Pen Artist and Art Publisher: Open a Window on the World 用连环画,打开一扇望向世界的窗

2019-06-28 02:20:32 source: 《文化交流》:孙 雯


        黄云松是一位画家。上世纪七八十年代,对于喜爱绘画的青少年而言,这个名字如雷贯耳。在钢笔画传入中国的一百多年里,黄云松与钱贵荪、华三川、颜梅华、董洪元等人成为了其中的翘楚。即使不熟识这个名字,也一定知道《世界文学名著连环画》丛书,它是几代人内心最为永久的记忆之一。


        不久前,杭州影天国际艺廊举办了一场黄云松的作品展,题为:来自南纬37度的报告。


微信截图_20190627143015.png


        南纬37度的新西兰南部城市奥克兰,是这位从浙江温岭走出的画家目前的安居之地。近几年,他往来于杭州与奥克兰之间,时不时应杭州艺术界朋友之约举行画展,与友人聊一聊自己的创作。


        这次画展,是黄云松在南半球岛国的海天之间,浸润十年的创作成果。

 

上世纪80年代的文学之窗


        在黄云松杭州的家中,笔者见到了这位久负盛名的画家。


        2019年6月,黄云松即将迎来80岁生日。眼前的他,戴一顶棒球帽,眼神明亮,语调爽朗。


        环顾他的起居环境,客厅的茶几上、地上齐整整地叠放着签好名的连环画图书。一间不大的画室是他的工作间,案头上几本连环画摊开着,扉页是刚刚绘制完毕的钢笔画。他笑着说,每次回国,总有大批客人上门“求签名”,甚至,不少人还请他在扉页画一幅与内文内容相关的画作。


        在画室的书架上,黄云松抽出了当年创作《战争与和平》连环画的原稿,他说,这是他真正的“财富”。


微信图片_20190509110118.jpg


        关于《世界文学名著连环画》丛书创造的出版奇迹,就从这叠画稿聊起。


        1984年,黄云松与同事韩幼文一起策划了大型套书《世界文学名著连环画》丛书。


        今天翻看豆瓣网,仍会看到很多关于《世界文学名著连环画》丛书的回忆文字。


        豆瓣网友“年公”说,他小的时候,家里不富裕。一天,“年公”随爸爸去拜访一位叔叔,百无聊赖四处打量的时候,他在书柜里发现了这套书——“我忘记了我是怎样回的家,我只记得爸爸和那位叔叔不熟,爸爸告诉我以后应该没机会去的,我的心第一次痛了,和我后来失恋时痛得一模一样。”


        在《世界文学名著连环画》丛书的读者中,不仅仅有“年公”这样当时的少年,还有比他年长的中青年。


        如同黄云松所形容的,这套“全世界绝无仅有”的通俗读物的产生,除了画家的才华之外,还需时代的造就。


        上世纪70年代末80年代初,很多的返城的知识青年,都有继续接受教育的愿望,但不是所有人都能进入高校学习。于是,从1978年开始,电大教育火爆。参与这种教育体系的,除了返城的知识青年,还有一些四五十岁的中年人。“文学课是电大的必修课程,中国文学还好说,但是世界文学浩如烟海,老师列出的书单,即使你能买到、能看到,但是几乎没有人有足够的时间去阅读,这就需要快捷方便的读本。”


        在如此庞大的受众群面前,《世界文学名著连环画》丛书应运而生。


        一般来说,外国文学作为一门课程,必读作品字数不少于两千万。而“世界文学名著连环画”的文字只八十多万,而且画幅精妙。


        将阳春白雪的文学,变为通俗的大众读物,可以说,这是中国出版史上的一大创举。在当时,它为很多人打开了一扇了解世界的窗口。

 

