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Myth and Life Starring II a Bookstore Owner in Xi’An Is Selling His Paintings to Support His Business During Sluggish Trade

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Myth and Life Starring II a Bookstore Owner in Xi’An Is Selling His Paintings to Support His Business During Sluggish Trade CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION Wednesday, March 14, 2018 Vibes | YOUTH 21 Playlist MUSIC Myth and life Starring II A bookstore owner in Xi’an is selling his paintings to support his business during sluggish trade. Yang Yang reports. o attract more visi­ buzz cut hair, round face with tors amid a sluggish a mustache and a pair of book business in Chi­ round glasses,” he says, laugh­ na, many bookstores ing. are T renovating furnishings When he drew Guan Yu, a and decorations, and are sell­ famous general from the ing coffee, cake and cultural Three Kingdoms (220­280) products such as bags and period, who had a long beard, postcards, as well as hosting he ingeniously created a man events or lectures. eating noodles, which are Lyu Chonghua, owner of pulled from the bowl to Chinese pop singer Zhang Fangyuan Bookshop in Xi’an, appear like a fake beard. Liangying has released her Northwest China’s Shaanxi Lyu did not start creating new album, Starring II, province, however, has decid­ large paintings until June. which features 10 tracks ed to sell his paintings. Before that, he was into carica­ she has performed for TV “My dream bookstore tured portraits, which are dramas and movies. should be like a literati’s study, included in his book Order: The album opens with the so jampacked with books that The Story of Fangyuan Book­ song, Fighting Shadow, many of them have to be shop. In 2016, the book won which she did with US rap­ stacked on the floor, unlike the the gold medal for Best Book per Big Sean for the Holly­ fashionable stores with many Design at an annual book wood movie, Terminator seats and bars. Besides, it costs design competition, Best Genisys, starring Arnold a lot to upgrade the look of a Books From All Over the Schwarzenegger. bookstore,” says Lyu, 47. World, in Leipzig, Germany. The other songs are If He has run the 200­square­ He has drawn one picture Only, which she performs meter bookstore dedicated to per day since June, and in with singer­songwriter fine arts, which is located near December, an exhibition of his Wang Zhengliang for the the south gate of the Xi’an paintings was held at the Wan­ Chinese romantic TV dra­ Academy of Fine Arts, since he book Store in Xi’an. The ma, Precious Youth, and the graduated from that college 22 humor in the pictures attract­ theme song, Eternal Love, years ago. ed many visitors. for the Chinese TV drama In the style of traditional Lyu Chonghua, owner of the Fangyuan Bookshop in Xi’an, Shaanxi Wu Wenli, the deputy of the same title. Chinese painting, Lyu draws province, takes to painting to uplift him from his daily routine. His director of the Research Cen­ Zhang, born in Chengdu, inspiration from legends, ink paintings cover legendary figures from Chinese mythology, and ter of Literature and Art Crea­ Sichuan province, started myths, fairy tales, arts, car­ details of everyday life such as eating watermelon or catching fish tion in Xi’an, says Lyu’s works her career at the age of 15 toons and everything that he from a river. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY are both idealistic and roman­ by singing in pubs before finds interesting in daily life. tic. entering the famed Chi­ He uses his free time at the Chinese totem that can be the sun; Hou Yi, an archer in “He represents his feelings nese reality singing compe­ store to paint mostly on a seen on the walls of ancestral Chinese mythology who saved and life freely. Seeing these tition, Super Girl, in 2005. “crude” kind of paper that houses or vaults from the Han people by shooting down nine paintings, I believe there’s Although she didn’t win measures 34 centimeters wide Dynasty (206 BC­220). The of 10 suns; Su Wu, a legendary nothing he can’t depict. He has the competition, she quick­ by 138 cm long. copulation symbolically gave Han Dynasty diplomat who the spirit of the ancient Chi­ ly became a sensation “Year after year, I stay behind birth to the Chinese nation tended sheep after being cap­ nese literati. Although he is around the country. the counter, unable to go any­ and Chinese culture, repre­ tured and detained for 19 stuck at the crowded book­ where else, even when there sented by the things in their years, and so on. shop and his life is full of trivia, Slowly Like You are no customers in the shop,” hands,” Lyu explains. In some others, he recreates his mind is unconstrained. I he says. “I dream of flying but In another piece called Nyu scenes from everyday life such like the lightheartedness and can only fly in my paintings.” Wa Fixed the Sky, Lyu, as a as his family members eating freedom in his works,” Wu In one of his works, he and replacement for the mytho­ watermelon or catching fish says. his wife, Liang Bing, appear logical Earth goddess, takes from a river. Chang Chun, an assistant as the images of Fu Xi and to the air wearing nothing “Some people have told me professor of calligraphy at the Nyu Wa, the Chinese mytho­ but a ribbon as he tries to fix a to have a particular theme in Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, logical equivalent of Adam hole in the sky with a heavy my paintings — pumpkins, says Lyu lives a rich spiritual and Eve. book. eggplants, Chinese watermel­ life. In this painting, Lyu’s char­ “The story and ribbon are on or chillies — that masters At the December exhibition, acter is wearing an azure Chinese, but the naked mus­ like Qi Baishi have painted. Lyu also sold his paintings at knee­length shirt and Liang’s cular body comes from West­ How can I match them in tech­ prices ranging from 500 yuan a floral cheongsam, but ern paintings,” he says. nique? But I do have my own ($79) to 3,000. instead of legs, like the mythi­ His ribbon is inspired by the strengths,” Lyu says. “Due to the bleak book busi­ cal images, both have serpent apsara (heavenly creature in Although Lyu’s paintings ness, I have the time to paint, tails that twist around each Hindu mythology) frescoes in cannot be considered original, which is both good and bad. other. Lyu holds a red plate Buddhist artworks in North­ they seem to carry a sense of Selling paintings may be a way Hong Kong singer­actress with a raven design repre­ west China’s Dunhuang Grot­ humor, especially the carica­ to save my bookshop,” Lyu Karen Mok has released senting the sun, and Liang toes. tured images of himself and adds. her new single, Slowly Like holds a white plate with a In other paintings, he his family, such as the naked You, which is written by design of cherries and a toad, appears as Zhong Kui, the male version of Nyu Wa. Contact the writer at pop stars Li Ronghao and symbolizing the moon. mythological demon­killer; “All these mythological or yangyangs Arai Soichiro. “The image is an ancient Kua Fu, a giant trying to catch historical figures are me — @chinadaily.com.cn The love ballad marks the 25th anniversary of Mok’s career in showbiz. The two songwriters col­ laborated with Mok on her last Mandarin album, Departures, in 2014. And they performed on Mok’s tour in 2015. Mok, with 16 full­length albums and about 40 films under her belt, has won three Golden Melody Awards, including Best Mandarin Album for her 2008 album, Mr Cinema and Best Mandarin Female Singer in 2011. Her next album is sched­ uled to be released later this year. CHINA DAILY.
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