustrations in books and satirical paintings in newspapers.

When Lin Zixuan wanted to find a cartoonist, the first person he thought of was Feng Zikai.

He asked Du Yu for inquiries, but before Du Yu made a movie, he made a living by painting ladies on the moon sign, and had a little reputation in the circle of Shanghai painters.

But Du Yu knew about Feng Zikai, but now Feng Zikai is not in Shanghai, so he should have gone back to his hometown, Zhejiang.

On November 9, 1898, Feng Zikai was born in Chongde County, Zhejiang Province.

In 1914, Feng Zikai was admitted to Zhejiang Provincial No. 1 Normal School. In this school, Feng Zikai met two teachers, Li Shutong and Xia Yizun, who had a significant impact on his birth.

Li Shutong was a very famous person. He was versatile and later became a monk and was called Master Hongyi.

Feng Zikai School graduated from 1919 and organized the "Chinese Aesthetic Education Association" to create the "Aesthetic Education" magazine.

Subsequently, he and his friends founded the first art normal school in the history of Chinese education, including painting, music, and handicrafts - Shanghai Junior Normal School.

In 1921, he visited Japan in a short period of time and studied painting, music and foreign languages.

In 1922, he returned to China to teach paintings and music at Chunhui Middle School in Shangyu, Zhejiang.

Since Feng Zikai is not in Shanghai, Lin Zixuan cannot go to Zhejiang to bring him back. There are many cartoonists in Shanghai.

Speaking of which, cartoonists of this era are relatively down and basically work part-time.

Because it is difficult to support yourself by relying on the newspaper to draw satirical cartoons, and this kind of satirical cartoons can easily offend the Beiyang government and have extremely small living space.

But the cartoonist Du Yu introduced was Ding Sang.

Ding Sang was born in 1889. He worked as an apprentice in Changtai Pawnshop, Laobeimen, Shanghai when he was young, and went to a specialty art school for further study in his amateur school.

In 1912, he was the first to publish a cartoon in "Shen Bao", revealing the ugly behavior of powerful people who only care about their own enjoyment and ignore the interests of the people and the country.

Later, he entered Shanghai Art School to teach sketching and painting, and was then hired by the Advertising Department of Shanghai British American Tobacco Company, where he was engaged in the drawing of cigarette posters and published comics in magazines and newspapers in his spare time.

Many cartoonists of this era painted posters at the British American Tobacco Company in Shanghai, such as the very famous cartoonist Zhang Guangyu.

It can be said that the company's advertising department has become the cradle of Chinese cartoonists.

Lin Zixuan and Ding Pan met and talked about his idea of ​​drawing a long comic that focused on narrative.

In fact, his ideas are similar to those of Chinese comics, but comics are different from Japanese comics.

Comics are usually an illustration with a paragraph of text as a page. The content of the picture expresses the content of the text. The content of the text supplements the content of the picture to a certain extent. The proportion of the painting and text is half and half.

Japanese comics mainly focus on pictures, with a page divided into multiple grids, and the pictures and text are very closely combined.

Ding Shuo disagreed with Lin Zixuan's idea, and it is extremely difficult to live by drawing comics in China.

He had a stable job, taught in art schools in his spare time and drew comics in newspapers. This was an interest and a pastime. If he had to rely solely on drawing comics for a meal, he could not imagine.

Although Lin Zixuan painted a beautiful prospect, he did not believe it. He felt that Lin Zixuan was whimsical.

However, Lin Zixuan is quite famous, a rich family, as well as a publishing house and newspapers. Everyone is in the same circle, so he can't refuse directly, so he thought of a way to refuse.

"Mr. Lin, comics do not have high requirements for painting skills. You can do it by looking for students from the Academy of Fine Arts. They should be interested in this idea." Ding Tang said tactfully.

What he means is easier for you to deceive those students. They are passionate and can easily be bewitched by you. I am already middle-aged and have family members to support me, but I will not accompany you crazy.

Lin Zixuan heard the subtext, and he also understood Ding Tang's thoughts, but did not give up.

Perhaps the students from the Academy of Fine Arts are really better to coax.

With this idea in mind, he came to Shanghai Art College, which is also Du Yu's alma mater.

The Shanghai Art College was founded on November 1912 and was named "Shanghai Art Academy" at that time.

When the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts was founded, it had only one subject in painting, specializing in Western painting, but later it was changed to Western painting. Later, it had four subjects, namely Chinese painting, Western painting, pattern painting, and labor.

Since 1914, the Academy of Fine Arts has opened human body sketching classes to break secular prejudice. In 1917, it held a public exhibition on human body writing generation, setting a precedent for the modeling system for art education.

It was this exhibition that caused an uproar because the students were painting naked nude models.

In this era, this bold approach caused an uproar in society, and many people are scolding the school for being indifferent to customs.

Members of the Zhabei Shanghai submitted a letter to the government authorities banned the Shanghai Art College’s figure sketching classes, but the public concession authorities did not pursue it.

In July 1920, principal Liu Haisu even hired a Russian woman to become a full-time model, and then hired some Chinese women to serve as models.

Liu Haisu is very controversial. Some people say he is a master, while others say he is a liar.

Xu Beihong, who had been in Shanghai Art School for a while, denounced the school as a "pure pheasant school" in 1932, and Liu Haisu was only good at bragging.

Luxun also wrote articles to ridicule this person, believing that this person was too boasting about his achievements.

In 1921, the Academy of Fine Arts was renamed Shanghai Art College.

In 1922, it was relocated at No. 440 Caishi Road, French Concession, Shanghai, a new school building renovated based on the Zhejiang Shao Guild Hall of Yongxi Hall.

Lin Zixuan's arrival attracted the attention of the school.

This kind of famous novelist is worth warmly welcome whether to give a speech or visit, especially when Lin Zixuan said he wanted to ask for help from a few students.

The school thought that Lin Zixuan fell in love with the outstanding students in their school, so he enthusiastically introduced him.

This made Lin Zixuan very embarrassed. He actually wanted to find a few students with the worst grades. These students have a foundation in painting but do not have the talent for painting, so they can just trick them into drawing comics.

If those painting seedlings with excellent grades are really brought to draw comics, and China will lose several masters in the future, Lin Zixuan's sins will be great.

He doesn't want to mislead his children!
Chapter completed!