曹禺为这套连环画写序


        1984年到1988年,《世界文学名著连环画》从选题提出到完成出版,历经5年。


        丛书浓缩了世界文学史上声誉最高的60位作家的77部作品,涵盖欧洲、美洲和亚洲部分。这套丛书改变了原来64开本小人书的形式,做成了上下两幅内容的32开本。


        黄云松为这套丛书画了3年,创作了其中的《浮土德》《亚当与夏娃》《挪亚方舟》《战争与和平》等,其中,《静静的顿河》获全国连环画套书一等奖。


        “印刷一批,卖空一批。”黄云松说,“包括《战争与和平》,也包括《源氏物语》。”其中,欧美卷累计发行了40余万套共400余万册。


微信图片_20190509110117.jpg


        而让黄云松更为自豪的是,这套丛书“几乎当时中国所有著名的连环画艺术家都参与了绘制”。的确,翻看这套丛书创作者的名字,他们遍及中央美院、中央工艺美院、浙江美院(中国美院前身)、四川美院……


        《世界文学名著连环画》丛书的序言,由戏剧大家曹禺写就。“求知总是从简易,从形象,从兴趣起。‘看图识字’是个好方法,看图认识世界文学,也是一条途径。《世界文学名著连环画丛书》,正是这样一部由引人兴趣,到引入深读原著的好书。”


        在行文之间,曹禺觉得,《世界文学名著连环画》可以满足人们关于阅读的美好愿望——“你想在短时间内博览世界文学名著吗?你想尽快提高自己的外国文学修养吗?”曹禺认为,《世界文学名著连环画》简介里说到这句推广语,是可以实现的。


        2017年11月,在杭州武林广场的浙江展览馆曾举行了一场并不高调的展览:“春华秋实——首届浙江出版人书画邀请展”,参展的23位艺术家都曾经是出版人,其间,就有黄云松。当展览现场有人说起“当年,《世界文学名著连环画》在全国一炮打响,非常不得了”时,观者不识黄云松,但《世界文学名著连环画》几个字,让人群刹那间起了一阵骚动——一定是记忆扑面而来了。


        就在当年,浙江人民美术出版社“一炮打响”的时候,北京和上海的美术出版社还没有新动作,黄云松说,各地的兄弟出版社,仍然在磨“四大名著”,比如,“把很多精力放在对一杆枪柄的花饰的雕琢上”。

 

在新西兰国家档案馆的寻找


        为了这次在杭州的展览,黄云松从新西兰带回了30多件巨幅佳作。


        山海、群鱼、飞鸟、原住民的土地和历史……这些画大多高宽数米,是黄云松在新西兰的家中一张不大的书桌上完成的,创作时,只能看到眼前局部,但这丝毫未曾干预到黄云松笔墨之间那些不可描摹的激荡豪情。


        “其实先生自己也和我们一样,至今才看到这些画面完全正常展开的样子。他和大家远远地站在一起,脸上露出孩子般的神色:呵呵,原来是这样的。”黄云松的一位友人说。


        黄云松有多幅画作涉及“新金山”。


        所谓“新金山”,是相对“旧金山”而言。黄云松说,19世纪中叶,美国加利福尼亚大金矿开采枯竭,故名为“旧金山”,就在此时,新西兰发现大金矿,全球为之轰动,故名为“新金山”。


        2009年,黄云松迁居奥克兰,专心致志于学习与绘画创作,其间对早期华人淘金事迹和新西兰原住民毛利族群的状况作了力所能及的探究,创作了很多有关的历史题材作品。


        黄云松创作长卷“新金山”,是对19世纪中叶67位华人在新西兰淘金历史的挖掘与回顾。


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        1864年,太平天国运动宣告终结。太平军虽然是在广西金田起事,但人员主要来自广东花县、增城一带。清廷命曾国藩在全国清剿太平军残部,被击垮的太平军残部逃回家乡广东时,正好传来“新金山”大金矿发现的消息,席卷全球的淘金狂潮正吸引着各路冒险者。当时,有67名广东籍太平军残部正处于绝境,他们毫不犹豫地飘洋过海,抵达新西兰南岛但尼丁港,成为首批抵达奥太哥河谷的华人淘金者。


        黄云松说,这段历史,记载在了新西兰国家档案馆的资料中。


        一个偶然的机会,黄云松抱着试试看的心态走进了新西兰国家档案馆,预约查询华人淘金资料。没想到,档案馆安排了一位新加坡籍馆员热情接待了他。就是这次,黄云松看到了一些非常珍贵的资料,并写了大量的笔记。


