Introduce me to the cartoonist Zhang Leping.

July 28th this year is the 70th anniversary of the creation of Sanmao's cartoon image by the famous cartoonist Zhang Leping, and Zhang Leping, the father of Sanmao, was published by Shanghai People's Publishing House to commemorate it. The book is bound into three volumes, which not only contains illustrated contents such as Zhang Leping's life, creative process and comments behind it, but also publishes a series of works such as New Year pictures, sketches and paper-cuts created by Zhang Leping before his death, some of which are published for the first time.

Starting as an apprentice.

Zhang Leping is from Haiyan County, Zhejiang Province. Father Zhang Zhou is a primary school teacher. A family of six lives on his meager salary. Zhang Leping is the youngest of the three brothers. According to the habit of giving children nicknames in the north and east of China, there are several children in the family, which are often heavy hair, two hairs and three hairs in turn. I don't know if Zhang Leping was called Sanmao when he was a child. Zhang Leping likes painting since he was a child. The beach by the sea is his drawing board, and the reeds on the shore are his brushes.

After he graduated from primary school, in order to make a living, he went to a wooden shop in the suburbs of Shanghai as an apprentice at the age of 15. In old Shanghai, being an apprentice was synonymous with suffering. Zhang Leping worked in Muhang day and night, but his interest in painting never waned. He has no money to buy paper, and there is no paper in the wooden shop except books and stationery. At that time, the boss of Muhang loved smoking, so Zhang Leping took advantage of the opportunity to roll paper for the boss, leaving a blank on the paper and drawing the rest. Soon after, the boss found that Zhang Leping had to find another way to make a living. Later, Zhang Leping went to a private art school, worked as an intern in a printing factory, painted advertisements, processed manuscripts and illustrated textbooks in Vero advertising company. Later, he joined Sanyou Industrial Co., Ltd. as a draftsman ... Mr. Zhang Leping also painted some costume designs, and worked with Ye on a costume design book of Mingsha. In the early 1930s, young Zhang Leping became a famous cartoonist in Shanghai.

A sharp cartoonist

In the early 1930s, comics became a drummer in the radical era, which attracted much attention. Zhang Leping was one of the newest members. His works have distinct characteristics of the times and strong civilian consciousness, and the core of his cartoons is humanitarianism. Young Zhang Leping became one of the three famous full-time cartoonists in Shanghai. Social Daily, Times Comics, Times Pictorial, Newspaper, News Night, Phenomenon Comics, Indie Comics, Shanghai Comics, chinese comic, Comics, Friends of Comics, Niutou Comics, Popular Comics, Spike, Film Art, Art Magazine, Analects of Confucius, Diversified Literature and Art, Qingqing, Bao Li, etc. All the newspapers and magazines in Shanghai have published Zhang Leping's cartoons. The birth of 1935 Sanmao further established Zhang Leping's position in the animation industry. 1936, organize the National Cartoonist Association. At that time, seven famous cartoonists were presumed to be the preparatory committee members of the Shanghai Cartoonist Association, and Zhang Leping was the youngest.

1937 When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, the comic industry quickly set up a comic propaganda team to save the country, with Ye as the leader and Zhang Leping as the deputy leader, leading the team to leave Shanghai to publicize the Anti-Japanese War. 1938 Ye went to Hong Kong on business, and Zhang Leping was in charge of the comic propaganda team. 1939, the comic team was divided into two groups in Guilin, and Zhang Leping served as the captain and went to the front line to fight until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.

At that time, Mr. Zhang Leping was the cartoonist who insisted on fighting for the longest time in China and traveled to most provinces. It is a little-known historical fact that he led the cartoon propaganda team to Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong.

Zhang Leping's wife Feng was born in a scholarly family, and her father Feng was a famous lawyer in Shanghai at that time. 1939, 16-year-old Feng left without saying goodbye to his parents and joined the Zhejiang Central Theatre Company, which promoted the anti-Japanese war. 1In the autumn of 939, Zhang Leping, the captain of the Comic National Salvation Propaganda Team, held a personal battlefield sketch exhibition in Jinhua. Feng Chuyin, who is starring Yu Ling's Night Cup and Wu Zuguang's Phoenix, met Zhang Leping at the exhibition. In fact, Zhang Leping had already appeared in Feng's mind. During the period of 1936, when Feng was a middle school student in Shanghai, he saw a comic book "Little Orphan Girl" adapted from a movie of the same name, and the author was Zhang Leping, the author of Sanmao, so he bought it gladly. It was love at first sight between the graceful cartoonist and the gentle actress in Beauty and Elegance. On March 194 18, a couple got married in Yushan, Jiangxi ... March 199 18, the children prepared a golden wedding celebration for the tortured couple, and the two old people recalled.

