The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

China has begun to appear cartoons since the end of the Qing Dynasty, and people call them "allegorical paintings", "allegorical paintings" and so on. For example, in the "Comprehensive Situation Map", on the map of China, bears are drawn in the Northeast to represent Russia, dogs in the Yangtze River Valley represent Britain, and toads in the Southwest represent France... Vividly and clearly implying that China is divided up by the great powers.

Two years ago, "Literature Weekly" serialized Feng Zikai's paintings and marked them as "caricatures". This is the earliest work in China to be called a cartoon.

Zhou Hexuan said: "The core of comics is nothing more than four words: exaggeration and deformation."

"Exaggeration and deformation?" Wanrong seemed to understand.

"Yes, it is necessary to grasp the characteristics of Shen Yun to exaggerate and deform," Zhou Hexuan explained in detail, "For example, if someone has a big nose, then when drawing cartoons, the nose can take up half of the face. Mole, then draw the mole as big as the nostril. Or if the person has long legs, then simply draw the legs two or three times as long as the body."

Wanrong has a very solid foundation in traditional Chinese painting, she immediately understood, "It is to highlight a certain feature to the greatest extent."

"Yes." Zhou Hexuan said.

Wanrong looked at her own cartoon, and asked, "But you drew me just now, why did you have a big head and a small body? My head is not big."

Zhou Hexuan said: "The body belongs to the commonality of the characters. Unless you deliberately emphasize a certain place, you can draw whatever you want. The cartoon I just made was mainly to capture your facial features."

Wanrong was still puzzled, and said, "But there is nothing special about my face. And you drew the eyes so big and the nose so small, all exaggerated. Why didn't you paint it according to the actual situation? It’s a painting, but I think it’s very charming, and you can tell it’s me when you look at it?”

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "This kind of cartoon is completed in three steps. The first is to observe and find out the characteristics of the characters, such as face shape, facial features, hairstyle, expression and demeanor, etc. The second is to exaggerate and deform the shape, such as your chin It’s a bit sharp, so I almost turned into an awl. The third step is to exaggerate the expression, for example, if you are smiling, I will draw your mouth wide open.”

"Oh, I see." Wan Rong knows a thing or two about painting. "Drawing exaggerated comics is just like drawing meticulous paintings. You must first refer to the real thing to grasp the charm, and then exaggerate on this basis."

Zhou Hexuan praised: "Young children can be taught."

"What boy? I'm already a big girl," Wanrong said with a smile, "Then I'll try first."

Wanrong squinted her eyes, recalling Cui Huifu's appearance and demeanor, and began to draw with ease. But after she finished drawing, she always felt that something was awkward and looked very uncoordinated, but she couldn't find anything wrong.

Zhou Hexuan said: "Comics also pay attention to skills, and you need to have sketching skills. Your style of fine brushwork is too heavy, so it seems nondescript. Let me teach you sketching first. Let's learn from the simplest lines."

Zhou Hexuan is completely ignorant of traditional Chinese painting and oil painting. His poor sketching skills were learned during his travels, but it is enough to teach novices.

The reason why Wanrong feels lonely is that she can't find the sustenance of her interests. Now that I see a brand new painting method, I immediately plunge into it and learn it with great joy. In addition, she has painting skills, understands by analogy, and learns very fast.

In less than an hour, Wan Rong had already mastered Zhou Hexuan's little knowledge of sketching, and the two soon began to practice manga techniques.

"The beauties in comics generally have big watery eyes. Let's draw an upward curve first, and the line at the highest point of the curve should be slightly thicker. This is the left eye of the character, so the left end of the curve is slightly higher than the right end When drawing big eyes, the corners of the eyes can be drooped a little, so that it looks pitiful. But it can’t be drooped too much, otherwise the girl will become an old woman..."

"My drawing is still not good, what's going on?"

"The line is wrong. It's too straight. Make it more curved. It should be like this."

"Hey, it seems to be true. What about painting eyeballs?"

"The eyeballs can't be drawn too round, it's better to be oval, and you can control the width according to your preference..."

The two of them sat down together while they were drawing and painting. Zhou Hexuan occasionally held Wanrong's hand and taught him stroke by stroke. Wanrong's cheeks were reddish and hot, but she pretended nothing happened, and leaned towards Zhou Hexuan without any trace.

When in the palace, Puyi often played with Wanrong, such as smoking and taking pictures were taught by Puyi. But since moving to Tianjin, only when going out to socialize, Puyi will interact with her in various ways to show affection. Most of the time, Puyi was in various entertainments, even if he was resting at home, he was busy with other things.

It has been a long time since Wan Rong had intimate contact with the opposite sex, and she needed someone to comfort her both physically and psychologically. Zhou Hexuan is tall and handsome, and has a lot of fun, which is fatal to Wanrong.

In the early hours of the morning, not only did Wanrong not feel sleepy at all, but she became more and more excited. Almost leaning in Zhou Hexuan's arms, leaning on the man's body to learn painting, she really enjoyed this feeling of rubbing hands together.

"It's getting late, let's learn it tomorrow." Zhou Hexuan said suddenly.

"Oh, well then," Wanrong was vaguely disappointed, but quickly smiled again, "Then I'll come back tomorrow night."

Zhou Hexuan sent Wanrong downstairs before returning to his room to rest. He hadn't touched a woman for nearly a year, which was a torment for a healthy young man, and he was about to go off the rails just now.

Should we start with Wanrong?

Zhou Hexuan was a little conflicted, it was one thing to flirt with a girl, but another thing to actually happen. In Wanrong's capacity, if she really wanted to do something, there would be too many messy consequences in the future.

Zhou Hexuan thought of Zhang Leyi and Meng Xiaodong again.

He now has to correspond with Zhang Leyi every week, just chatting about trivial matters in life, without any romantic content, so he can be regarded as a more intimate pen pal. But Zhang Leyi belongs to everyone's lady, and Ken has always insisted on writing letters to men. In terms of relationship, he only has to pierce the window paper.

Meng Xiaodong is still proactive as always, every time he comes to Tianjin to perform, he will go to the newspaper office whenever he has time. This kind of fiery emotion made it difficult for Zhou Hexuan to resist. If it was just a one-night love, it would be easier for him to accept it.

Afraid of being responsible, Zhou Hexuan was so cowardly. Because in his moral concept, either he does not take responsibility, or he is responsible to the end.

Zhou Hexuan actually yearns for marrying a concubine. Which man doesn't dream of having three wives and four concubines?

Like Shao Piaoping, who was murdered by Zhang Zuolin last year, he is known as "moral shoulders with iron shoulders, writing articles with hard hands", progressive and patriotic, and a well-known gentleman. But such a person still has a concubine. And Zhang Jiluan, who co-founded "Ta Kung Pao" with Zhou Hexuan, is also a well-known decent person, but he will marry his concubine in a few years.

This does not damage their reputation in the slightest, but is considered an elegant thing, which shows the tolerance of concubines during the Republic of China.

Zhou Hexuan's current problem is that his ideas have not changed, and he is still in the 21st century. Everyone can have fun, just play around, he is afraid of marrying a concubine.