        淘金不易,要时刻面对企图不劳而获的各路强盗。“这67名华人,其实是久经沙场的太平军主力部队战士,武功高强,有严密的组织纪律,在那个狭窄的、世界上最富有的肖特奥佛峡谷中,他们生存下来了,十多年后成为整个地区的金矿主,成立了‘大沙滩金矿公司’。同时垄断了全部的钱庄(银行)。”在画作的款识中,黄云松将相关的历史细节写入其中。

 

一个中国人的英国传统钢笔画


        在2009年移居奥克兰之前,黄云松到达新西兰的前九年,居住在惠灵顿。


        2001年,退休后的黄云松为了家庭团聚,移居新西兰惠灵顿市。和很多初到异国的人一样,他即使在国内已经成绩斐然,此刻依然要从头开始。


        “你在国内的业务水平和工作能力如何,在国外大致如此。”黄云松说,友人的这句话,给他极大的动力。


        新西兰是英联邦成员国之一,而黄云松所擅长的钢笔画正是英国的传统文化。


        抵达惠灵顿不久,黄云松即以钢笔画创作了一批新西兰风景画,同时在最热闹的古巴街开办了“红门画廊”。在征询一些业内人士的意见后,他创作了一批以但丁的“神曲”为题材的人物画。作品推向市场后,当地人震惊于一个中国老头儿竟能体现那些古老的英国传统钢笔画的文化、熟悉经典题材,市场反响相当好。


        “我之前从事出版行业,有过上万幅连环画的历练,外国人根本达不到我的熟练程度。”黄云松说。


        “红门画廊”的附近,是维多利亚大学。大学生时常到画廊来自修,拿黄云松的话来说叫“写作业”。后来,他干脆顺势开了一间类似培训机构的画室。维多利亚大学的学子尤其是建筑系的学生,因这间画室而收获颇丰,他们认为,黄云松的指导,让他们有效地学会了使用钢笔画风景画的技法。


        画廊在当地慢慢有了影响力,黄云松还在维多利亚大学艺术系开办了几次讲座,其中一次,就展示了《战争与和平》连环画原稿数十幅,着重探讨了“命题画创作”的若干问题。


        他还曾为一个以老华侨为主体的艺术团体教授中国画,并按照“芥子园画谱”制作了一套画梅兰竹菊四条屏的简捷速成方法。


        黄云松在新西兰以“黄老师”的身份,逐渐扩展到了更大的圈子。


 

 

Pen Artist and Art Publisher: Open a Window on the World


Huang Yunsong will celebrate his 80th birthday in June 2019. A professional pen drawing artist, he joined his family in Wellington, New Zealand in 2001, the year he retired from his publishing job in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang. And in 2009 he moved with his family to Auckland, a key city in New Zealand. Before his retirement, Huang was an art editor and publisher working for Zhejiang People’s Publishing House.


Huang made his fame in 1984 when he and his colleague Han Youwen launched an ambitious series of picture books featuring world literature classics. From 1984 to 1988, Huang and Han turned out 77 picture books condensed from world literary classics by 60 authors in Europe, America and Asia. The epic series is unprecedented in the history of Chinese art and publishing. At that time, publishing heavyweights in Beijing and Shanghai were busying themselves with the task of adapting Chinese classics to picture books. There was a huge market for all kinds of books immediately after China opened its door to the outside world and was experiencing a cultural renaissance. In the late 1970s, colleges and universities across the country resumed normal operation. Young people, especially those urban high-school graduates who had spent idle years in rural areas and came back to cities, were eager to get into higher-education institutions. World literature was a must-read for millions of people, but no one had time to read them all fast enough. Huang and Han spotted the market need for world literary classics made easier for these eager readers.


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The series published condensed picture versions of the 77 literature masterpieces. Almost all the top pictorial artists of the country were engaged to provide paintings for the books. A pen-drawing artist, Huang spent three years creating a few picture books for the series.  authored by Mikhail Sholokhov and adapted by Huang Yunsong won a national first prize of excellence for picture books.