Children, friends and teachers

Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Leping have seven children, but they adopted many children and helped them through the most difficult years in their lives. When Zhang Leping's eldest son was in primary school, one of his classmates was homeless and homeless, and Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Leping warmly took him in. After the film actress Shang Guanyunzhu was persecuted to death, her two children became relatives of the Zhang Leping family, and the Zhang Leping couple regarded them as their own children. ...

In Zhang Leping's long list of "supernumerary" children, there is also a well-known name-Sanmao. Chen Ping, a well-known female writer in Taiwan Province, changed her pen name to Sanmao because she loves kittens. 1989, in Taiwan Province province, San Mao traveled thousands of miles to find his father, and the father and daughter on both sides of the strait met, which became a much-told story in the literary world. Later, San Mao died, and Zhang Leping never recovered from the blow.

Zhang Leping is very kind and attaches great importance to family ties. During the Cultural Revolution, when Liu Haisu and Lin Fengmian were in the most difficult time, Zhang Leping would steal to see them. Later, Liu Haisu was rehabilitated and Zhang Leping didn't go. He said, I don't have to go now that he is being watched. When Lin Fengmian left Shanghai, Zhang Leping was one of the few people who rushed to the airport to see him off. In the early 1980s, he learned that Lu Yinsheng, a primary school art teacher, was in Shanghai, so he looked around for the teacher's address. It rained heavily that day, and he didn't care. He bought a big box of cakes and walked for nearly two hours before he found his teacher's house. After decades of separation, the teacher didn't recognize the student, but the frustrated teacher didn't expect the famous domestic cartoonist to remember himself, and he couldn't help crying. ...

Wine is Mr. Leping's only hobby in poor life. Most of his works came out after a glass of old wine. I worked in Jiefang Daily in 1950s, and I was very busy. I often rush to draw drafts in the middle of the night. People in Liberation Daily still remember that he always carries wine with him. After drinking, his works came out with a stroke of the pen. During the Cultural Revolution, the slogan "No drinking in Zhang Leping" was posted on the doorstep. He has been doing his duty, but his bad habits are hard to change. Sometimes even when writing a check, I secretly take out the hidden wine to drink.

1992, at the farewell party of Mr. Leping's body, an old friend Ding Ximan specially presented a bottle of carved wine and drank it off. With tears in his eyes, he said sadly, "Leping, let's have another drink!" 〃

Always for the children.

Most of Mr Zhang Leping's works in his life are about children. He said, "I draw cartoons. I have drawn many children's cartoons and many adult cartoons. People always like to call me a children's cartoonist, and I am happy to accept this title. Someone asked me, do you have any tips for children's comics that children like to watch so much? I don't know what to think, but I love children. Lu Bing, a well-known children's writer, commented: "All painters and writers who love children have a high sense of responsibility, and making their works beneficial to children is an education including aesthetics. Everyone will say: children are the future of the motherland and the hope of the nation. Does every painter and writer think of this sentence when creating? Society will test painters and writers from their works. Zhang Leping can stand this test completely. 〃

As a master of comics, Zhang Leping's daily life is very simple, and he is very willing to communicate with people in the lower classes. He is a veritable "civilian master". Not only that, he also donated several of his most precious comic works to the country without reservation as gifts for children all over the country: 1983 Mr. Zhang Leping declined the request of overseas collectors to buy the manuscripts of San Mao Wandering and San Mao Joining the Army at a high price, and donated all 234 groups of the manuscripts of San Mao Wandering to the country for collection by China Art Museum. The Ministry of Culture held a grand awarding ceremony for this purpose. 1993, according to Mr. Zhang Leping's last wish, Mrs. Zhang Feng Xiaoyin donated all the manuscripts of Sanmao's joining the army * *10/4 to Shanghai Art Museum. These manuscripts are regarded as "priceless treasures of the city hall" ... 1995 Ms. Feng Chuyin donated 592 manuscripts of Zhang Leping's works to the people of Haiyan, Zhejiang Province, Zhang Leping's hometown, of which most of them were original works of Sanmao except Wandering and Sanmao Joining the Army. 1998, Ms. Feng Chuyin donated ***39 manuscripts of "The Story of San Mao Turning Over" 189, RMB 100000 yuan to China Children's Fund. Ms. Feng Chuyin also sponsored 28 poor children in Yan 'an to go to school, but she has been living a light life. ...