Make 'em Laugh!

by Mick Jones

photos by Wang Huiming

Newcomers to China may not find very much to laugh about. As in most countries, highbrow culture here tends towards the solemn and serious; comedy is mostly found in popular culture, which is fairly impenetrable to anyone without unusual fluency in Chinese.

In He Junhua's comedic language, however, words are unnecessary. As one of the capital's leading cartoonists, He deals only in pictures, and his small Humor Gallery - tucked away at the rear of a building housing all manner of antique, art, and knick-knack stalls on Liulichang Street - offers a highly accessible introduction to what tickles Chinese ribs, as well as a window onto wider aspects of Chinese culture.

"China is a talented country for humor," says He, "but for certain historical reasons, in some periods people have dared not be humorous. That doesn't mean that they are not humorous.

Throughout history, China has had many funny operas, plays and the like, but sometimes it has been too dangerous to make jokes. The nature of cartoons in China is to be critical. Only in recent years has the idea of a cartoon making you laugh for laughter's sake emerged."

He argues that an artist called Feng Zikai launched cartoons as an independent art form in China in the 1930s. From the start they were closely connected to politics, being accounted the strongest propaganda weapon among the arts. At that time, cartoons where reserved for the enemy - no-one who was viewed positively would be represented in a cartoon.

After the war [against Japan] cartoonists debated what direction they should go in now the external enemy had been defeated. They decided the object of their criticism should become shortcomings in their own society.

Things have changed greatly since then. Chinese cartoons have become very rich - now there is both critical work and work that exists simply for the sake of humor. But to me, the key function of cartoons is still the critical function.

Nonetheless, criticism is something that He, in his late 60s, has learned to downplay in the interests of paying his bills.

People want to buy laughter - purely critical paintings can't sell. Mild criticism is okay, but strong criticism is no good.?

As an illustration of his point, He draws out a recent picture of a faceless girl fingering a thick wad of banknotes. This, he says, is a painting he expects to put on show, not to sell.

He may well change his mind as more Western buyers pass through his gallery. For now, he is still learning his business - a business he practically invented.

There used to be a taboo on considering cartoons as commercial pieces of art. People thought there was no point in buying a cartoon to hang in their home.

But in 1995 I held an exhibition in the China National Art Gallery, which was the first time a cartoonist had held such a show - the first time cartoons had been mounted on scrolls for display like traditional Chinese paintings. In the past, people never though of buying cartoons; but during my exhibition one man asked me if he could buy one of my pictures, and this ultimately gave me the idea to take my work onto the market.

"At first I didn't have any money, but a gallery in Liulichang invited me to paint there in 1996. I did well, so at the beginning of 1998 I invested 10,000 yuan to rent my own space. The first month I didn't make enough to cover the rent, but the second month a group of Americans came and bought enough pictures for me to break even. Then a group from Taiwan arrived - they ordered 300 pictures and I earned enough for half a year. Since then, the business has flourished. I'm quite surprised, and so are my cartoonist friends."

Born in Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province in 1930, He joined the army in 1950, working as a stage designer for PLA art troupes until he enrolled at the Central Academy of Drama to major in make-up in 1956.

"I also learned oil and water color painting in the Academy of Drama, and it was at that time that I became interested in cartoons. I always liked humorous things, and enjoyed the cartoons in the papers. I started copying the work of Hua Junwu [China's most famous cartoonist of the period, who ultimately became vice-president of the China Artists?Association] that I saw in the newspapers. One day my teacher saw that I had done these things and thought that they showed talent - that was really the beginning of my cartoon career."

It wasn't a career that he would be able to pursue full-time for many years, however. On graduation, he was assigned to a Pingju opera troupe in Fangshan District in the south of Beijing Municipality. But the skills he had studied at the academy weren't really appropriate to the Pingju troupe, so he left in 1962 to teach painting in the art department of the Normal University of Fangshan District.

He stayed there 26 years, working on cartoons in his spare time and submitting them to newspapers. Mostly he met with disappointment, and his pictures were not even returned. But in 1988 he left the university and finally turned his passion into full-time work as an artist for the Jing Mei Cartoon Development Company, whose activities covered everything that could have a need for cartoons, from animation and book illustration to calendars.

Now that he is an independent artist, He can give free rein to his ideas about the potential of cartoon art.

For one thing, I thought that cartoons need not only be in black and white as they had always been, but that I could add color by using watercolor paints.

"My pictures are more like traditional paintings - they have some critical value, they should inspire people to contemplate aspects of life. They reveal something about my own relationship with society.

"But my cartoons also differ from traditional Chinese painting - which emphasizes both philosophical and artistic values - in that their key aspect is the attitudes and ideas of my own that they reflect, and not so much my painting skills."

The work He points to with the greatest pride is his recent portrait of Wu Dalang, the elder brother of the legendary tiger-killer, Wu Song. In the picture, Wu Dalang is being made vice-president of the Association of Tiger Hunters - a dig at the corruption that leads people into high places on the basis of their contacts rather than their ability. Social criticism is He's favorite theme, although the feeling that he is fighting a losing battle has led him to concentrate more on lighter topics recently.

"Humor is very important to people," He says. "Man cannot live without laughter. But cartoons should also inspire people to think."

He Junhua's Humor Gallery is at 115 Liulichang Donglu. Telephone 86(0)10-63017979 (note that he only speaks Chinese). Drop in and for only 80 yuan he will gladly pick up his brushes and do one of his deft caricature portraits for you.