The series was a national bestseller. Reprints were sold out fast. Huang recalls that over 400,000 sets of European and American classics alone were sold. A set contains more than 10 picture books.


The publishing industry in Zhejiang remembers and honors all these brilliant art editors and publishers. In November 2017, an exhibition was held in downtown Hangzhou to feature artworks by 23 retired publishers and editors. Huang’s works appeared at the exhibition. In April 2019, Huang held a solo exhibition titled at an international visual arts gallery in Hangzhou. The exhibition featured 30 plus oversized artworks Huang created in Auckland in the past ten years. Most of them measure several meters in length.


Huang enjoys his retirement in New Zealand. After joining his family in Wellington, Huang opened a gallery where he showed his pen drawings. He was confident that his pen drawing experience and expertise was nearly unrivaled in New Zealand. After all, he had created more than 10,000 pen drawings for picture books before he retired. Seeing more and more art students from the nearby Victoria University of Wellington visit his gallery and do their homework there, Hang set up a training studio where he gave lessons on pen drawing. In particular, students who majored in architecture at Victoria benefited a great deal from the course Huang conducted. Huang’s reputation spread. He was invited to give lectures at the art department of the university. At one lecture, he demonstrated dozens of his pen drawings done in the early 1980 for the picture book edition of . 


Then Huang moved with his family to Auckland. After digging into local history, he learned that some Chinese were engaged in the gold rush in the 1860s. To know more, he tried his luck at the national archives of New Zealand. The archives opened its arms and opened his eyes. He stumbled upon a gold mine of information on a group of 67 Chinese gold diggers. Natives of Guangdong near the place where the rebellion first started in the 1850s, they had been soldiers of the rebellion army. After the failure of the rebellion in 1864, they fled to New Zealand. Trained soldiers who had seen bloody battles, they organized themselves into a well disciplined platoon of entrepreneurs in New Zealand. They survived and flourished. Eventually, they controlled a gold mining operation and banking in a valley through a corporation. Huang created a long scroll of drawing portraying the legendary history of the 67 Chinese gold diggers. The scroll is called , indicating a gold-rush tale different from that of the Old Gold Mountain in California, USA.


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10427769 Pen Artist and Art Publisher: Open a Window on the World 用连环画,打开一扇望向世界的窗 public html

        黄云松是一位画家。上世纪七八十年代,对于喜爱绘画的青少年而言,这个名字如雷贯耳。在钢笔画传入中国的一百多年里,黄云松与钱贵荪、华三川、颜梅华、董洪元等人成为了其中的翘楚。即使不熟识这个名字,也一定知道《世界文学名著连环画》丛书,它是几代人内心最为永久的记忆之一。


        不久前,杭州影天国际艺廊举办了一场黄云松的作品展,题为:来自南纬37度的报告。


微信截图_20190627143015.png


        南纬37度的新西兰南部城市奥克兰,是这位从浙江温岭走出的画家目前的安居之地。近几年,他往来于杭州与奥克兰之间,时不时应杭州艺术界朋友之约举行画展,与友人聊一聊自己的创作。


        这次画展,是黄云松在南半球岛国的海天之间,浸润十年的创作成果。

 

上世纪80年代的文学之窗


        在黄云松杭州的家中,笔者见到了这位久负盛名的画家。


        2019年6月,黄云松即将迎来80岁生日。眼前的他,戴一顶棒球帽,眼神明亮,语调爽朗。


        环顾他的起居环境,客厅的茶几上、地上齐整整地叠放着签好名的连环画图书。一间不大的画室是他的工作间,案头上几本连环画摊开着,扉页是刚刚绘制完毕的钢笔画。他笑着说,每次回国,总有大批客人上门“求签名”,甚至,不少人还请他在扉页画一幅与内文内容相关的画作。


        在画室的书架上,黄云松抽出了当年创作《战争与和平》连环画的原稿,他说,这是他真正的“财富”。


微信图片_20190509110118.jpg


        关于《世界文学名著连环画》丛书创造的出版奇迹,就从这叠画稿聊起。


        1984年,黄云松与同事韩幼文一起策划了大型套书《世界文学名著连环画》丛书。


        今天翻看豆瓣网,仍会看到很多关于《世界文学名著连环画》丛书的回忆文字。


        豆瓣网友“年公”说,他小的时候,家里不富裕。一天,“年公”随爸爸去拜访一位叔叔,百无聊赖四处打量的时候,他在书柜里发现了这套书——“我忘记了我是怎样回的家,我只记得爸爸和那位叔叔不熟,爸爸告诉我以后应该没机会去的,我的心第一次痛了,和我后来失恋时痛得一模一样。”


        在《世界文学名著连环画》丛书的读者中,不仅仅有“年公”这样当时的少年,还有比他年长的中青年。


        如同黄云松所形容的,这套“全世界绝无仅有”的通俗读物的产生,除了画家的才华之外,还需时代的造就。


        上世纪70年代末80年代初,很多的返城的知识青年,都有继续接受教育的愿望,但不是所有人都能进入高校学习。于是,从1978年开始,电大教育火爆。参与这种教育体系的,除了返城的知识青年,还有一些四五十岁的中年人。“文学课是电大的必修课程,中国文学还好说,但是世界文学浩如烟海,老师列出的书单,即使你能买到、能看到,但是几乎没有人有足够的时间去阅读,这就需要快捷方便的读本。”


        在如此庞大的受众群面前,《世界文学名著连环画》丛书应运而生。


        一般来说,外国文学作为一门课程,必读作品字数不少于两千万。而“世界文学名著连环画”的文字只八十多万,而且画幅精妙。


        将阳春白雪的文学,变为通俗的大众读物,可以说,这是中国出版史上的一大创举。在当时,它为很多人打开了一扇了解世界的窗口。

 

曹禺为这套连环画写序


        1984年到1988年,《世界文学名著连环画》从选题提出到完成出版,历经5年。


        丛书浓缩了世界文学史上声誉最高的60位作家的77部作品,涵盖欧洲、美洲和亚洲部分。这套丛书改变了原来64开本小人书的形式,做成了上下两幅内容的32开本。


        黄云松为这套丛书画了3年,创作了其中的《浮土德》《亚当与夏娃》《挪亚方舟》《战争与和平》等,其中,《静静的顿河》获全国连环画套书一等奖。


        “印刷一批,卖空一批。”黄云松说,“包括《战争与和平》,也包括《源氏物语》。”其中,欧美卷累计发行了40余万套共400余万册。


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        而让黄云松更为自豪的是,这套丛书“几乎当时中国所有著名的连环画艺术家都参与了绘制”。的确,翻看这套丛书创作者的名字,他们遍及中央美院、中央工艺美院、浙江美院(中国美院前身)、四川美院……


        《世界文学名著连环画》丛书的序言,由戏剧大家曹禺写就。“求知总是从简易,从形象,从兴趣起。‘看图识字’是个好方法,看图认识世界文学,也是一条途径。《世界文学名著连环画丛书》,正是这样一部由引人兴趣,到引入深读原著的好书。”


        在行文之间,曹禺觉得,《世界文学名著连环画》可以满足人们关于阅读的美好愿望——“你想在短时间内博览世界文学名著吗?你想尽快提高自己的外国文学修养吗?”曹禺认为,《世界文学名著连环画》简介里说到这句推广语,是可以实现的。


        2017年11月,在杭州武林广场的浙江展览馆曾举行了一场并不高调的展览:“春华秋实——首届浙江出版人书画邀请展”,参展的23位艺术家都曾经是出版人,其间,就有黄云松。当展览现场有人说起“当年,《世界文学名著连环画》在全国一炮打响,非常不得了”时,观者不识黄云松,但《世界文学名著连环画》几个字,让人群刹那间起了一阵骚动——一定是记忆扑面而来了。


        就在当年,浙江人民美术出版社“一炮打响”的时候,北京和上海的美术出版社还没有新动作,黄云松说,各地的兄弟出版社,仍然在磨“四大名著”,比如,“把很多精力放在对一杆枪柄的花饰的雕琢上”。

 

在新西兰国家档案馆的寻找


        为了这次在杭州的展览,黄云松从新西兰带回了30多件巨幅佳作。


        山海、群鱼、飞鸟、原住民的土地和历史……这些画大多高宽数米,是黄云松在新西兰的家中一张不大的书桌上完成的,创作时,只能看到眼前局部,但这丝毫未曾干预到黄云松笔墨之间那些不可描摹的激荡豪情。


        “其实先生自己也和我们一样,至今才看到这些画面完全正常展开的样子。他和大家远远地站在一起,脸上露出孩子般的神色:呵呵,原来是这样的。”黄云松的一位友人说。


        黄云松有多幅画作涉及“新金山”。


        所谓“新金山”,是相对“旧金山”而言。黄云松说,19世纪中叶,美国加利福尼亚大金矿开采枯竭,故名为“旧金山”,就在此时,新西兰发现大金矿,全球为之轰动,故名为“新金山”。


        2009年,黄云松迁居奥克兰,专心致志于学习与绘画创作,其间对早期华人淘金事迹和新西兰原住民毛利族群的状况作了力所能及的探究,创作了很多有关的历史题材作品。


        黄云松创作长卷“新金山”,是对19世纪中叶67位华人在新西兰淘金历史的挖掘与回顾。


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        1864年,太平天国运动宣告终结。太平军虽然是在广西金田起事,但人员主要来自广东花县、增城一带。清廷命曾国藩在全国清剿太平军残部,被击垮的太平军残部逃回家乡广东时,正好传来“新金山”大金矿发现的消息,席卷全球的淘金狂潮正吸引着各路冒险者。当时,有67名广东籍太平军残部正处于绝境,他们毫不犹豫地飘洋过海,抵达新西兰南岛但尼丁港,成为首批抵达奥太哥河谷的华人淘金者。


        黄云松说,这段历史,记载在了新西兰国家档案馆的资料中。


        一个偶然的机会,黄云松抱着试试看的心态走进了新西兰国家档案馆,预约查询华人淘金资料。没想到,档案馆安排了一位新加坡籍馆员热情接待了他。就是这次,黄云松看到了一些非常珍贵的资料,并写了大量的笔记。


        淘金不易,要时刻面对企图不劳而获的各路强盗。“这67名华人,其实是久经沙场的太平军主力部队战士,武功高强,有严密的组织纪律,在那个狭窄的、世界上最富有的肖特奥佛峡谷中,他们生存下来了,十多年后成为整个地区的金矿主,成立了‘大沙滩金矿公司’。同时垄断了全部的钱庄(银行)。”在画作的款识中,黄云松将相关的历史细节写入其中。

 

一个中国人的英国传统钢笔画


        在2009年移居奥克兰之前,黄云松到达新西兰的前九年,居住在惠灵顿。


        2001年,退休后的黄云松为了家庭团聚,移居新西兰惠灵顿市。和很多初到异国的人一样,他即使在国内已经成绩斐然,此刻依然要从头开始。


        “你在国内的业务水平和工作能力如何,在国外大致如此。”黄云松说,友人的这句话,给他极大的动力。


        新西兰是英联邦成员国之一,而黄云松所擅长的钢笔画正是英国的传统文化。


        抵达惠灵顿不久,黄云松即以钢笔画创作了一批新西兰风景画,同时在最热闹的古巴街开办了“红门画廊”。在征询一些业内人士的意见后,他创作了一批以但丁的“神曲”为题材的人物画。作品推向市场后,当地人震惊于一个中国老头儿竟能体现那些古老的英国传统钢笔画的文化、熟悉经典题材,市场反响相当好。


        “我之前从事出版行业,有过上万幅连环画的历练,外国人根本达不到我的熟练程度。”黄云松说。


        “红门画廊”的附近,是维多利亚大学。大学生时常到画廊来自修,拿黄云松的话来说叫“写作业”。后来,他干脆顺势开了一间类似培训机构的画室。维多利亚大学的学子尤其是建筑系的学生,因这间画室而收获颇丰,他们认为,黄云松的指导,让他们有效地学会了使用钢笔画风景画的技法。


        画廊在当地慢慢有了影响力,黄云松还在维多利亚大学艺术系开办了几次讲座,其中一次,就展示了《战争与和平》连环画原稿数十幅,着重探讨了“命题画创作”的若干问题。


        他还曾为一个以老华侨为主体的艺术团体教授中国画,并按照“芥子园画谱”制作了一套画梅兰竹菊四条屏的简捷速成方法。


        黄云松在新西兰以“黄老师”的身份,逐渐扩展到了更大的圈子。


 

 

Pen Artist and Art Publisher: Open a Window on the World


Huang Yunsong will celebrate his 80th birthday in June 2019. A professional pen drawing artist, he joined his family in Wellington, New Zealand in 2001, the year he retired from his publishing job in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang. And in 2009 he moved with his family to Auckland, a key city in New Zealand. Before his retirement, Huang was an art editor and publisher working for Zhejiang People’s Publishing House.


Huang made his fame in 1984 when he and his colleague Han Youwen launched an ambitious series of picture books featuring world literature classics. From 1984 to 1988, Huang and Han turned out 77 picture books condensed from world literary classics by 60 authors in Europe, America and Asia. The epic series is unprecedented in the history of Chinese art and publishing. At that time, publishing heavyweights in Beijing and Shanghai were busying themselves with the task of adapting Chinese classics to picture books. There was a huge market for all kinds of books immediately after China opened its door to the outside world and was experiencing a cultural renaissance. In the late 1970s, colleges and universities across the country resumed normal operation. Young people, especially those urban high-school graduates who had spent idle years in rural areas and came back to cities, were eager to get into higher-education institutions. World literature was a must-read for millions of people, but no one had time to read them all fast enough. Huang and Han spotted the market need for world literary classics made easier for these eager readers.


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The series published condensed picture versions of the 77 literature masterpieces. Almost all the top pictorial artists of the country were engaged to provide paintings for the books. A pen-drawing artist, Huang spent three years creating a few picture books for the series.  authored by Mikhail Sholokhov and adapted by Huang Yunsong won a national first prize of excellence for picture books.


The series was a national bestseller. Reprints were sold out fast. Huang recalls that over 400,000 sets of European and American classics alone were sold. A set contains more than 10 picture books.


The publishing industry in Zhejiang remembers and honors all these brilliant art editors and publishers. In November 2017, an exhibition was held in downtown Hangzhou to feature artworks by 23 retired publishers and editors. Huang’s works appeared at the exhibition. In April 2019, Huang held a solo exhibition titled at an international visual arts gallery in Hangzhou. The exhibition featured 30 plus oversized artworks Huang created in Auckland in the past ten years. Most of them measure several meters in length.


Huang enjoys his retirement in New Zealand. After joining his family in Wellington, Huang opened a gallery where he showed his pen drawings. He was confident that his pen drawing experience and expertise was nearly unrivaled in New Zealand. After all, he had created more than 10,000 pen drawings for picture books before he retired. Seeing more and more art students from the nearby Victoria University of Wellington visit his gallery and do their homework there, Hang set up a training studio where he gave lessons on pen drawing. In particular, students who majored in architecture at Victoria benefited a great deal from the course Huang conducted. Huang’s reputation spread. He was invited to give lectures at the art department of the university. At one lecture, he demonstrated dozens of his pen drawings done in the early 1980 for the picture book edition of . 


Then Huang moved with his family to Auckland. After digging into local history, he learned that some Chinese were engaged in the gold rush in the 1860s. To know more, he tried his luck at the national archives of New Zealand. The archives opened its arms and opened his eyes. He stumbled upon a gold mine of information on a group of 67 Chinese gold diggers. Natives of Guangdong near the place where the rebellion first started in the 1850s, they had been soldiers of the rebellion army. After the failure of the rebellion in 1864, they fled to New Zealand. Trained soldiers who had seen bloody battles, they organized themselves into a well disciplined platoon of entrepreneurs in New Zealand. They survived and flourished. Eventually, they controlled a gold mining operation and banking in a valley through a corporation. Huang created a long scroll of drawing portraying the legendary history of the 67 Chinese gold diggers. The scroll is called , indicating a gold-rush tale different from that of the Old Gold Mountain in California, USA.


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Zhejiang;Culture;Travel;History;ChineseCulture